‘We know,’ Paige mumbled to the ground.
‘Oh yes,’ said Riley, ‘Ellie talks about you all the time, too.’ She smirked when she said that because mostly what I’d told her and Paige and Ash was how annoying Cadence was and how much I disliked her. Now, things had obviously changed, because here I was sitting on the steps talking and laughing and eating lollies with her almost as if she was a Silver Shoes girl herself.
I flashed Riley a warning look to let her know that it wasn’t the right time to go causing trouble for me and Cadence. Riley just shrugged and selected another snake.
There was a horrible silence between us four, which my mouth did not like, so it immediately opened and started babbling.
‘It’s so fun, what we’re doing,’ I said.
‘You should hear the song we’re working on,’ said Cadence.
‘It’s so catchy,’ I hurried on. ‘I wish we could do it in jazz, except a lot of it is tap – well, the part we’re learning – well, me anyway, ’cause I’m a chimney sweep. Cadence is playing Jane, that’s the lead character.’
‘I know who Jane is,’ said Riley, although I wasn’t sure she did.
‘Oh! You’re a fan of Mary Poppins?’ said Cadence. ‘Awesome! Ellie and I think it might be our favourite musical.’
Paige looked up at that, because she knew very well my favourite musical was Hairspray since I’d made her watch it with me a million times until it became hers, too. She caught my eye but then quickly looked down. She was holding her head in that way she does when she’s trying not to get upset. It made my chest feel yucky. Of course Hairspray was my number one, but it’s easy to get carried away when you’re in the middle of doing another musical and having so much fun.
Another horrible silence.
‘Are you guys going to come watch us at the preview performance for the variety night?’ Cadence chirped. ‘It will be super fun! You’ll get to see what Ellie and I have been working on!’
‘Can’t wait,’ said Riley.
‘My mum’s waiting to pick me up,’ Paige said, miserably. She was clutching the bag of snakes so tight I thought they might combust. ‘Bye, Ellie.’ She walked away, looking like a fairy who’d just lost her wings.
‘Yeah, bye, Ellie,’ said Riley, flashing me a look that I knew too well. ‘Bye, Cadence.’
‘Bye!’ Cadence trilled.
I watched Riley hurry after Paige and I felt my heart might break. I knew, from being the new girl in musical theatre, what it was like to think you had no friends or no one on your side. I didn’t want my best friend Paige to feel like I didn’t care about her or had forgotten about her just because I had finally started to fit in and make new friends.
Cadence was really nice, but there was no one like my Paige.
‘Just a sec,’ I said to Cadence.
I jumped down the steps and pelted after Paige and didn’t stop until I’d wrapped her up in a big bear hug, and then I got Riley into it as well, for good measure.
‘I missed you guys today,’ I said. ‘I hope you were extra mean to Jasmine for me.’
‘Ellie, you’re crushing my ribcage,’ Riley complained, although she was smiling.
‘Let’s do something this afternoon, after I finish rehearsal,’ I said. ‘Ash, too. I have to tell you all about these pink and silver leg warmers I saw online. I would kill for them.’
‘You’re about to kill me right now by crushing me to death,’ Riley wheezed.
‘That sounds nice.’ Paige smiled, finally looking at me.
‘Bring the snakes,’ I said, ‘I’ll need them.’
I gave them one last squeeze before I went back to Cadence and Mary Poppins.
New experiences and new friends are very cool and very exciting.
But there’s nothing like the old ones.
Chapter Seventeen
‘And, grab off, grab off, shuffle slap, hop hop, tap spring, tap spring, ball change, toe stamp!’
The last stamp sounded like a victory cry, as everyone collapsed and remembered to breathe again.
We were finally coming to the end of rehearsing our ‘Step in Time’ piece for the variety night.
Let’s just say that even in my fastest jazz choreography, I had barely been as puffed as this. I’m surprised that any sound came out at all when I sang. Tapping was hard work! But, oh my gosh, the piece looked and sounded amazing.
We had our costumes! As I said, the tapping troupe for this number was dressed as chimney sweeps. This part of Mary Poppins is when Mary takes Jane and her brother up on the roof and Bert (the leader of the chimney sweeps) shows them that there is always a team of chimney sweeps up there watching out for them and being their guardian angels.
The rest of the cast (the adults) would come on too, giving depth to the singing when our ferocious tapping made it hard for us to really belt out the words. They acted as poor townspeople and just did some basic jazz. But the chimney sweeps were the real stars! I’d even given my chimney sweep character a name, Charli, after my middle name, Charlotte.
For our costumes we had three-quarter black pantaloons held up by braces, with grey socks and our shiny new black taps. We also had little pageboy caps, neck kerchiefs and props – chimney sweeps that looked real but were actually made out of tulle so they would be extra light when we were dancing with them.
My favourite part of the costume, though, was the short-sleeved stripy top we wore underneath the braces. The boys had a maroon colour while the girls were decked out in a deep pink shade that would sparkle when we went under the lights.
