Next I’d been Michael Jackson, in black pants, a white t-shirt and a sparkly glove, doing the moonwalk on the footpath out the front of Silver Shoes.
Then I’d dressed up as a member of the 90s hip hop girl band Salt-N-Pepa. I’d posed in front of the fence at the side of Silver Shoes. It was covered in graffiti. I’d found this crazy denim jacket with tight black lycra pants and a baseball cap, which we’d decorated with scraps from the costume room.
Now I was famous 90s rapper MC Hammer. I wore a sequinned crop-top vest and genie pants from an old Aladdin performance.
I’d pretty much got everything I needed from the costume room. Anything I didn’t have, Ellie, Riley and Paige had brought. I guess they’d raided their parents’ wardrobes.
We were getting a few weird looks as we raced around Silver Shoes, trying to find the best place to take the shots. But dressing up and posing for the photos was a blast. I really hoped it would be enough to win the Danceworks competition.
‘I think you’ll win for sure,’ said Ellie, as she painted my lips in a dark maroon lipstick. ‘I mean, you’re really going all out. Everyone else will just send in, like, pretty modelling shots.’
‘And you’re showing that you know about the history of hip hop,’ said Paige, winding a scrunchie around my high ponytail.
‘Don’t forget that you’re using Silver Shoes to take all the shots,’ said Riley. ‘And it said on the advertisement that they want to get someone who is proud to represent their school and their style. What better way than this!’
‘You’re not too bad at this modelling thing either, Ash,’ said Ellie.
‘Been practising in the mirror,’ I joked. ‘Got all my best sides down pat.’
We went out into the hall to look for a place to do my next shot.
‘How about there!’ I said, pointing. ‘In front of that stained-glass window? The light will look really good coming in from behind. And it goes with MC Hammer. He did a song called “Pray”. I watched the video clip on YouTube.’
‘I reckon for this one you should maybe do some moves and it can be like an action shot,’ said Ellie.
‘Oooh, you’ll get to see some of what I’ve been learning,’ I said. ‘I should be charging for this!’
‘A hairstylist, a make-up artist and a photographer?’ said Ellie, pointing at herself, Riley and Paige. ‘We should be charging you!’
‘True.’ I laughed. ‘Seriously, though, thank you guys so much for helping me. It’s way more fun than if I was doing it by myself.’
‘That’s what we’re here for,’ said Paige. ‘Come on, we’ve got a Danceworks comp to win!’
I really hoped I did win. But even if I didn’t, I was having the best time with my Silver Shoes friends.
That was worth far more than any new hip hop wardrobe.
Chapter Fifteen
For the next few weeks I kept going to my hip hop classes, and practising for the festival night. The more I did hip hop the more I loved it, and I was even starting to get the hang of a few simple breakdancing tricks!
My organisation of the costume room was going well, and when Miss Caroline peeked in one day she clapped her hands and said it looked fantastic.
‘I’m really proud you took the initiative, Ashley,’ she said to me. ‘To work for what you want. It’s very mature. I hope you’re enjoying the hip hop classes. Jay has been singing your praises.’
‘Well, it’s helped me in more ways than one,’ I said, thinking of how cleaning out the costume room had led to the photo shoot idea. ‘Plus, it’s kinda fun. I like being here at Silver Shoes.’
‘And we like having you here,’ said Miss Caroline.
‘It’s the least I can do,’ I joked.
For the past few weeks I’d tried not to think too much about the Danceworks competition. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. But I knew, in the back of my mind, I was waiting to hear from them.
Mainly because of one thing.
The festival night was coming up.
And I still didn’t have any shoes.
I’d been going okay in my bare feet, but I couldn’t go without shoes for the performance. It was part of the costume! My best idea was to ‘borrow’ a pair of Bridget’s Skechers and stuff them with tissues so they wouldn’t slip off.
So I would be wearing too-big, tissue-stuffed, girly Skechers, while everyone had awesome high tops. And I knew they were awesome, because everyone had been wearing them in practice.
Everyone except me.
I came home from school on Friday in a bad mood.
First, I’d walked home with a heavy backpack because no one had picked me up.
Then, when I finally got in the front door, there was a message for me on the bench – ‘Ash, can you please finish off the washing and put it out, thanks.’ I hated hanging out the washing because I wasn’t tall enough and the wet clothes always slapped me in the face and mussed up my hair.
When I went to the pantry to get some energy for this horrible chore, someone had eaten all the barbecue Shapes. And put the empty packet back in the pantry! So I didn’t even have any snacks to look forward to.
Plus I was just tired from all the hip hop practice and my extra job at Silver Shoes, and I was worrying about the Danceworks comp.
Maybe the judges thought I’d been trying too hard. Or I was a bad model. Or I just didn’t suit hip hop.
I stomped off to my room, yelling out rude things because I was the only one home and my toys had heard it all before.
Then I stopped.
There was a letter on my bed.
The label on the back said ‘Danceworks’.
I took a big breath.
I tore open the envelope.
And I found out that I, Ashley Jenkyns, was going to be the new face of the Danceworks Freestyle hip hop range!
The letter said they loved my style, my attitude, and my originality. It also said that my love for hip hop had really shone through.
