Lucky Break Read Free Page B

the quiet Canadian in full make-up was Eshkol. The French girl, one of the three blonde beauties, Dan forgot as soon as she’d spoken. But the redhead was Samantha. Then it was Dan’s turn. Silvio smiled at him. ‘Daniel, of course,’ and Dan felt a melting as if he’d been touched. Jemma was beside him again, defiant in a low-cut leotard, and on the other side was the black girl, Charlie Adedayo-Martin. ‘Ahh, Charlie,’ Silvio paused. ‘I remember you,’ and Charlie, colt-thin and awkward, her skin smooth caramel, held his stare with a wry smile.
    To Nell, dumpy, in a T-shirt pulled over her leotard, he simply nodded, perfunctorily, moving on to Susie, Tess, Mikita. The boys were grouped together too. Pierre, whose real name, Dan now knew, was Pete. There was the mature student, Jonathan, newly gay, newly free from a life as an accountant, and Jermaine, lithe and powerful, his hands over his crotch.
    â€˜Now,’ Silvio said, when each student had introduced themselves. ‘I want you to greet our accompanist, Miss Louise Goeritz.’ A tiny, ancient woman was crouched behind the piano, her head nodding rhythmically to music only she could hear. ‘Miss Goeritz, would you play us something? Miss Goeritz?’ But it wasn’t until Silvio touched her shoulder that she came to life, her fingers trilling automatically up and down the keys, running together, crashing down in a crescendo of surprising force. ‘Thank you.’ Silvio bowed, motioning for the students to applaud, and the old lady sank down once more on her piano stool and drifted into a reverie of her own.
    Silvio waited for absolute quiet. Not a sigh or a shuffle in all the rows of black. ‘What I am about to teach you will be difficult,’ he looked small and mournful suddenly in his woollen trousers and black top. ‘Impossible even for some to understand, but if you can take it in, then, instead of nothing, there will be something, on which to base your art.’ There was a general stir, a shifting of bodies. It was harder than it looked, standing still. ‘Now, I want you to think about the four concepts,’ Silvio spread his arms as if he might fly, ‘of Sensing. Thinking. Intuiting and Feeling. These four concepts are revealed in our movements by the motion factors of Weight, Space, Time and Flow.’
    Dan glanced around him. The faces of his fellow students were expectant, anxious, baffled. ‘There is much to learn,’ Silvio continued. ‘But let me tell you first about character divisions. All humanity,’ he explained, ‘is divided into six character types. And each character is made up of conscious states. Now, I do not expect you to remember everything. There will be many other opportunities to learn . . .’
    In front of Dan, Pierre started to droop, and then as if to save himself, he began slowly rotating his head, emitting a series of sharp crunches which made Dan wince.
    â€˜Now, each of these conscious or subconscious states,’ Silvio continued in his silky voice, ‘can be activated by bodily movements. We’ll take one character type at a time, and work on it and by the time we’ve examined them all, you’ll have six basic characters, each with its own rhythm, on which to base any part you’re given.’ He let his eyes peruse them for a minute as if to ensure that they were worthy of his effort. ‘So for example, Number 1, which I call Close . . .’ he roused himself, ‘is light and quick, a not very deep-thinking or complicated person, whose rhythm is made up of quick, dabbing strokes.’ Silvio adopted the voice of a young girl, ‘ “I will not go down to the shops for you.” ’ But his flowery Italian accent blunted the effect. ‘ “You can bog off with your demands,” ’ he continued, jabbing with his finger for effect. And relieved to have something to