Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black Page B

Vanessa dropped her bag and sat down beside Steffie, whose black hair was pulled back into an impeccable knot.
    “It sounds like it was just an accident,” she was saying to Elly and TJ as she unrolled a package of gauze. “He was dating the prima ballerina in Paris, but they fought all the time. Apparently, he has a really bad temper.”
    Since her meeting with Josef, Elly had seemed pensive, distracted. She’d said that Josef had reprimanded her for her inability to control her reactions. If she wanted to make it as a dancer, he’d said, she would have to learn how to be silent, and in keeping with his warning, Elly refused to divulge any other details about their meeting.
    After Josef’s outburst at rehearsal, Vanessa and Steffie had gone back to the dormitory and looked him up online, trying to figure out what the scandal was that had forced him out of his company in Paris.
    “It went down like this,” Steffie continued. “During arehearsal the other dancers heard Josef and the principal ballerina arguing backstage. Then, in the middle of a dance, the ballerina leaped into an écarté, only instead of completing the lift, Josef dropped her.”
    Vanessa shuddered, imagining the ballerina diving into the air where Josef’s arms were supposed to catch her. But instead, she slips through his grasp and drops to the hardwood floor with a loud crack. The scene had been haunting her ever since she and Steffie had read about it.
    TJ’s eyes widened and Elly gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
    “She broke an ankle and was out for the rest of the season. She claimed Josef dropped her on purpose. He denied it, but the company still forced him out. Intentional or not, no one wants a lead dancer who drops girls onstage.”
    “What happened to the ballerina?” Elly asked.
    “She recovered and started dancing again, but slowly went insane. Really paranoid, like everyone was out to get her. She eventually quit and disappeared.”
    A somber silence followed.
    Steffie tied her ribbons around her ankle in a tight knot. “It could have been just an accident,” she said. “In Cincinnati, there were lots of girls who tried to sabotage me for no reason other than that they were haters. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here.”
    “But he dropped her,” Elly said. “And you saw him at that first rehearsal. What he said to me. He’s … evil.”
    Steffie put a hand on her hip. “To be honest, you did
scream
when he specifically told us not to talk. I’m not siding with the guy, I’m just saying that we don’t know what happened.”
    Elly shrank back, and TJ rolled her eyes. Steffie threw the rest of her stuff in her bag and turned to Vanessa. “Everyone’s saying Josef might observe us today,” she said. “And he might even be scouting for roles in
The Firebird
.”
    “Oh?” Vanessa said, trying to sound excited. Emptying her bag, she took out a pair of new pointe shoes, the satin still pink and clean, and began bending them.
    “Do you think any of us will get cast?” TJ said. “I mean, obviously not in a lead role, but maybe something better than just corps?”
    Elly sat sullenly by the wall. “Probably not me,” she said softly. “I blew it already.”
    “Just dance well,” Vanessa said. “Nothing else matters.”
    Elly nodded, though Vanessa could tell she wasn’t convinced.
    “I wonder if all of the roles will be taken by seniors,” Steffie said. “Did you see the way they danced in Josef’s rehearsal? I could barely see their feet, they moved so quickly. I wonder how much Red Bull they drink before class.”
    TJ stood in front of the mirror, examining her body in profile. She pinched her side and sucked in, puckering her big lips for show. Vanessa laughed.
    “That’s better,” TJ said with a smile, though her eyes lingered on the tiny pouch on her belly. “I bet Anna Franko will be cast as the Firebird,” she said, pinning loose wisps of hair to her head, and then anchoring