There was a date for when I should come and meet them and discuss the shoot.
But that wasn’t the best bit.
The best bit was when I flicked through the catalogue of the hip hop wardrobe I’d won.
There was some cool stuff, of course. Some wicked t-shirts and crop tops, and a couple of pairs of hip hop dance pants that looked like they were straight out of a video clip.
But the coolest thing was, of course, the high tops.
My dream shoes.
It was just a picture, but I knew they’d be even better once they were on my feet. They were dark purple, with silver soles, gold embellishments and black laces.
But they weren’t just any old high tops. They were dancing ones – the sole was designed specifically for the impact of dancing.
It was love at first sight.
I sat down on my bed. I was so excited, but then I felt like I might cry. I couldn’t believe I’d actually won! It made me realise that not having much money didn’t even matter, because if you really wanted something, you worked hard for it.
And that was just what I’d done.
Chapter Sixteen
I guess I don’t have to tell you I was pretty excited for our final hip hop practice. I had my new high tops! Today we would also get our costumes for the dance.
At the start, when we were meant to be rich ladies, the girls were wearing black pants, white shirts and these big wide-brimmed hats that covered our faces. Then, while the boys came on and pretended to rob us, we quickly changed into our ‘monster’ outfits.
Everyone’s was different. One girl was this crazy spider woman. Tove was a zombie, which she complained about at first, but then I think she really got into it. Another girl was a lizard demon, dressed in green from the top up.
I was meant to be a robot alien, or ‘technology gone wrong’, as Jay put it. My face was covered in metallic gold paint and my top half was all wrapped up in a silver and gold costume. (I could still move, of course.) It went really well with my purple, sil
ver and gold high tops.
‘Cool shoes,’ Tove said to me, as we waited to begin practice.
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘They’re from that Danceworks competition I won.’
Tove grinned. ‘I’m really glad you got it. I can’t wait to see when the shots come out!’
‘I don’t think I’ll be able to look,’ I said. ‘I’ll probably make everyone go blind!’
We got stuck into practice.
‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, Ash,’ Jay said at the end. ‘You smashed it today! Smashin’ Ash! What’d you have for breakfast this morning?’
‘The usual,’ I said.
‘Must be the new kicks, eh?’ said Jay with a wink. ‘Miss Freestyle.’
It might have been. But some of it had come from me. I couldn’t be more excited for my first hip hop performance.
I was going to be the best man-eating metallic robot alien ever!
Performance night! The energy was high and everyone was buzzing. I could smell jam doughnuts and hot chips. A makeshift stage had been set up near the Bayside city centre and a short way off there was a huge tent for all the dancers to get ready.
Inside were hay bales to sit on and makeshift mirrors. It was pretty packed. Everyone taking part in the showcase was there. Our hip hop crew were over in one corner getting our monster make-up done.
‘Do I need to tease my hair more?’ asked Tove.
It was weird to see her getting ready without Jasmine. Whenever we had a competition or performance, those two were always together somewhere, giggling or practising or doing their make-up. I sort of felt like, for this performance, I’d become Tove’s Jasmine. But I didn’t mind. Tove was pretty cool once you forgot she was Jasmine’s best friend.
‘Yep,’ I said. ‘Remember, the hat you have on at the start will squash your hair a bit.’
‘Cool,’ said Tove. ‘Oh, your face is missing a bit of gold at the jaw. Do you want me to get ChiChi over or I can just do it?’
ChiChi was the lady responsible for painting us all up to look like monsters.
‘You can just do it,’ I said.
Tove grabbed a paintbrush and leaned over towards my face. She had painted-on scars with huge dark eyes and a bloody mouth. She looked awesome. If becoming a zombie was what it took for Tove to show some personality, then I was all for it!
‘Hey,’ said Benji, wandering over. ‘You look like something I should run away from.’
‘You look like something we want to chase,’ I teased.
‘You wanna go over our partner bit?’ asked Benji.
‘Sure,’ I said. ‘You finished?’
‘Yep,’ said Tove. ‘All done.’
‘Sorry,’ said Benji, as we found a clear spot in the tent. ‘I always get a bit nervous before performances. I like to go over everything.’
‘I’d hate to imagine you and Paige before your ballroom comps then,’ I said. ‘Paige gets the worst stage fright ever!’
‘Yeah.’ Benji laughed. ‘But we’re both so scared we kind of cancel each other out and just end up mucking around.’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t mind ballroom, really. The dancing’s cool. I just get teased a bit … with hip hop I can, I dunno, be myself.’
‘I know the feeling,’ I said.
I couldn’t wait to feel the thrill of performing, waiting in the wings, listening for the music, walking out on stage and knowing that everyone was going to be watching me for the next five minutes.
Performing makes all the hard work worth it. I stop caring about what step comes next, or stuffing up, or forgetting where I’m supposed to be, or what everyone else is doing. I mean, I’m always aware of that, in the back of my mind, but the music just kind of takes over.
Benji and I practised our partner work, and then Jay called us all together. He joked around and told us how scarily amazing we looked.
‘If anyone runs away screaming, you know you’ve done your job.’ Jay grinned. ‘I want to hear at least one crying baby!’
