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Write about a backup dancer who’s on tour and just wants some peace and quiet for the holidays.

Posted in Winter on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 54 stories

Better With You

Submitted to Contest #73

I stand backstage, the short skirt and top I’m wearing not helping with the heat.I’m pressed up against Layla and Shailene, their sweaty bodies making me more uncomfortable and suffocated with every second. Our star is late. And eight thousand people aren’t very happy about it. “LOGAN! LOGAN! LOGAN! LOGAN!” Freaking Logan. Can’t he come on time for once? People from all over the world travelled here just to see him, and he has to be all dramatic and make them wait. Typical Logan.“Now, please welcome to the stage, the one and only, Logan Youn...

76 likes 45 comments 45
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#BostonLife

Submitted to Contest #73

SlumpAlicia slumped down on a chair after the last dance of the day. She was a hip-hop backup dancer that was doing a tour with Little Iné, currently the biggest rap/hip-hop singer in the world. She was doing a tour across North America, and they had just arrived from New Jersey, heading up toward Maine. Alicia had always wanted to visit Boston from when she was 9 years old, because of the giant libraries and museums. She was kind of a nerd. Anyways, here she was, 8 years later, in Boston, but for a completely different reason. When she was ...

63 likes 20 comments 20
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A Fitness Center Christmas

Shortlisted for Contest #73 ⭐️

Rex had worked so hard to get on the show. The weeks of practice, the grueling auditions, the utterly convincing look of interest he’d developed and maintained during the director’s lengthy anecdotes: all for naught.  The tour didn’t even have the decency to die someplace interesting. New York, Chicago… even Baltimore would have at least been closer to home. But no, they called it quits in Cary, North Carolina of all places. Most of the cast left town on the bus that afternoon, but Rex had subleased his apartment when he got the job. He...

61 likes 16 comments 16
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I'm Just a "backup"

Submitted to Contest #73

Title: I'm Just a "backup"Author: HaripriyaAuthor's Note: Hello everyone! This story wasn't one of my best ones because I included the prompt at the end of the story, so it might be a little disappointing to many of you. But either way, I just wanted to post this story to get some feedback and suggestions for this story. Other than those quick words, I hope you kind of enjoy what I've written, and please feel free to comment down below on what you think about this entire story! I hope you have a great, lovely Saturday and happy holidays!!My ...

54 likes 42 comments 42
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Grace of the Bard (Part the First)

Submitted to Contest #73

I wake up to my phone beeping a steady rhythm. I groan. I've been on tour with Rosaline Height for six days, and I'm so tired I could sleep for a week. It doesn't seem that hard to get out there and do a few dance steps, but if you do that for six hours to your least favorite songs (sorry, Rosaline) in the middle of the night, then it gets you pretty tired. I don't even sleep well anymore. Every morning we fly to a new location, and every night we perform. I don't even get my spotlight-- I'm a backup dancer. The alarm keeps going. And then I...

41 likes 57 comments 57
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🌻Keep Me Steady🌻

Submitted to Contest #73

I stand in the exterior wings of the stage, wishing I had wings myself. It’s so incredibly hot, this little tiny extra space behind the stage, and the outfit, too tight around the ankles and too loose in other places, doesn’t help. I wish I could fly away from all this. It's unbearably hot. I can’t wait -- literally, I feel like jumping away and escaping -- for this tour to be over. I shouldn’t be this nervous. I’ve been here a million times. I’ve worn the too-tight pants and the too-loose shirt and the bright white smile every night for mon...

41 likes 9 comments 9
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Dance the Christmas night away

Submitted to Contest #73

Its almost Christmas?! Goodness. It just feels like yesterday it was the first day of summer. I have grown in many ways, and also learned many things. I hope you enjoy 'Dance the Christmas night away'. "You ready Maya?" The producer asked, keeping her eyes glued on her clip board. I sighed and nodded. "Sorry?" She asked. "Yes, I'm ready. Sorry." I added, looking at myself in the mirror. I didn't look like me. My hair was yanked back in a bun, polished, and my face had a million pounds of makeup piled on. To complete the look, we had to we...

