I walk into the studio. People are warming up. I begin to do some little jumps. the young ones are joking and showing off. I feel incredibly old. I want to shut them up so I do a quadriple pirouette and a tour en L'air. They stop laughing, that's what I thought. Someone walks into the studio I don't recognize him. He's young and beautiful, he begins to stretch and god, he is flexible. Who is he? he isn't wearing normal ballet clothes he is wearing an old shirt and baggy pants. Our ballet master and another guy comes in and we all stand up to listn to him. our ballet master begins to talk. "Good morning everybody" "Good morning." the company responds. "Meet Killian Larue" everybody applauds, Killian is world famous, he's a brilliant choreographer and I've always dreamt of working with him. Killian makes a bit of a bow. We all laugh, everybody is eager to show him how good they are. Mister Larue begins to talk. "I'm very happy to be here at the royal ballet in London. I'm very excited to teach you this piece. As you know it's called memory, and you might be wondering how I'm gonna teach you a choreo because let's face if i'm there is one thing I'm not anymore it is young. So I took my assistent, a brilliant individual who helped creating this piece; My son." the beautiful young man walks up to him. "Well introduce yourself" mister Larue says "Hi everybody, my name is Éloi Larue, and my father is brilliant." "Tell us a bit about your career" our ballet master says. Éloi laughs with a fake modesty, I already hate him. "So when I was eight years old I started at the famous paris opera ballet school and when I was ten I went to the famous Vaganova academy in Russia, but whn I was thirteen I felt like I felt a lot more comfortable in my own homecountry so I decided to go back to paris and I finished my eduction there. I started my career and danced in the paris opera ballet. I unfortunaly had an accident with my right foot and my further career was shattered. I'm now studying history in oxford but I help my father whenever I can." I cannot believe he just casually name dropped the most famous ballet school in the world. He must be a prick, right? He can't be beautiful, talented and nice, right? He begins to talk "so everybody, my father and I have already picked the roles for some people." After a while he says my name. He points at me and smiles "you will be dancing the part of the dying youth, you still want to be energetic but you're slowly losing the battle against your body. And last but not least the role of the young woman experiencing everything for the first time I want somebody who is originally in the corps, you'll be challenged a lot but the whole thing about this role is falling and standing up again. So we chose julia" I'm a bit surprised, Julia is my girlfriend and she is not one of the better ones in the company but I shouldn't question mister Larue

Éloi pov

The dancers will warm themselves up and than we will start to teach them the choreography. I actually made most of the cheography but my father will always take credit if he can. I'm not his equal in his eyes. "So with what shall we start?" I ask my father. "We shall teach them a bit of the kind of movements we're using." I nod. "Shall we begin with some partner work?" He nods. "Okay everybody partner up!" I tell and everybody partners up. I begin to teach. "So the things were using is not ballet, it's not modern, it's in the style of Larue okay, so don't think in terms of ballet, that would be like you were thinking in maths while doing history" they laugh. "We will start en face, the girls should be standing right in front of the guys okay? I will first explain the girls and than I will do the same for the boys. I need one of the principals to help me show it okay?" After a teaching a few steps I realize this won't work so I need another strategy. "Okay, I'm not going to teach you any steps right now." I say. They all look confused. "Yeah, I know it sounds weird but today we're going to be dancing without rules, just freedom. The only rule is that you cannot do any steps you were taught, so a simple pirouette is forbidden, etc." I turn on the music "looks at this!" I say. "My body moves, simultaneously with my soul. It moves the way I feel it wants to. it moves freely without intent but still with reason. That's the core of this choreography. Just close your eyes and feel the world, feel the air travelling through your fingers, feel every breath you take. Feel every sigh, feel every bone and muscle in your body without forcing them into place. It might sound difficult but if you find the way you'll love it I promise." I connect my phone to the speakers and choose the song Meant to stay hid by SYML. "Don't hesitate." we begin to dance, I see that some people get it but everyone has a bit of difficulty not to think while dancing but after five minutes I can see the progression, i start to dance with them. My whole body explains the desperation I feel while dancing, my hands reach for the unknown and the rest of my body weighs me down. "Now we will partner with the first person to look you in the eye. and we will still improvise" I say. My eyes lock with bright green ones, he's a redhead, a beautiful man, probably older than I am but not old in my opinion. We begin to search for the others focus in the dance. It feels safe dancing with him, he is gentle, his hands reach for something maybe a bit more reachable. He's not taller but I'm the more relaxed one in this symphony of movements. He reaches for the sky and slowly trace my hand over his arm I reach over his hand but I lose my balance and he catches me and guides me back to where we were. Our noses almost touch eachother and I stare directly in his green eyes that have a beautiful spark. I hear his soft breaths and I see that his heart is racing, probably because of the dancing. He breaks eye contact. I pause the music. "Well, I think you're ready to learn actual moves now."

Author's note

Hi everybody, I hope you enjoyed this chapter but please tell me if you'd like more description of actual steps in the choreography and ballet terms or if I need to explain them etc so please let me know what you think.