Pink is my favourite colour, of course, so I took it as another good omen.
Cadence had great fun in dress rehearsal painting pretend soot and dirt on my face and arms, and teasing my hair into a big fluffy bird’s nest.
‘Don’t forget your tooth!’ She giggled, swiping some paint on one of my teeth.
‘Cadence!’ I protested, pretending to bite at one of her fingers.
‘Oooh!’ said Cadence. ‘I knew chimney sweeps often went hungry, but I didn’t know they were that hungry!’
‘Ain’t no meat on those dainty little digits anyway.’ I mugged, talking in a cockney British accent like how I imagined my character would.
‘Aah!’ squealed Cadence. ‘You’re too believable!’
I chased her with the tub of black paint, threatening to dye her pretty red hair.
The dancing was so athletic, Periwinkle had outdone himself. We were doing constant side kicks, side leaps, tuck jumps and a lot of partner work where we would swing off and launch each other into the air.
It wasn’t just jazzy musical theatre technical steps. After we finished each technique or trick, we then had to connect it to some kind of tap combination so that everything was fluid and linked together.
We even had a chorus line with Mary and Bert in the middle where we would tap up, kick forward then back, jump, lay out and add forward springs. I don’t know about you, but trying to do that alone, much less connected to sixteen other people, is hard work!
The way we moved in rehearsal reminded me a bit of puppets being jigged up and down by giants up in the rafters, making us do the silliest things. At the start of the song when it was just Bert, Mary and the two kids on stage, and the song was building to its crescendo, all the chimney sweeps had to peep and clamber out of these chimney props and be very cheeky.
It was the best mix of acting, dancing and singing I could hope for! I was now a certified triple threat!
The final step, of course, was to pull off the perfect, most energetic performance.
Then I could rightly say that Broadway had better watch out, ’cause there was a new kid on the scene, and her name was Eleanor Irvin.
Chapter Eighteen
This Mary Poppins performance for variety night wasn’t like any other performance I’d done in my time at Silver Shoes.
This was something that was mine, something that I’d pursued and worked hard for. It was me showing everyone th
at all my talk of the past few months was because of this; that the world of the stage was what I’d dreamed about and lived for.
So it was extra exciting. But it also made me extra nervous.
I was a mess backstage at the Entertainment Centre. I forgot my false eyelashes. And when I came back from the bathroom I thought I’d lost my Mary Poppins crew because there were so many other acts from other schools and companies rushing about and crowding the hallways.
When I tried to sing some quiet warm-up notes to myself, I felt like a frog had died in my throat. My voice sounded like a husky old ear of corn and no amount of clearing my throat made it better.
Then I couldn’t get the braces to attach on my pants! They kept popping off and one sprang off, hit me in the neck and left an ugly red mark on my skin.
‘Cadence!’ I turned to her, my eyes all big and wet from the panicky tears that were threatening to ruin my moment.
Cadence, the pro, turned my way like she was twenty years older than me and not just a few months. ‘Yes, Ellie?’ she said.
I pointed at my neck, which was really meant to somehow sum up my whole freak-out. Lucky Cadence was smart as well as talented.
‘Well, that’s easy enough to disguise,’ she said, reaching for a tub of greasepaint and painting over the red welt with one swipe of her fingers.
‘Thank you,’ I said, reaching for the snakes like my life depended on it.
‘Okay,’ said Cadence. ‘I know how to fix this.’ She grabbed my hand and pulled me stumbling out of the dressing room (one of my tap shoes was unbuckled and kept catching on my heel).
‘Where are we going?’ I asked through a mouthful of snakes.
‘Ssshh,’ said Cadence. ‘Follow me. We’re not supposed to be there, but no one’s around at this time just before they open the house.’
‘Where?’ I asked. ‘What?’
Cadence peeped over her shoulder before dashing up the steps to the backstage area and creeping through the cracked open door.
‘Here.’ She pulled me out through the dark silent wings to the empty stage, which was lit by one spotlight.
It was just like in my dreams. The dust motes floating through the air in their own secret dance. The rows of shadowy seats rising all the way to the back. The sweet musty smell of the curtains. The spotlight casting a warm yellow circle on the ground.
And me. Standing in the middle of my stage.
‘This is all you need to think about and feel,’ said Cadence, still holding my hand but using her other arm to sweep about. ‘Fill every inch of this stage with what you love about performing. This is your world and it doesn’t care about false eyelashes and braces marks. You’re here to perform and entertain, because it’s in your blood. So just listen to what your heart tells you.’
I looked out at the auditorium. ‘Cadence,’ I said softly, ‘who told you that? That’s exactly how I feel.’
‘Sometimes,’ said Cadence, ‘you’re the only teacher you need and you just have to learn to listen to yourself.’ She squeezed my hand. ‘I’ll leave you alone for a bit. The stage is all yours.’
‘Thank you,’ I said.
