BSC042 - Jessi and the Dance School Phantom - Martin, Ann M.

    Chapter 1.

    And now, mademoiselles, if you please: a pas de bourree couru, en cinquieme, with port de bras, ending in an arabesque. One at a time, please . . . and begin!" Mme Noelle banged her stick on the floor to emphasize her words.

    A stranger might have thought they'd wandered into some other world - and in a way, they'd be right. A ballet studio is another world - a world where movement is everything, and where words are shorthand for what our bodies should be doing.

    Pah deh boure-ay koo-roo? On sank-eeyem? With por deh brah? And an ara-besk? Sounds crazy, but what Mme Noelle, our teacher, wanted us to do was to move on our toes across the floor, holding our arms in graceful patterns, and end by standing on one toe with our arms held out to the sides. That's what all those words meant. They're French.

    I don't speak French, but I know those words, and a lot of others, because French is the language of ballet, and I've been studying ballet since I was four. I'm eleven now, so that's a long time! "Jessica Romsey, please take your turn!" said Mme Noelle.

    Jessica Romsey, that's me. Except most people call me Jessi, and my last name's Ramsey, not Romsey. It's just that elegant accent of Mme Noelle's; everything comes out sounding kind of - well, kind of fancy.

    I closed my eyes for a second, picturing what I was about to do. I wanted to do the best pas de bourree I'd ever done. Why? Because this was the final stage in the final auditions for a big production that was going to be put on by my ballet school. We were going to be putting on The Sleeping Beauty. And I was trying out for the lead! I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and rose onto my toes. Then I began. I was so focused that I was hardly aware of Mme Noelle's attention, but I knew she was watching every single muscle in my body, checking to make sure that I was in complete control.