❝ The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps. ❞
Age: 28
Gender identification: Cis female, she/her
Residential area: University Heights
Occupation: Disgraced ballerina
Two positive traits: Passionate & disciplined
Two negative traits: Impulsive & indecisive
Length of time in Providence Peak: 18 years, returned 3 months ago
Faceclaim: Özge Yağız
hair ribbons and pointe shoes, a record player spinning old jazz and classical tunes, empty coffee cups about and empty wine bottles by the bathtub, breaking into dance while walking, and a radiant smile that hides how lost she really is
heart disease tw & death tw
Born into a world that she never quite felt like she belonged in, Reyhan Saylak was always a particular child with an affinity for the complexities of life and the more profound problems most people around her faced. For Reyhan, the solutions were always secure, cut, and dry— she could take emotion out of her decisions, believing that it merely clouded her judgment and produced muddy results. Even as a child Reyhan didn’t fall into line with the other kids she grew up with. As her friends were playing house or imagining worlds of fantasy and lore, Reyhan preferred the reality she could understand. For her parents it made her a straightforward child, they knew what to expect of her in any given situation and yet at the same time they never knew what it was she was thinking, just that she was continuously thinking. The gears in her head turned as she grew into a resolute girl sure of her every decision.
Many people mistook Reyhan for cold, detached— harsh even but those who truly knew her could never doubt that Reyhan Saylak was full of passion. At least, when it came to ballet, when it came to the stage and the lights— her first pair of pointe shoes and her first solo. From the time Reyhan could stand on two legs the girl was enrolled in ballet, it was one of the many electives her affluent family afforded her, and it was the only she found any interest in. It was a regimented sport, that demanded discipline and fluidity, determination and passion— it was a fine line that you had to toe to be considered a valuable dancer, and it was made all the more difficult when you had to do it en pointe.
Ballet was Reyhan’s first passionate love in her life. Her studies were often slid to the side; paying and bribing the honor roll students in her school to ensure she maintained her grades while she focused on her true ambition; Palais Garnier, the Paris Ballet. All of her ambition and hard work surely paid off as after high school Reyhan was admitted to a space in the New York Ballet company. For years Reyhan worked her way through the company until she finally made her way to the coveted space of a soloist. Her dream was in her sights, Benjamin Millepied was coming to the states to audition ballerinas. The likelihood of any of the dancers even being considered was a phenomenal chance, but Reyhan was determined to dance her heart out anyway. The day came, and her audition was set in mere hours when the news rolled in; her boyfriend was dead. A heart defect, an anomaly that no one had accounted for. Devastation gripped Reyhan, her boyfriend was the only person in the world who she felt truly understood her aside from her siblings. The only person outside of her family who she knew never judged a moment of her existence, who supported her in every endeavor and suddenly and without warning, he was gone.
Reyhan still went on for her audition, and as she danced through her grief, she ended feeling as if she had ultimately failed and let herself down. There was no way she thought she would be getting that position, and yet through the grapevine, there were whisperings that there were two dancers Benjamin Millepied was considering. She and another soloist who had been her most fierce competition her entire career. It was no secret the girls were enemies, always head to head vying for the position of the next Prima Ballerina at their company. Reyhan felt as if she had no chance against her, not after her performance, not after her boyfriend’s death.
Then suddenly her competition was in the hospital, a broken leg. It was a scandal bigger than Tonya Harding. A would-be prima ballerina in her prime was the main suspect of the attack on the young ballerina; Reyhan Saylak.
Reyhan’s career ended violently, the ballet world blacklisted her, and suddenly every ounce of her hard work was ripped from her. Every passion, everything she had left to love was pulled away with the same warning as her boyfriend’s untimely demise. Reyhan was devastated; a villain in the eyes of the media, and there seemed to be no future for the girl. Then in a desperate stumble, she found herself packing up and moving to Paris despite the scandal once Aurélie Dupont became the new director of dance. In the haze of a night on the town, desperate for work, Reyhan found herself swept up by Purgatoire; a sideshow type of dark club. It felt like the most uncertain thing Reyhan had ever done in her entire life since the death of her boyfriend, but the next night she was lacing up her pointe shoes equipped with knives as the most delicate point she would ever dance on. As Reyhan danced precariously, she’d release herself from the blades, and with a flourish of years of practice, Reyhan would dance to unique choreography as she took her anger and grief out on the stage. Twirling endlessly like a dancer stuck inside of a music box unsure of what her next move was or if this was now her forever.
Now, after her oldest sister’s return to her hometown of Providence Peak, a midwestern city she left behind as soon as she possibly could, Reyhan decided to pack her bags and be with her family.
There was so much trauma in the Saylak family; an older sister cast out for being young and in-love and the “shaming” from a strict and overbearing father, and another sister afraid to be who she truly was. For years Reyhan avoided going home, opting to visit her siblings in where they’d gone off to or have them up to New York rather than face the father she feared. A man who only seemed proud of her and supportive as long as she was on top. Since her fall from grace and working a sideshow in Paris, Reyhan stopped all communication with her father. Hearing all the things he’d said when she lost her boyfriend, a man she should’ve never been with in his eyes, and then failing to fully believe and support her when falsely accused and blacklisted from the dancing community left her with no real choice.Coming back to Providence Peak is to support her sisters and recalibrate, figure out where to go and what to do with her life now that it seems dancing is not an option.
