in my dreams you love me back

wendy begins to ponder if she feels the rhythm the way irene does

***

“You ready?”

“Ready.”

Dancing with Irene has always been a breeze.

Wendy didn’t have to think twice when it was announced that they would be partnered up for the spring recital. They have done group performances in the past, but this would mark as their first together as a pair. Irene’s assuring smile did alleviate the smallest apprehension that chewed at her bones.

Music spills into the air like a bucket coloring an unseen canvas, bringing life into an otherwise blank room of wood and stucco. The percussion welcomes in the somber harmony of the woodwinds and strings, and Wendy can visualize the artist starting off in the deepest shade of blue. She and Irene are the living mediums of the artwork, each motion of their hands and legs as meticulous as a brush .

Their movements are fluid. Synchronization is constant in their sequential positions, stamped by many years of perfected technique and blisters that have marked their skin. Wendy hardly notices the roughness of her soles. Callused feet underneath pointe shoes are always a strong remembrance for any ballerina on how far they have come.

She loses herself in a trance, while her body moves to the repeated patterns that have become muscle memory to her. There are no cues for her to be mindful of in her next steps. She has the dance embedded into her heart and soul. Wendy embraces the music carrying them at every sauter and pirouette, stealing a gander at her dance partner in curiosity.

Irene is beauty and grace embodied into a person.

Not a single wisp of hair has fled from her neatly kept bun. The sculpted muscles defined by her hard work is emphasized with the black leotard wrapped around her frame. Her impeccable form is comparable to those of ballerina figurines that twirl delightfully at the prompt of the music box.

However, Irene is nowhere mechanical. She dances like it's oxygen to her, natural and lissome, from the bending of her elbows and knees to the angles of her poses. She transforms ballet into a cinematic masterpiece.

An artwork brought into reality.