Her footsteps died away and I stood staring out at my pretend audience. I didn’t make a sound and I felt very calm and peaceful.
Cadence was right. This was where I belonged and my blood and heart knew it, even if sometimes my mind didn’t.
‘Pssst,’ I heard from the side.
I blinked.
‘Ellie,’ someone whispered. ‘Over here!’
Dazed, I turned to my left and saw three familiar faces peering out at me from the wings. The smallest, blondest one was holding a big bouquet of sunflowers, my favourite.
‘Quick,’ Ashley hissed at me. ‘We’re not supposed to be back here but Cadence said this was where you would be. We brought you some flowers for your big debut!’
‘And snakes,’ Riley said from behind her.
‘And hugs,’ added Paige, holding out the bouquet.
I smiled. There were other things, not dance-related, that your heart and blood and mind could tell you.
And this time, I listened.
So You Think You Know Tap?
Fun facts about tap and musical theatre:
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken words, acting and dance. Musicals as we know them began to be popular in the first quarter of the 1900s. A lot of musical films you might have seen would have begun on the stage.
The first dog to play Sandy in the original Broadway production of Annie was saved from a pound and made a star. From then on, traditionally every dog who played Sandy was rescued from the pound.
Tap dancing is the fusion of British Isles clog and step dancing mixed with the rhythms of West African drumming. It began in the mid 1600s when Scottish and Irish workmen brought their social dances to the United States of America, where it was copied by slaves.
In the late 1800s, there were two tap techniques used: a fast style using wooden-soled shoes, and a smoother style using leather-soled shoes. By the 1920s they had merged when metal taps were introduced to the ball and heel of the dancer’s shoe. Before that, people would often stick coins on the bottom of their shoes to make a louder sound!
Hoofers are tap dancers who dance mostly with their legs, making a louder, more grounded sound. This kind of tap dancing is called ‘rhythm tap’.
‘Broadway tap’ is more common these days, and is a fluid style influenced by early tappers like Fred Astaire, who added elements of ballroom, and Gene Kelly, who used his ballet training to give tap athleticism.
Famous tappers
Fred Astaire
Gene Kelly
Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson
Gregory Hines
Savion Glover
Musicals with tap
Singin’ in the Rain
42nd Street
Billy Elliot
Mary Poppins
All That Jazz
Movies with tap
Chicago
High School Musical
Happy Feet
Bootmen
Stepping Out
Glossary
Hey there, hoofers!
That is, of course, what they called tap dancers in the olden days. But tapping is just as much fun if you do it now! Here are some of the steps and musical terms you might come across when you first begin to learn tap – trust me, it’s tricky first off, but if you do mine and Paige’s trick of listening to the beats and letting your feet follow, it sure helps. Another great tip is that crisp, sharp taps are always better than just making the loudest sound you can. See you on Broadway, my beauties!
Love, Ellie
back brush one sound, a broad movement that swings from the hip and ‘brushes’ against the floor
ball change two sounds, shifting the weight from foot to foot (two steps)
ball dig one sound, the ball of the foot gives a sharp hard dig on the floor
grab off four sounds, lift your right foot then your left, and then ball change
mezzo-soprano the ‘middle’ vocal range between a soprano (high) and a contralto (low)
minim in music, a half note (two beats) with the stem facing up or down – it looks like this:
pick up one sound, you stand on both feet, tilt up the toe of one foot and sharply tap back, removing your heel
repertoire a collection of songs, dances, choreography etc. that a person knows and can perform if they are called upon to do so
semibreve in music, a whole note (four beats) that looks like a hollow circle
side kicks straight leg kicks out to the side
shuffle two sounds, quick forward and back taps done to the count of one
shuffle toe heel turns three sounds, one direction; twelve sounds to do a whole turn – like a shuffle but you put your heel down after the shuffle and complete a full turn
slap two sounds, an ankle action where you tap forward and finish with a ball di
g (keep your knees relaxed!)
slap ball change four sounds, you slap forward and shift your weight with a ball change
split jump splits in second position in the air
stamp one sound, a flat foot drop, just like you’re stamping
tap spring two sounds, forward tap and then spring onto the ball (front) of the foot (like a hop)
time step seven sounds! A common step made up of stamps, springs, shuffles and slaps, the weight shifting from foot to foot
toe heel two sounds, a ball dig followed by you dropping your heel on the same foot
trenches five sounds, a scraping kind of movement with springs and heel drops, and can be done to the front (hoofer) or to the side (over-the-tops)
triple threat an all-round performer who can sing, dance and act very well
wings three sounds, you jump/hop, brushing both feet out and in and then coming together, so it looks like your feet are fluttering once
About the Author
Samantha-Ellen Bound has been an actor, dancer, teacher, choreographer, author, bookseller, scriptwriter and many other things besides. She has published and won prizes for her short stories and scripts, but children’s books are where her heart lies. Dancing is one of her most favourite things in the whole world. She splits her time between Tasmania, Melbourne, and living in her own head.
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