31 likes 2 comments 2
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A Hummingbird's Hollow

Submitted to Contest #73

Today was biggest day of my life. I should have been excited, but I wasn't.. I was dreading what was to come. But today I learned a lesson: Never let anyone live your life for you. Let me tell you what happened: My grandfather, Old Squirrel Johnny, told me that dancing was the cure for sadness--but dancing was in his blood. He was the lead dancer of the Flying Squirrels, twisting and hopping and standing on his front legs. He didn't care about anything else except for his dancing--and me, of course. Although now I'm not so sure about tha...

30 likes 5 comments 5
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Exodus

Submitted to Contest #73

At each performance of the “Nutcracker” here in America, I have one of the best seats in the house: off stage at stage left. I get to watch the dancers float in from off stage and then back off stage again. I get to watch the prince and Clara as they sit in their throne-like carriage. I get to watch the different curtains rise and fall, slide across the stage and back again. I get to watch the lights above the stage change colors to match the mood of each scene. It is always magical and I never get bored of it. I think only performing back i...

29 likes 71 comments 71
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I Just Wanted Him To Be Quiet.

Submitted to Contest #73

“Five! Six! Seven! Eight!” The director yelled to the girls that were dancing in time with each other. “Stop! Stop!... Stop! You’re off the beat.” he yells, waving his hands, and points to me. “For the last time Cindy! You are offbeat by just a hair! It’s very noticeable!!”“Sir, with all due respect I am in the back..people are only focused on the actors and the front dancers. There never focused on the background. I don think me begin three seconds behind or barely behind will make a difference overall.” I say.The director death glares at m...

22 likes 10 comments 10
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A Maddie Christmas

Submitted to Contest #73

“Chest stand everyone! Alexis, extend your legs out a little more, You’re too compact. Maddie, come up here and show the class how you do a chest stand properly.” I walk up quietly, taking petite steps until I'm at the front of the gymnasium. Slowly, I lower myself down to the ground and lie down on my stomach. I kick my legs over my head and stretch out my right leg. I look up to my teacher to see her towering above me. I wait for her nod of approval to get up. Miss. Bell nods her head in a yes, motioning me to stand back up. I don’t know w...

20 likes 7 comments 7
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Unrecognizable

Submitted to Contest #73

Many people outside of the entertainment world might just believe that being and entertainer is a glamorous life. It is but it isn’t. With that being said, let me introduce myself. My real name is Royce Nesby. Yet everyone calls me Dancer! I been dancing longer than I been walking. My mother would tell anyone who would listen that I even danced out of her womb. Maybe she drank one too many Margarita’s the late morning I was born. My father is a classic pianist, while my mother dabbled in the arts. I was destined to be a star in which never q...

19 likes 1 comment 1
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A Dance Home

Submitted to Contest #73

“Hey mum, I’m sorry, I have to cancel our Christmas plans...,” I told my mum for the fourth time over the phone, “you know my work, we’re always moving. I tried but I couldn't get off, another backup dancer hurt their leg, which leaves only me and Alex.” Alex is the only other back up dancer besides myself. And Vanessa is the show stopping singer. “It’s ok honey, I know you tried your hardest, I love you.” Mum said, though she sounded defeated, but I couldn’t hear very well because of the static. “I love you too, send my love to th...

18 likes 14 comments 14
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Simpler Beauties

Submitted to Contest #73

There is an awful moment after every performance when one’s feelings fall from euphoria into depression. In the moment of the performance, under the transforming brilliance of the spotlights, everything seems sharp and clear and powerful. Wave after wave of vibrant joy at being alive sweeps through every gesture, every expression. Every step is charged with energy and exuberance, every thought is an intoxicating pleasure.To come back to ordinary life is almost torture. After the colors of the stage, everything seems washed out. After da...

17 likes 22 comments 22
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Light Relief

Submitted to Contest #73

I was the first coryphée to pirouette offstage when the cue was Exeunt Stage Left. I almost always, but not quite, avoided getting dizzy and / or smashing into the backdrop, thereby making things difficult for the rest of the nymphs and dryads sprites and naiads. I had joined the troupe with a view to going places during my gap year – not because I liked dancing. My sister’s boyfriend had high hopes for me; he said my height and carrot-top would make me famous. You don't often see tall ballerinas, do you? In fact, they X-Ray the wrists ...

16 likes 8 comments 8
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