I dont have anyone I can really share this with IRL who would fully appreciate how EXCELLENT this performance is so I hope through the tags this gets to the right people.
Absolutely incredible playing here, and I like that the arrangement is also giving the Lead Voice to different people across the score so everyone gets a chance to shine!
Amelia had planned on spending the summer at her brother and sister in laws house in the Hamptons, but instead of laying on the beach, she had been invited to spend her summer with NYCB in Saratoga Springs. She was to start learning the ins and outs of the company.
She shared a room with a girl named Rachel, who was also new to the company. She, however, had been an apprentice before joining, which made Amelia’s eyes dance, wild with pride. She hadn’t had to apprentice; she had been invited right into the company proper. She was accomplished and had been given a contract within her own right; she hadn’t had to prove anything except to graduate from SAB.
The summer days were spent learning the companies upcoming repertoire, and Amelia loved it. There were so many ballets lined up for the fall season that she was thrilled to learn any and all of them. The first she learned was Serenade, a Balanchine ballet and a staple in both companies. She had learned a slightly watered down version in school, but learning it with the principal dancers and soloists rushing around her was much more exciting. Rushing around on stage, in and out of the invisible wings of the studio gave her a high, so much more than the Adderall did – although she was still popping two before morning classes, and another two before rehearsals.
Slowly navigating the company was nerve-wracking at first. Rachel helped her, but Amelia sort of did her own thing. One principal male caught her eye, a red head named Owen Hunt, but he had been introduced to her and didn’t give her a second glance. He was married to a pretty soloist, a Korean girl named Cristina who had come to NYC from the National Ballet of Canada, a girl who was fierce and strong and had an intimidating personality. They were partnered together but Amelia felt like she was the only person who could see they were all wrong for each other, especially Cristina’s best friend, who seemed to adore them together. Her name was Meredith, but she wasn’t familiar enough with her – she had come from the Boston Ballet School a few years before Amelia; at 21 she wasn’t much older, and neither was Cristina, but they were good.
When they weren’t dancing, they were hanging out with one another, and Amelia used this time to lay by one of the lakes, listening to her favorite composers and work out difficult steps in a piece on one of the many docks in Saratoga Springs. At night the company would dance, and sometimes she was asked to go on stage for someone in the corps, but most of the time she watched from the audience, five years old again as she sat with her sisters, watching these very people transform and dance before her eyes. She was enchanted, now that she was working with these talented people, and she especially watched Cristina. She was a good dance; she was naturally thin and light, dancing like her life depended upon it, like she couldn’t breathe without it. Amelia however, had come to have an infatuation with Owen. She loved those summer nights though, and as August drew to a close and she moved back to the city, into a small apartment by herself, she missed the cooler air of the mountains, the open air stage, and the openness of getting to know the company. Now she had two morning ballet classes, one on pointe, a partnering class, a variations class, and rehearsal upon rehearsal.
One September morning, she walked into the studio to find the company crowded in front of of the casting lists. It was crazy; they were dancing 43 contemporary works including Balanchine ballets, and then there were 3 full length classics. As a corps member, Amelia wasn’t in everything, but as she waited her turn to look at the lists, she found she was in so many, her head was spinning. Coming straight from SAB, she knew much of the choreography to begin with, but she had her work cut out for her.
Slipping into the dressing room, she sighed as she pulled her dress over her head, glad in a blue leotard that made her eyes stand out even more and a pair of black stirrup tights, a few holes showing through them. She didn’t stand out though; many of the other company members were dressed similarly, right down to the holes in their tights and she smiled as she pulled on worn out canvas ballet flats. A new pair of pointe shoes stuck out of her bag as twisted her hair into a bun, sticking in a few pins and shaking her head back and forth, making sure her bun would stay put during the day. She was ready for class.
Stepping into the studio, she headed over to her place at the barre before she felt a presence next to her. She looked up and noticed Addison, her brother’s wife. His private practice were benefactors of City Ballet, and he had met Addison when she was a young corps girl. They had married when they were in their early 20’s, and years later they were still married. She was fifteen years older than Amelia, who was only 18, making Addison 33 and a well-known principal dancer. Everyone know Addison Montgomery-Shepherd. She was a legend in the ballet world, and Amelia always watched her. She especially watched her as Addison came over to her, taking her hand and Leading her over to the barre where she always stood, a smile on her face.
“Come on, Amy, you’re standing with me now. You’ll get noticed by Peter and the rest of the teachers and they’ll give you better roles,” she smiled, before the pianist sat down at the piano. Amelia’s heart fluttered wildly as she put her left hand on the barre and got lost in the music.
Learning choreography was a piece of cake. She hated being stuck in the corps when she had been so used to being the shining star of SAB, but she knew she would be dancing corps roles for a few years, at least. Addison was great though, and for the first time in her life she found herself bonding with the woman who had been married to her brother since Amelia was 7. Until then, she had just been her sister in law, but Addison guided her through the company, teaching her right from wrong, what she should be doing to get noticed and what would get her sent to the back row in their pieces. As a result, Amelia was always chosen as one of the first-row dancers,
The first role she danced were a few corps roles in The Sleeping Beauty, her first dance being The Garland Dance, or as most people knew it, Once Upon A Dream. The partner she had been placed with at the beginning of the year, Ryan, was immensely talented and Amelia trusted him not to drop or hurt her. She had discovered his affinity for pill popping early on, and now they met every morning to take their Adderall together, smoke a few cigarettes, and stretch by the fountain in Lincoln Center. On stage though, they were beautiful together, especially during Sleeping Beauty when they danced. The pair were perfectly in sync, especially during the Garland Dance, where Amelia not only had to hold up the heavy garland of flowers, but perfectly Pas with Ryan. After a few performances, her name started to appear in reviews, much to her delight. Addison, of endless money from both Montgomery and Shepherd, gifted her a silver bangle bracelet with a pair of ballet slippers engraved on the inside.
Dancing night after night without stop was exhausting, and Amelia found herself popping more and more Adderall as each day went on but it was still her and Ryan’s secret, especially where they got their medication from. Sometimes he took other things, things that Amelia was too scared to touch yet; she was still happy with her Adderall. She had shed five pounds already and her bones were starting to stick out, more like the soloist and principal women. She was working hard too, her body was going into overdrive and she was shedding the pounds like crazy, watching what she ate, studying Addison and all of the soloist and principal women. But to her, she was in control. To her, she wasn’t developing a problem.
Sleeping Beauty was like a dream. Dance after dance with Ryan as her partner, she was on a high, even as a corps girl. Many of the girls were getting injured and she was stepping into extra roles, so much so that she was in almost every scene. She relished the thought that she was out there getting notice, her mother in the audience some nights watching her youngest daughter succeed at what she loved, her brother out there watching both his wife and his sister, and for a moment she was almost completely happy, the traumas of her childhood gone for a few nights.
