Maruko walked in to the studio and instantly felt relieved. There stretching was Hinata, her best friend here at the academy. She wore a black leotard and white tights while Maruko wore a simple black one piece. Maruko moved towards Hinata and they shared a simple, yet sincere hug.
Hinata stopped, holding Maruko by her shoulders and craned her neck back to get a better perspective.
"Now sweetie, what's new with you this week?" Hinata asked with an inquisitive smile. Her enthusiasm was only hindered by her detailed knowledge that Maruko's new adventures, though novel, tended to be ambiguous at best in their eventual impact on Maruko's universe.
"Umm," Maruko bit her lip, though her eyes sang of happiness.
"Well look Maruko-chang," Hinata replied softly; adding chang after Maruko's name to indicate the closeness, familiarity and affection which they shared, "I've seen you soar with a growl and down with a giggle. What's new, this one," she put her index finger to her cheek to feign deep thought, "Ah! This one feels... good?"
"OK," Maruko, as if shot from a cannon, began, "so the other night, I left here and went to Tower to get the piece we were rehearsing, right?"
"Yes, go on."
"K, so apparently this guy saw me there."
"Apparently- did you see him?"
"Honestly I don't remember."
"Oh Maruko-chang, even the bad ones are memorable!"
Maruko, partially flustered, partially winding herself up for the story waved her arms franticly, "Would you please let me begin the story?!"
"Geesh, sorry!"
"Thou art forgiven," Maruko stated matter of factly while making a gesture as if knighting Hinata. "OK," she began once again, albeit even more dramatically this time, "so, after Tower, I went to the coffee shop to get a latte," here she sang her approval, "yum! There," she continued, "this guy approached me, or rather I startled him, I was reaching for the sugar, but yeah, we got to talk and well…"
"Is he a cutie?"
"He is!" Maruko blushed. "And there's a way he looks at me when I talk, wow!"
"So, are you going to go out with him?"
"Yeah, I think we're up to dinner next."
Hinata stared at Maruko, waiting for her to catch on as to why. She waited and then continued waiting.
"Oh," Maruko finally caught on, "um, yeah, well we met there again the next day."
"OK, well that's nice. How did that go?"
"Five gallops," Maruko smirked, rolled her eyes and gave a fake, toothy grin.
"Oh God, what happened?"
Maruko quickly caught Hinata up on the juggling act gone astray.
"Well, after that, so do you think...?"
This time it was Maruko who did the staring.
"Good God, kid!" Hinata took Maruko's hand and feigned looking for a wedding band, "No? OK, so you're still in control here, well that's good."
"Oh shut up!" Maruko exploded into one of her contagious giggles. "He wanted to see Osaka-Jo, so yeah, we met there and we saw the Yokimura Sanada exhibit, it was really great actually. The mural they had was breathtaking!"
"Maruko-chang?" Hinata made a deliberate pause between each of her next words, "Why. Hadn't. He. Seen. Osaka-jo?"
"Oh, right. Ummm, well he of course would have seen Osaka-Jo a million times..."
"Uh-huh."
"Were he Japanese, but yeah, being American..."
Hinata hung her head theatrically. It wasn't that she lacked the love for Maruko that it took to endure her misadventures, quite the opposite, in fact. The truth was that she adored Maruko immeasurably. However, Hinata simply hated to see how these 'lessons in life and love' sometimes left Maruko's heart bruised. Hinata gathered herself so as not to destroy Maruko's spirit or, even more so, her trust and finally spoke, "So, what's his name?"
"Connor"
"Cute name… and he's...?"
"Tall, cute, brown hair with light eyes, really funny and smart, he went to one of those ooh la la schools even," she twisted her mouth up, "Dart-vard?"
Hinata started to respond, but as always, Maruko was rolling and it was clearly still her turn to talk. "He loves to hear me explain things, which I really like. It makes me feel that I have some things that I've learned, too. He lives in L.A. and works at a financial planning place."
"And he's…" Hinata giggled at having to start again. With all of the information she had just been presented with, her question had either been missed or, more likely, avoided, "And he's leaving when?"
"Oh yeah, not sure there, but it's got to be soon I think… which would be fine, but," Maruko's eyes darted away. The terrible side-effect of the way one can light up a room is that when they look away and especially if something takes them away, the lack of their light can cause a blackout; everything simply goes dark.
Hinata was more than ready to finish Maruko's sentence, "But, you like this one, don't you?"
Maruko bit down the inside of her lip and exhaled through her nose, "Yeah. I do, I think I really do."
"Well then," Hinata tilted her head and took on another persona, one more official, "the question is: Is it a Grand Pas Classique or a Grand Pas d'Action?"
