Breaking Pointe
Authors: Samantha-Ellen Bound
Four friends. One dance school. A whole lot of drama.
Athletics, basketball or ballet? The pressure is on and Riley has a big decision to make!
Riley loves ballet â it's her favourite style and she's great at it too, with perfect technique and natural athleticism. But it's not just dancing she loves â it's all sports. With her carefree attitude, Riley is happy to ignore everyone who says she does too much and is super excited when she scores a lead role in the upcoming ballet eisteddfod. But, one fouetté too late, Riley realises that her sporting and Silver Shoes commitments clash! Was everyone else right, and will she have to make a choice between the three things she loves most?
For the teachers who inspired my dance-love
There were thirty seconds to spare when I ran into jazz class on Wednesday. I passed my best friends, Eleanor, Ashley and Paige, coming out of the dressing room just as I dashed in.
âWhat a surprise,' said Jasmine, Silver Shoes' resident ballerdiva.
âGet a life,' I called out, as I tore off my school sweatshirt.
âOr find the one you lost,' I heard Ellie add.
I didn't catch Jasmine's reply. But I'm sure it wasn't any good.
Today was hot and I was already sweating a bit, so my jazz gear was extra hard to get on. After some harsh words with my leggings, I was finally ready. I pushed my school clothes under the bench, took a deep breath and walked out.
Why the rush?
Today was the St Vitus School Sports Carnival, one of my favourite days of the year. Not only was it fun and meant we didn't have to go to regular classes (not that I hate school, but it's nice to have a break from Mr Matheson droning out sums), but it also meant I got to hear my name, Riley Nason, read out as a winner.
What did I win? In my age group, Under 12s, I'd won the 200-metre and 100-metre
sprints, and got two firsts in long jump and triple jump. Our house team (red) had also won the relay race.
But that wasn't the best news. The best news was that I'd earned a place on the school athletics team â I was going to the Inter-Schools Athletics Carnival in a few weeks!
I can't tell you how excited I was. I love my sports. Apart from dancing, I also play basketball.
I have three big brothers â Fergus, Aidan and Heath â so maybe I caught my love of sport from them. Whatever sport I try, I seem to be pretty good at it.
I don't mean to brag. My nana (we're from Fiji, and that's how you say âmum') calls it ânatural ability'. And because I like being the best at everything, that means I want to do everything â and I can't stand it when anyone beats me!
So making it on the athletics team was a huge deal. I didn't want to miss out on representing my school at the carnival. Unlike this girl, Mietta, who I felt sorry for.
A bit.
Mietta got fifth in the 100-metre sprint. She stumbled at the start, then tried to catch up to the rest of us but couldn't. So she missed out on going to the carnival. I also beat her in the long jump and triple jump, so she didn't make the team that way, either.
It must have sucked for Mietta, because she did athletics on the weekend. Her dream was to make it to the Olympics. But now she didn't even get to compete against other schools.
âWell done,' Mietta said to me after the carnival, but she looked really sad and disappointed. I was going to say something nice to cheer her up, like my friend Paige would've
done. But then I felt, like, too bad, that's life, so I just smiled and walked away.
I tried to walk into jazz class quietly so that Miss Caroline wouldn't notice I was late once again. But she caught me straightaway.
âWelcome, Riley,' she said.
âThank you,' I said, holding my head high.
I didn't want to seem embarrassed because I was late â it wasn't like I was being tardy. I had a reason.
Besides, I was one of the better dancers in class. And to show Miss Caroline how true that was, I made extra sure to elongate my lines while we were doing floor work.
âBeautiful,' she said to me, as I pirouetted past her.
Who says you can't be an athlete
and
a dancer?
âHaven't you got your shoes on yet, Riley?' said my coach, Stacey. âThe first half is about to start and you're doing the jump.'
âI know, I know,' I said, massaging my toes. âIt'll take me five seconds to put on my shoes.'
âHow about you bring some of that attitude to the court? Come on, lace them up.'
I muttered something under my breath and then pulled my socks on. I play basketball
with my school team and tonight was our semi-final. If we won this, we'd make it to the grand final!
Getting into the grand final was important to me because my brothers play basketball and I wanted to show them that I was just as good. Whenever I'm practising hoops at home, they always come and steal the ball and say they've got âimportant boys' business'.
Yeah, right.
My feet were aching. Ms McGlone, the ballet teacher at Silver Shoes, had worked us extra hard in the last class. I'd never done so much jumping in all my life â we were switching from
pas de basque
to
pas de ciseaux
to
jeté passé
. The whole time Ms McGlone kept calling out â
allegro, allegro
' (which means âfast, fast' in Italian).
All of us dancers were still getting used to our pointe shoes, as well. We'd only just been
allowed to start wearing them (you're not supposed to until you've had a certain amount of training).
By the end of class my toes were cramping badly, but I didn't show it on my face. When I snuck a look at Jasmine, I saw she was grimacing every time she landed, and it made me feel better.
A lot of people don't think I'm as competitive with Jasmine as Ellie is, because Ellie goes off like a firecracker every time Jasmine opens her mouth. But I am. I just keep it to myself â I like to watch and wait until Jasmine shows herself up.
Sometimes this affects my dancing. Miss Caroline or Ms McGlone often say to me, âMore face, more expression, Riley â you look like you don't care!'
But of course I do. I just let my dancing speak for itself.
It made me grumpy that Stacey was telling me off. âLook at my toes!' I wanted to yell. âI danced last night for three hours!' But I just made my expression blank and finished putting on my shoes, then walked onto the court.
Stacey wouldn't be telling me off once I started scoring goals for our team.
The game was pretty even, and the quarters went by really fast â nothing but the squeak of sneakers and the swish of the net.
There was this one girl on the other team, I think her name was Kel, who would shriek and act like she'd won the lottery or something every time she scored a goal. It was really satisfying the few times I managed to get the ball off her.
When I sunk my goals I didn't scream and shout like a clown. (I ended up scoring 13!) I just coasted and went back to my starting position. Like I said, the goals spoke for themselves.
By the end of the fourth quarter though, it was clear the St Vitus All Stars were going to win.
When the final buzzer rang, we were 16 points in front. And going to the grand final! What a week â the athletics team and now the basketball final!
I got so caught up in the excitement of it all I forgot about my sore feet, even though I knew my after-game blisters would be all kinds of ugly.
âWell done as always, Riley,' said Stacey at the end.
I just half-smiled at her, but that wasn't because I was being rude. This time, it
was because I'd kicked off my shoes and caught sight of my feet.
Ouch.