Odette Speex: Time Traitors Book 1 Read Free

attended by the rich and famous. Money flowed into the most prestigious companies, and dancers were well compensated.
    This was different. Adelphia was different. She was one of those rare creatures, a progressive aristocrat. She modeled herself on the principles of the Enlightenment and sometimes even quoted from the banned works of the American Agitators.
    Rumors were that the Duchess of Montagu had once wanted to be a dancer herself, a shocking ambition for a noble woman. More shocking still, was the truth. She had studied with Martha Graham, the radical dancer and choreographer.
    Odette turned onto a street of shops and taverns and thought admiringly of Adelphia’s efforts to resurrect Graham’s genius. Like so many before and after her, Martha Graham was an artist virtually erased from history. Her influence deemed so profoundly disturbing as to merit official non-personhood. She had been a ballerina once, a prima ballerina. Her dancing was legendary. As she matured, she introduced her own steps and movements. At first, the aristocrats were indulgent. But then came Chronicle .
    The performance was part of the King’s Golden Jubilee, a tribute to the country’s greatest ballerina. As a free concert for the masses, it was staged in Central Park. 
    There were no beautiful sets or backdrops. No smiling ballerinas or gallant ballet dancers. There was only darkness and starkly lit dancers. Their movements were beautiful yet painful. Pushing up against resistance, they seemed to strain under the heavy weight of oppression. It touched the audience as nothing else could have. They saw reflected in the dance their own subjugation and reacted violently.
    It took the authorities three days to quell the riots. Loss of life numbered in the thousands and the property damage was enormous. Most of those killed were people of the peasant class, but some aristocrats as well had been caught up in the raging mob.
    The crackdown was brutal, but in the confusion Martha Graham escaped. For seven years she remained at large. She set up temporary studios in safe houses and taught. She urged her students to represent and comment on their society through dance. 
    Performances were staged like guerrilla attacks. Often accompanied by a single drum or violin, dancers materialized out of crowds in markets and town squares. The pieces reflected the times. They spoke to the large majority of people who were poor and struggled every day to survive.
    Her impact was really very small. After all, what could dancers do against the centuries-old system of privilege and entitlement? But the aristocrats hated her, and eventually she was caught. Martha Graham died in prison over thirty years ago.
    Her legacy did not die with her. Adelphia made sure of that.
    Odette continued down the street. The morning advanced quickly and she saw shop doors and windows opening to the new day.
    She was tired. Richard wasn’t satisfied with their rehearsal, and the company had worked through the night on a piece that was premiering in just two days. Adelphia was there as well. She had watched silently from the darkened house of the small theater.
    While Odette was preparing to leave, Richard had issued his warning. “Get another citation and you’re out,” he sternly admonished. “We’re walking a fine line as it is, Odette. We can’t afford unnecessary scrutiny. You need to control your actions, or you’ll be replaced.”
    She had nodded in agreement. But what could she have done differently? It wasn’t her fault.
    The police were dragging an undocumented urchin to the local lockup when she recognized him as her landlady’s youngest. The kid had either lost or forgotten his papers. She was just trying to save her landlady the cost of a fine. Her intervention, however, was rewarded with a citation for interfering in the duties of a law officer.
    Richard’s words were harsh, but Odette understood. He was a brilliant artistic director, and together he and Adelphia