Page 27 of Dancing Fools and All That Jazz

‘What? Oh, yes, I am perfectly fine. Thank you, Asha. Dust. I had some dust in my eye. I think we will be on next.’

She turns away from me to face Clarissa, who has clasped her hands together and is gushing out rapturous praise for the dance we just watched.

She sees we are all now a little daunted at the prospect of competing against such high-quality dancers and hurriedly adds that in her opinion they are the only ones we need to worry about and when we dance our best, we are more than worthy opponents.

I am not so sure about this, but the dance has left us all in awe and I feel a little giddy when we are finally called to go down to the stage to go through our numbers.

An amplified male French voice booms out, ‘ Messieurs dames, attention, maintenant c’est, “Dance…” C’est qui? Ah oui? Le groupe “DICK”, ’ and then in English, ‘Can ze dance group DICK go to ze stage, please.’

Clarissa jumps to her feet, an outraged expression on her face. She makes a beeline for the organiser who is sitting with the lighting engineer at the top of the tiered seating in a raised box.

She indicates for us to go down to the stage level and I see Ruby is biting her hand to stop herself from laughing as the others giggle to each other. Even Monica, who has been so serious this whole trip, has a grin on her face.

Once Clarissa has clarified our name should be Dance Excellence – Clarissa Kirkland, she is handed the microphone and calls to us.

‘Attention, Clarissa’s ladies, I will remain here to sort out the lighting with this gentleman.

I will leave you to work out your positions and make sure you are well forward on stage.

This is just a walk-through to get the lighting and spatial awareness correct.

Performance level will not be required until the competition later on.

Feel the stage, breathe in the ambience. ’

We descend the final steps to the circular stage, and all take a sharp intake of breath as we turn to look around the auditorium. Not for the first time today, I feel a little sick. My nerves are beginning to get to me.

‘Wowzers.’ Ruby whistles her appreciation.

‘This beats Woodford Community Hall,’ Cath murmurs.

‘It all look very different from down here.’ Ingrida sounds nervous as she adds, ‘My stomach has just – how you say?’

‘Flipped?’ I suggest before adding, ‘Mine too.’

Monica squeezes Ingrida’s arm and says, ‘You will be fine. Just pretend we are in Clarissa’s studio. You danced brilliantly in the dressing room today.’

Ruby takes Ingrida’s other arm and says, ‘It’s good to have a few nerves. Keeps it edgy.’

I watch Monica glare at Ruby over Ingrida’s head, and Ruby glare back.

I cannot help myself when the words burst from my mouth. ‘Monica and Ruby, for goodness’ sake, please drop this animosity. If only for the duration of the competition. It is an unnecessary distraction from our dancing.’

Ruby bites her lip and nods. She turns to Monica and gives her a small smile, but Monica merely shrugs and walks away to take her start position for the dance.

Such a disappointment. But at least I tried.

I find my position and the lights begin to flash bright colours in time to the first beats of “Rolling in the Deep” which pounds into the space from the towers of speakers. I feel a flutter of excitement as we begin to move together, and our dance training takes over.

Everyone gets their steps right and Monica gives a solid solo in the middle of the number. Not as good as the other week when she was fuelled by what seemed to be a righteous anger, but she is a glorious dancer even when she is only doing it half-heartedly.

The first routine is over in a flash and to our delight, those watching in the audience give us a round of applause when we finish. We all smile at each other. Our next two dances, our jazz number to Barry Manilow’s “Dancin’ Fool” and my own Bollywood number also get enthusiastic applause.

As we perform, I watch the others in our group from the corner of my eye. Ingrida is on fire, and even Fay is better than I have ever seen her. Their concentration is palpable. Both ladies completely immerse themselves in the practice.

If I have any criticism, it would be regarding both Monica and Ruby.

They are just not up to their normal standards.

Monica is usually stunning, but it is obvious her mind is not fully on the dance.

Also, I am sure she was grinding her teeth in her bed last night – a sure sign of tension.

Perhaps I should recommend a gum shield?

As for Ruby, she normally has an incredibly sexy stage presence but, if I am truthful, she appeared self-conscious in all three dances, which is not like her at all.

If I can bring these two around and get them to resolve their issues, I am sure they will dance better. Not only will it be my good deed for the day, it will elevate all the numbers to something wondrous. I want to be in the finals.

Plus, I need them to dance well at my wedding.