Chapter 374 - The Dancer (2)

Our hands were chained onto the handles of the many chairs in the big theatre. Miliana furiously kicked the chairs in front of her when she found the same instruments in that horrible song floating near the edges of the stage. I started to regret not wearing those earmuffs when walking out of the hover car. All of us sat in a single row together, not able to move from the spell. We couldn't use another explosive spell again when we didn't know if we could escape from its impact.

"I'm so telling my friends to pull all the donations out!" Miliana shouted towards the stage.

Once the music started, our ears were directly exposed to the harsh music of high-pitched sounds resembling nails scratching the black chalkboard. I squeezed my hands into fists, trying to tolerate the noise before screaming in pain with Miliana. Meanwhile, one of the shadows pointed her toes into the beginning positions of her dance. At the swinging beats, she twirled and jumped like the concept of rhythm existed in the piece.

"Rika, watch carefully," Luke shouted at me to observe the dancing shadow.

"You see how the angle in her toes are off by three degrees and not matching the straight angle it should be. Sometimes you make the same mistake as well. This is how you appear in front of others," Luke had the audacity to use this chance to teach me a lesson.

"Plus the twirls aren't perfectly balanced, it wobbles too much to the side when it should stay in one position. I don't want you to be making the same mistake in the future," he tried to find more mistakes in the shadow's performance.

"But the shadow's dancing isn't that bad," I started to pity her.

"Her arms are slightly bent when it shouldn't be in the position that she's in right now. Legs are not perfectly straight when she lifts them up. She's also missing the hidden beats in the song. The lack of attention to the details is what makes the difference," Luke turned to me.

The music abruptly stopped as the dancing shadow gestured to stop the performance. She floated to our row, sick of hearing all the mistakes pointed out from Luke. I smiled as I could tolerate more of Luke's lectures in exchange for the music stopping. Once she was in front of Luke's seat, she asked, "have you ever practiced as much as I have? What gives you the right to criticize our performance?"

"Maybe I may have not practiced as much as you have. But I have higher expectations for my fiancée," Luke didn't acknowledge her efforts.

"Then why don't I see her dance?" She switched her target to me.

"I think your dance was wonderful," I rubbed my wrists, free from the shackles.

"Thank you," she backed away a little bit like she was embarrassed.

"Can I choose the song to be 'Swan Lake from the Past'," Luke requested to the shadow.

"That song?" The shadow floated away in fear.

The 'Swan Lake from the Past' was one of the hardest songs to dance to from its complex rhythms and beats in addition to the dynamic phrasing that often changes. A song that I had suffered from years of grueling practice. I shuddered as if I made a mistake here, Luke could make me practice the same song again until I perfected it again. I never wanted to go back to those days again.

"And please choose the violins, flute and drums to be the only instruments," he specified to make it even harder.

"I'm really sure you can dance better than me, do I really need to show you?" I gulped.

"Although we can't stop the poking, if we lose, then we'll stop the performances with the two of us and move onto a new location," she gave a tempting offer.

Everyone's attention went to me as I was the one who could stop the noises at night. The mounting pressure burdened my shoulders as I walked down the stairs to head towards the stage. I sighed while putting my dance shoes out and changing into a better outfit to dance in. If I wore longer sleeves and dress, then maybe the mistakes wouldn't be as noticeable. I started to stretch on the stage while Luke's intense stare burned my back.

"You can nod when you want to begin the music," the shadow sat in the first row.

Checking if my arms and legs were straight, I nodded to begin the music. I opened my arms to start the first twirl while lifting my legs to do a flip afterwards. Pointing each of my toes, matching the rhythm, I spun to jump into the air. I needed to keep my concentration up to make sure each of my movements flowed with the story of the song. Perfect angles were important when dancing, making the line in your figure look attractive.

I bowed once I was finished, hoping no one else noticed I was a one eighth of a millisecond late in one of my jumps. My arm also slightly tethered in one of the moves from the lack of familiarity since it has been three years since I danced to this song. Otherwise, I couldn't find the other mistakes that I'm sure that Luke would have found. When I looked up to him in the audience, I could tell he was not pleased.

"You were right," the shadow sniffled.