That was his thinking until the next dancer came onto the stage with a twist and a twirl before pausing in the middle of the stage. The moves were not called a twist or a twirl and probably had some fancy name. He'd recognize the word from his nieces' conversations about their ballet lessons but he'd never have associated what this woman was doing with the fancy words.
The sound of the music increased, the performer shifted and flowed, her body becoming one with the dance which seemed to be flowing to the music.
She was amazing! When she moved, it was as if she was floating on air. Every movement was like a dance in itself, from her fingers all the way down to her toes! He couldn't tear his eyes away from the movements, watching as her body told the story of the wood fairy or something taking over from the bad queen and helping all of the flowers to bloom. The smaller kids, who had all been curled up at the edges of the stage, slowly started to unfurl and "bloom" as this fairy princess or wood nymph danced around to each of them. Her fingertips would tap one before dancing off to touch another and another, twirling and spinning, her legs arching, her arms flowing … every movement was … breathtaking.
As he watched her dance, he realized that something inside of him was unfurling as well. In a word, he was entranced.
The sound of the music increased, the tempo swelled just as the dancer lifted the audience with her movements. The music and the moves built to a crescendo of movement, sound, and flow. Everything was perfectly attuned to that dancer. In the back of his mind, he knew that there was a male dancer there as well, helping the main dancer to move, to shift, leaning forward and backwards until the music went faster and … all of a sudden, the dancer was on one end of the stage and she spun around and around and around … in the end, she leapt into the air to be caught high up in the male's arms.
Mike was clapping right along with the rest of the audience, enthralled with the performance. He found himself on his feet, his hands aching as he clapped hard but he couldn't seem to stop. The rest of the audience felt the same and the ballerina moved to the center of the stage, her chest heaving as she sucked in breaths of air even as she gracefully took her bow at center stage. The applause was deafening or he might have noticed her sooner.
When he finally recognized the woman on the stage, he just about fell over. Halley? Mike blinked, sure that his eyes were fooling him. Surely it wasn't … but even as he opened his eyes again, he recognized her. The makeup and the hair had camouflaged her initially, but now that he wasn't entranced by the dancing, he could see her clearly. It was her! It was his Halley on that stage!
The curtain dropped and he felt like tearing up onto the stage, to rip that curtain away so that he could see Halley again!
Thankfully, before he could move, the curtain lifted once more. The performers were coming back out, one by one or in groups to take their bows. Mike waited not-so-patiently, wanting to see Halley again. When her time came, the crowd roared with approval and the man standing next to her smiled and gestured for her to take another bow. He could see the beaming smile on her lovely features and wanted to kiss her. He couldn't believe it. This was the secret she'd been hiding? This was the reason she'd been sneaking off so many afternoons? He couldn't believe he hadn't figured it out already!
His mind started connecting the dots. She'd stopped taking orders for horses about two months ago, right when his nieces started practicing for this performance. Halley was gone for several afternoons each week, most likely to be here, rehearsing with that wimp next to her. And then the afternoon Halley had seen him, Sally, and the girls getting ice cream, the studio was right across the street! How could he not have seen all of this? How could he have been so dense?
Because it would never occur to him that this could be Halley's dream. Because she'd never said a word to anyone. Damn it, he wanted her to trust him! He wanted to shout to everyone that she was beautiful and amazing!
But he wouldn't. If she wanted to keep this a secret from the others in town, he would respect that. He would be here for every performance though. No way would he miss another performance like that! Damn, he needed to buy tickets for the other performances this weekend. He wanted to see her dance again. He wanted to hold her in his arms and tell her how amazing she was!
The dancers were moving back now, the curtain lowering once again. Calls for Halley to give another bow finally caused the curtain to shift and Halley came back out, that dowdy jerk holding her hand as she took one more bow, her head dipping gracefully and he was so proud of her!