"Do you have to change?"
"Nah, just my shoes."
"Perfect, then just follow me and we'll go straight to the studio."
Like most dance studios, this one is a large room with a mirrored front. A few guys and girls are already standing in one corner. A few light stretching exercises here, a little warm-up for hands or feet there, everyone knows what they're doing. Some of the dancers are chatting with each other.
Nika walks purposefully to the group and waves after me. "That's... Ah shit, I didn't ask you your name."
"Because you didn't care?" One of the other boys quips and laughs.
"Ah... got me! But look, I told you, we're all nice." She says in my direction, completely unimpressed.
"Yes, everyone except Nika. But if you weren't put off by her, you're already doing well!" Everyone laughs and Nika playfully sticks out her tongue at them.
"What's your name?"
"Philipp."
"And you dance?"
Okay, here we go. I just have to answer honestly. It'll be fine. "Uh... yeah, I danced, but I've been out for a little over two years now. I just don't think I'm good enough for you guys."
A tall young man with beautiful dark skin and dark brown eyes looks me up and down. "You stand quite well. You definitely have tension in that body. I want to see you. Marius will be here for the last time next week, we could do with a man and if you get on with Nika, all the better. She would be your partner. You know what we're doing, right?"
"Yes, I know, I've seen some of your videos. The partner elements are cool and absolutely unique in the scene. Especially in this difficulty range."
"You know your way around dancing?" He raises his eyebrows questioningly.
"A little..." I blush, because that's a lie. When it comes to dancing technique, I know a lot about it. I have a classical dance education and danced ballet for nine years. But nobody needs to know that.
"Cool, I'm Joshua, I run the crew. I'd say 85% of the choreographies are mine, but I'm always open to new ideas and suggestions. That's the remaining 15%. Just join in and we'll see how you can keep up. It's best to stand with Nika. She's not particularly people-friendly..."
"Fuck you!" She shouts from the other end of the room, and everyone laughs.
"...as I said, but she's a fantastic dancer." I believe that straight away, you can see it in the way she walks, she owns theroom during warms up. If I could dance with her, it would be amazing.
The warm-up goes well, I'm not worried about stretching. I've spent the last two years making sure to stay flexible. I also love the pain when the stretch kicks in and I push my body just a little bit further. Holding the pain until it is no longer pain but pure euphoria rushing through my veins like a drug. In the beginning I thought pain wasn't addictive, but I was wrong. I’m searching for it again and again, but I find it less and less often because I am already so flexible. I have other ways though.
As we get started, Joshua shows us new parts of the choreography to practice them separately. In the end, we put them together and combine them with the choreo. It's so much fun. I was a little rough around the edges, but I don’t think I entirely sucked.
"Now with your partners! Nika, is it okay for you to dance with Philipp? I want to see if you're a good fit."
"Yeah, sure, give me two minutes with him outside, please."
"Two minutes from now!"
I am confused.
"Come with me." Nika grabs my wrist and pulls me outside with a firm grip. "You must never do that. That's the only rule: don't touch my wrists! We don't know each other; I have a thing with being touched. But we'll manage, you just have to keep going, even if I flinch or huff or something. It gets better with time, but never the wrists."
Okay, whatever's her story, I feel like I can relate. At the moment, I can't imagine what it feels like to be touched by a man again either. But that's the difference, Nika isn't a man, so I'm not worried about her. I'm a man and if her... reason was inflicted by a man, then I'm a potential trigger. "I can manage that. But can I use your hands?"
"Yes, and sometimes we have elements that we can't do any differently than by holding my wrists, for safety reasons, but we have to see how that works when it happens."
I briefly toy with the idea of whether I would have preferred an easier partner for the start, but somehow Nika puts me at ease. Maybe because she isn’t easy at all.
Nika and I are not only compatible, we are amazing together. I've never clicked with a partner as well as I do with her. She'sincredibly good, Joshua didn’t exaggerate. But the really exciting thing about her is that when she is dancing, she suddenly gets a playful side. While the choreography is set, we still have a little room to play with expression and execution as dancers and she uses it all.
