‘Tell me what you need,’ he says.
‘Kat,’ she says. ‘I want to talk to Kat.’
Tara’s voice is pitiful. I want to slink away and disappear, but I dare not.
Christian calls Kat and Tara talks to her, but it doesn’t seem to be doing any good. Finally, Ethan looks at me.
‘Abigail, start getting dressed.’
But I can’t move. I can hear what Kat’s saying.
‘Stop making excuses,’ says Kat’s voice through the speakerphone. ‘I get that you’re scared, but you need to suck it up and do what it is you’ve been working for this whole year.’
In a sudden rush, the horrible, other-worldly feeling leaves me. The best ballerina ought to be out there showing the audience what the Academy is capable of producing. And right now, it doesn’t even hurt to admit that for this part, Tara is the best ballerina.
‘Kat’s right,’ I say briskly. ‘And you’re going to have to, because I’m not.’
Shocked faces turn towards me.
‘You’re better at this than me,’ I say, ‘with or without a costume. And the audience will see it.’
Tara locks eyes with me. She might not always like me, but she knows when I’m being honest. I have no idea what she’s thinking, but then I see determination flash in her eyes, and the paleness leaves her cheeks.
Tara looks beautiful in my Clara nightgown, but I can see her trembling as she walks towards the stage. The curtain is rising and she runs out onto the stage. In that instant I know that she’s going to be all right. There is strength and confidence in every lyrical move she makes. The radiance is back, and the magical costume is nothing more than a piece of fabric. Tara is defying gravity – she belongs in that spotlight. Her emotions show in every line and every shape she makes. There are no walls around her heart – her feelings are there for everyone to see.
We’ve been fierce competitors and we’ve even been enemies, but I think that whatever happens in the future, I’ll always respect Tara. In the end, maybe respect is what friendship, teamwork and competition are all based on. We rely on each other and support each other through all the knocks and dramas and highlights, and being friends with people doesn’t mean that you always get along with them.
I’ve made hundreds of mistakes, and I expect that my second year at the Academy will be full of hundreds more. When the new semester starts, I’ll be ready to work even harder and find a way of letting my emotions bleed through into my dancing, just like Tara. I want to be able to tell a story through my dancing – I want to be able to put that much feeling into my work.
And next time there’s a lead part up for grabs, Tara will be understudying me.
Copyright
The ABC ‘Wave’ device is a trademark of the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation and is used
under licence by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia.
First published in Australia in 2010
This edition published in 2011
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Text copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers Australia
Based on DANCE ACADEMY
A WERNER FILMS PRODUCTION
ORIGINAL STORY BY: Samantha Strauss
CREATED BY: Samantha Strauss & Joanna Werner
Copyright © 2010 Screen Australia, Screen NSW and Werner Film Productions
The right of Rachel Elliot to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney, NSW 2073, Australia
31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 0627, New Zealand
A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Rachel Elliot
Dance Academy: Through the Looking Glass / Rachel Elliot.
ISBN: 978-0-7333-2896-1 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978-0-7304-9447-8 (ePub)
Target Audience: For primary school age.
Subjects: Dancers—Juvenile fiction.
Interpersonal relations—Juvenile fiction.
Dewey Number: A823.4
Cover design by Karen Carter
Have you read all of the Dance Academy books?
Abigail: Through the Looking Glass Page 7