"What? Tonight, ummm, didn't Ogamu-sensei say we'd...?"
"No Maruko, come on, we've learned about these. And yes, we learned it here, but just follow me: Remember that a Grand Pas is an active intermission. In ballets which feature one, a Grand Pas is a break in between pieces of the storyline. This recess features some of the most beautiful, most graceful and most talented dancers. This is of course a fantastic portion of the show, but, unless it is a Grand Pas d'Action, it does nothing to carry the plot forward. There is the key difference. Any interlude that is beautiful and alters the attention of the audience could qualify as a Grand Pas, but only the d'Action will have any effect on the final destination of the plot. So, we know, I mean we KNOW, that this one, Connor, is it?"
Maruko nodded, she sensed where this was going, but restrained herself from finishing the thought so that Hinata would continue.
"Connor is a Grand Pas, clearly," Hinata continued. "He is fantastic for you to look at and he has quite grabbed our darling audience's attention. So, my dear sweet love who I adore, the question remains: d'Action? Does Connor advance the outcome of the production? Does Connor advance the plot and outcome of your production?"
Maruko nodded, knowing that the correct and accurate answer was that she really didn't know. She hugged Hinata, holding her for an extra moment so there would be no questioning how much she'd appreciated the analogy, and at that moment, the call to begin stretches came and rehearsal began.
For as much as Maruko did sometimes dread the repetitive nitpicking which rehearsal could present, she truly loved stretching. Standing at the bar, her long frame propped upon a deceptively stout piece of wood, she felt part of all who had danced before her. She stood at the bar and, at the call from the director, felt the familiar burn as her thighs took their first deep bend of the evening. Next came her arms and shoulders and Maruko finally began to feel relaxed as she stretched her arm away from her body before next tucking her chin against her shoulder blade and stretching her free arm back towards the bar. As she bent back towards the mirror, she could feel everything from the digits of her fingers to her ribs to each muscle in between stretching to their last centimeter of flexibility before being held just one moment more.
Japanese ballet had been heavily influenced by the Vaganova (Russian) school of ballet and this meant a greater concentration on the line of the upper body. It placed added emphasis on arm movements and their resting positions especially. Stretching was a way to free the body so it would be prepared for the true magic of ballet: the ability to fight through agony to hold a position while seeming all the while to be making no effort at all. To struggle, to even show the flexing of a muscle would imply that something was being asked of you which was not readily available. This simply would not do.
In these areas, Maruko had always found ballet a suitable mirror to Japanese culture. She believed that to make an offering to something greater than yourself was to do it without needing to tell others or make sure that they had seen you doing it. Likewise, in both of her worlds, one had to give 100% and yet be sure that, while maximizing the dedication that was put forth, none of these efforts showed outwardly. Maruko always excelled in these areas for, amazingly to those who knew her outside the studio, she was a sea of calm while in rehearsal and simply otherworldly while on stage.
At times, the etiquette of ballet dictated that she only excel to a point where those accompanying her would be able to keep up. This too was true of Japanese culture. Greatness was admirable, but to do it in a way so as not to show up others was not only something closer to divine, but necessary. Maruko took these cultural beliefs and infused them into her dancing. The combination was seamless, though at times she longed to simply break out from the others. On the stage, when allowed, she in fact could explode. She hit steps with a ferocity which her character, demeanor and cloud like landings would never belie, but still, she did it all within the confines of her troupe. She dreamed that one day she would be on an immensely bigger stage, one in which her every effort would be needed to even keep up. Then, only then, would she be able to summon up even more from her deepest reserves and know that she was truly still above the rest.
Stretching finished and rehearsal went on as planned. The piece of music which Maruko had bought that fateful night which seemed so long ago was played and dissected and replayed. At times, changes were made to previous routines and these were welcomed, for Japan's integration with ballet was still fresh to the extent where it wasn't really mature enough to grow on its own yet. It could often feel formulaic and trapped by the way one master or another had done it in the past, though they too had adapted it to themselves and the time of that performance. Each time the music resurfaced, in those slightest moments, she allowed herself to think of Connor. Remembering how it felt to be his guide through Osaka's castle and to have been so aware of how safe and listened to she had been while standing only inches from him, feeling each breath leave his chest through his lips, took her breath away here once more.
It wasn't just within her mind where Connor was present at rehearsal, either. Maruko, who had never lacked in confidence while dancing, was nonetheless more self-assured that day. Connor's words seemed to have emboldened her. She felt now more than ever before that that she had a reason to believe in dance as her vehicle. She'd never lacked much faith in this conviction, but the way he had completed her relation of Ichiro to how she could use dance seemed to make each step in this first rehearsal since Osaka-jo burst out and land even more resolutely.
