Chapter 46: Glenn Miller, Phil Collins, and a Patch of Ice

"Right here. Pookie, you need to swing your leg right here, on that beat."

"Right."

Their blades cut into the ice, as they tried a move.

"That right?"

"Yeah, but my turn was too slow. I came out of it a half-beat behind."

"'sokay, Snugglebear, let's try it again."

It was the middle of August. Sophia and Warren were trying to nail down their new free dance, before they pulled their old junior-length free from last year out of mothballs for the Junior Grand Prix.

It had been a busy summer. Dan and his buddies quickly renovated the basement, because Dan and Kate wanted to move in as quickly as possible. Sophia was thrilled with her new bachelorette pad-Ellen had even had Dan install an intercom, which anyone had to buzz before going down there--and Sophia had the pleasure of waking up next to Warren a couple of times already. Warren's parents were a little wary about that, as was Dan, but it didn't happen every night. And, since everyone knew what was going on anyway... Warren just had to call Peg and tell her, because she worried.

Ellen and Dan were getting married next weekend. The weekend after that, Sophia and Warren were travelling to Washington, DC, to attend the wedding of John Garrison and his dance teacher, Amanda Glover. They were thrilled to have been invited, and were really looking forward to it. The créme de la créme of the figure skating world promised to be there-and John was a dear friend. After that, the school year would start, senior year for Warren and Sophia, interspersed with trips to Europe for the Grand Prix. Plus they had to do their college applications.

So, finishing this free dance now would be nice. They wanted it done-or almost done-today. Plus, some of their family members were going to stop by for a grand preview.

Family members-Sophia had more of them now. She smiled at that. After that big blowout, Dan and she had gotten along much better. Somehow, Dan stopped seeing her as a kid after that encounter. Now, we just had to get him to stop seeing Kate as a kid, Sophia thought. That was coming along a bit, but it was harder. As for herself, Sophia loved Dan. She thought he was a great guy. Kate had confided that meeting Ellen had been the best thing that ever happened to him, because Ellen had loosened him up.

Kate, herself, Sophia found delightful. There were over 8 years difference between Sophia and her next oldest sister, Tara, so having a stepsister close to her own age was fun. And Kate was a wonderful young lady. She was almost as tall as Sophia, slender, with a cascade of sandy-blond ringlets hanging past her shoulders and bright green eyes. She affected a funky bohemian style, wearing long wraparound skirts and cotton tee shirts, often accompanied by beads and bracelets and something unusual in her hair, or a unique hat. Different from Sophia, whose wardrobe contained, in Warren's words, "either 'My boyfriend is a preppie and he bought me this', or basic sexbomb," but it looked good on Kate.

And Sophia realized that Kate had a passion. It became apparent quickly after Kate moved into Sophia's room-Sophia went up there to retrieve a few things she had left, and found one corner completely given over to easels, canvas, paints, cleaning equipment, palettes, and the like. Kate was an artist-specifically, a painter. And she was good, too.

"That's my stress relief. Anytime I'm bothered by something, I paint." Kate had said to Sophia.

"It's always good to have an outlet."

"Are you creative?" Kate had asked her.

Sophia just laughed. "Who do you think choreographs Warren's and my dances? Well, both of us, actually, but, yeah, we are our own choreographers. Believe me, that's creative."

"Yeah, it is," Kate smiled.

Now Kate was sitting in the stands, along with Ellen and Dan, and her best friend Tanya. Tanya was also a figure skating fan, and a photographer, and Kate had asked if she could come along and take some pictures.

"Only if we get a copy," Warren had smiled.

Peg and Jim Kelleher joined them, and the skaters skated over to them.

"Now, remember, this isn't 100% done. Close, but not quite," Warren told them. "We'll tweak some, I'm sure."

"And we're not in costume," Sophia added. "He's gonna wear a tux, and I'm gonna wear some slinky queen-of-the-dance-floor dress." Everyone laughed. "And my hair will be up, proper, not just a ponytail."

"Anyway," Warren concluded, "here's the rough cut. Fred and Ginger Revisited."

They took their opening positions, and June hit play on the CD player. The slinky, sassy strains of Glenn Miller's String Of Pearls filled the rink. Sophia and Warren glided around the ice, playing off of one another, sure-footed and confident. Their innate musicality shone through, as every step, every glide, every nuance was keyed perfectly to the walking bass and the gently swaying horns of the swing classic. The dance was technically difficult, with changes of handholds and difficult intertwining steps. They did very little side-by-side dancing, and stuck close to one another, which was more difficult. The ability to work their feet while skating extremely close together was a skill they had mastered early, and it was impressive. As the music gained in intensity, so did they, doing a fabulous diagonal step sequence in closed position, with perfectly timed turns and swaying hips. And, when they ice danced, they smiled. Always. They loved doing this.

Then the music changed, to the more uptempo, harder swinging Little Brown Jug. They started that portion with their side-by-side step sequence. As the song really got going, they went back to skating close together, changing positions and holds, turning and swinging with abandon. When they got going, they were fast, and this part of the dance showed their speed, without sacrificing an iota of difficulty in footwork.

Their cut of Little Brown Jug proceeded through a number of bars of various horn solos, with the band gently but relentlessly swinging behind the soloist. Sophia and Warren sped around the ice, swinging each other around and digging their skates into the ice in time with the swinging rhythm.

Little Brown Jug has a Big Finish, and Sophia and Warren had choreographed for it. About thirty seconds before the end, the last soloist finishes up. At that point, the drummer switches from rim shots to a relentlessly pounding snare, and the horns swing with a vengeance. Sophia and Warren went into this section with Warren behind Sophia, his hands on her hips, her hands on his, right close together, and they swung, shaking their hips perfectly to the beat, all the while keeping their skates moving with difficult footwork and deep edges. Then Sophie turned, and they went into classic closed position, not losing their rhythm for a second. For the last series of bars, he pulled her in close, and they skated, arms around each other. There was seemingly no room for their feet to continue moving, but they did. They ended with a spin, and a big flourish.

The small group of their supporters erupted with applause. Kate and Tanya were especially impressed, because they had never seen them skate live. Dan was really impressed-he had never seen them skate at all.

"My God, you guys are good!" he enthused. "That was really something."

"I can't believe two kids your age can swing that hard," Jim added.

"Thanks. We're glad you like it. We love it," Warren said.

"I keep telling them that if they skate it clean, it's going to get them on the podium at Nationals," June said.

"Well, it's very us," Sophia said. "Well, one side of us."

"Yeah, and for the other side of us, you guys wanna see the exhibition?"

"Exhibition?" Dan asked.

"If we finish high enough-it's usually top 3 or top 4-in any of our events, we get invited to skate in the post-competition gala," Sophia told him. "You can skate to anything you want to, no rules, so most people choreograph a special exhibition number. I don't know if I agree with June about Nationals, but we fully expect to finish high enough at the Grand Prix events, so we choreographed an exhibition."

"In fact, that's our main motivation for making it to the podium at Nationals. They don't televise the Junior Grand Prix, but they do televise the exhibitions at Nationals, and we want to do this dance on TV." Warren said.

Sophia added, "It's not as technically complex as our competitive programs, but it's got other things going for it. Don't need the ponytail for this one," she said as she took it out.

"Love to see it," Dan said. Everyone else agreed. "I'm glad I brought extra film," Tanya added, to general laughter.