He was joking, of course, but Jay’s good like that. By joking around, he took the pressure off us. He wanted us to do well, but to Jay it was more about loving the moment on stage and ‘hitting it’.
‘You can stuff up or fall on your bum and still kill it,’ he said. ‘Just roll.’
Soon enough the stage was dark and Jay sent the boys off to the side, ready for their entrance, and ushered us girls into our starting positions.
Time to hit it.
Chapter Seventeen
As soon as I heard the first lines of the song come over the speakers, and the drumbeats start, I felt like all my blood, bones and muscles had suddenly come to life.
Us girls began the dance, sitting around on couches and chairs, doing these popping, locking and isolation moves like we were rich and bored with nothing much to do. It was like we were in a trance.
Then we hit a sequence, dancing with our heads down, so our faces were shadowed by the huge hats we wore. This was meant to show that we were ‘faceless’, with no identity, but also to stop the audience from seeing the monster make-up we had on underneath.
Then Tove had to pretend she heard something (which was the boys trying to break in) and the pace sped up and we got more crazy.
Right at the end, we all threw our hats off, showing our monstrous faces to the audience, and dashed off stage.
It was panic round the back as shirts and hats went flying everywhere. The boys had 32 counts to do their sequence, and then the girls had another 32 counts to slowly creep on stage and start scaring them.
32 counts sounds like a lot, right? It isn’t!
But we got there. We looked so awesome creeping onto the stage in our scary outfits.
I could see everyone out the corner of my eye. It must have looked so cool from the audience too, because the girls were in these brilliant colours swarming onto the stage and surrounding the boys, who were in their black and white outfits.
Then it got really funky. We all started dancing to the same choreography. We worked right into the ground, with our feet doing lots of jerking, walk-it-outs and smooth kick steps while our arms went crazy. Jay had us weaving in and out of patterns and formations all over the stage.
You know the thing I really love about hip hop? It comes back to Jay’s favourite thing: hitting it.
Hitting the beat, hitting the move, hitting the feeling, hitting the choreography. When your move matches perfectly with whatever has just happened in the music, it feels like BAM, got it! Your body brings the music to life.
When I began to do my partner work with Benji I could tell that he felt it too.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind doing solos, but group dances are extra special. I guess it’s kind of like watching art on the stage, because the choreographer has designed everything to look a certain way. And the energy on the stage is such a rush.
I’ve never had that much fun dancing, ever.
When the dance ended the boys finished up in a heap on the floor while we girls stood around them in a circle, laughing and jeering. Then Janet Jackson sang, ‘I’m gone,’ and we spun on our heels and stalked off, leaving the boys in a muddled mess.
The applause started before we’d even left the stage.
Chapter Eighteen
After the performance we were allowed to go out and say hello to everybody who’d come to watch us. I love that moment after the dance, because often when people see you it’s like they’re looking at you in a whole new light.
It’s a really nice feeling knowing you’ve done something that has wowed someone else.
‘Ash, Ash, over here! Ashley!’
Ellie, Riley and Paige were standing off to the side, waving at me. When I got closer, Ellie ran up and gave me a huge hug.
‘That was so cool, Ash!’ she said. ‘Oh my god, when you came on, it was so scary. You were great! And who would’ve thought Tove was into hip hop! Look, Jasmine, Daisy and Indianna are over there. I was spying on them during the performance. They looked super impressed.’
‘I’d call it super jealous,’ said Riley with a grin. ‘You really showed them why you’re the face of Freestyle. Leaving Dance Art was the best thing you ever did!’
They walked by then. Jasmine, Indianna and Daisy were all over Tove, telling her they ‘knew she was a great hip hop dancer all along’. Tove turned round a little, rolled her eyes at me and then gave me a wave. I waved back. I was glad she’d done something different from her friends and shone all on her own.
Ellie and Riley kept hugging me and wanting to know about the dance. Paige seemed a little distracted. She was looking over to where Benji was talking to his parents. It must have been strange to see him dance hip hop when she was so used to him acting all proper in ballroom! Finally she gave a little start and looked at me.
‘That looked like heaps more fun than my last ballroom competition.’ Paige grinned.
‘You’ll have to ask Benji about that,’ I said. Paige blushed and looked down.
I thought maybe she had a little crush.
I spotted Bridget and Brimax near the back of the crowd and began leading the girls over to them.
‘So, what next?’ Ellie asked. ‘Are you gonna be in video clips and stuff? Maybe you should learn to breakdance? I heard you get really bad back injuries, though.’
‘AshFunk!’ Brimax yelled when he saw me. ‘There she is! What a performance!’ He swept me up in a big hug. ‘Man, I knew my boy Jay would get it out of you! And what about those kicks!’
‘I think they helped a lot,’ I said, smiling at Bridget.
‘The shoes look great,’ she said, giving me a kiss. ‘So did you. Well done, Ash, I’m so proud. I didn’t know my little sis could move like that!’
‘Taught her everything she knows,’ said Brimax.
‘You did not,’ said Bridget.
‘Well, I was an inspiration, at least.’
Silver Shoes 2 Page 5
