Читать книгу: «Delphie and the Magic Spell»

1 The Bluebird’s Dance

The ballet studio was quiet and still. It could only be a couple of hours since it had been full of girls dancing for their ballet teacher, Madame Za-Za. Now there was just one girl left.

Delphie Durand pressed the button on the CD player and then ran lightly to the centre of the room. She waited for the music to start, one foot slightly in front of the other, her head bent, her eyes looking down at her red ballet shoes. All the other girls in her class had pink ones but it wasn’t just the colour that made Delphie’s shoes different from theirs. Delphie’s ballet shoes were also magic!

Madame Za-Za, the owner of the ballet school, had given them to Delphie three weeks ago. She’d told her they were very special but Delphie hadn’t known just how special until two nights later when the shoes had started glowing and sparkling. When Delphie had put them on, they had whisked her away to Enchantia – a magical land where all the characters from the different ballets lived. A land full of incredible adventures!

Delphie smiled as she remembered the adventure she’d had there. It had been scary but amazing! Just then, the first few notes of the music swelled out from the CD player. Delphie quickly pushed thoughts of Enchantia to the back of her mind. She had to get this dance right.

She heard the music she had been waiting for and glided forward into a run, taking tiny steps as she skimmed across the floor. As the music changed, she stopped on her tiptoes, looking from side to side like a bird, her arms held slightly behind her like wings. Wait, Delphie told herself, listening to the music carefully. One, two…

She danced forward and turned a pirouette, before travelling forward again and stopping with one leg held behind her, one arm in front, trying to look as if she was a bird flying. All of Madame Za-Za’s instructions from the class earlier ran through her head – lift the chin… shoulders down… keep your back strong… turn out that leg…

Delphie was so busy thinking about the placing of her leg that she lost her balance and stumbled. Bother! It was so hard trying to concentrate on everything at the same time. Before she had started ballet classes, she had simply danced just how she had felt. Now she was learning that you had to make sure every bit of your body was doing the right thing at the right time. But Delphie found that when she concentrated on her legs, she forgot about her arms and then she remembered them and realised her head was wrong and her shoulders were up and by the time she had got those right, her legs were wrong again.

But I’ve got to get it right, she thought as she walked back over to the CD player to restart the music. There’s only one day to go!

The very next morning there were going to be auditions for the school’s end of term show. It was a woodland ballet and the main part was the Bluebird. All of Delphie’s class wanted to be the Bluebird. Delphie had been practising and practising.

The door to the studio opened and Delphie saw Madame Za-Za look in. A slim, elegant woman with her greying hair pulled back into a low bun, she was wearing a long floaty skirt over footless tights and a wrapover top.

“Well, Delphie?” she said. “How is it going?”

As Delphie met her teacher’s gaze, she couldn’t stop the truth from bursting out. “Actually, I’m not doing very well, Madame Za-Za. I just can’t seem to get the dance right no matter how hard I try!”

“Maybe you are trying too hard, child,” Madame Za-Za said.

Delphie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“It will make sense one day, Delphie,” Madame Za-Za said with a smile. “Maybe sooner than you imagine.” And with that she left the room.

Delphie sighed, restarted the music and went back to the centre to try again. But even the very first run felt wrong and stiff as she tried to think about her feet, arms and head all at once. She broke off with a groan and went to stop the music before glancing at the clock on the wall. It was nearly time to go. Her mum and dad would be home from work.

With a sigh, Delphie went over to the wooden barre that ran around the edge of the room and began to do some slow stretching exercises. She was just finishing when the door opened.

Delphie looked round, expecting to see Madame Za-Za again, but in her place stood Sukie Taylor. Delphie’s heart sank. She was in Delphie’s ballet class and was very, very good at ballet, but she didn’t seem to like Delphie at all.

Sukie looked surprised to see her. “Oh. Hi. I left something.” She picked up a pink cardigan from the back of a chair and switched off the music. “What are you doing here?”

Delphie shrugged. “Just practising.”

“For the auditions?” Sukie’s eyes narrowed. “Well, you won’t have a chance. You’ve only been coming to classes for three weeks and Madame Za-Za has pretty much said that I’m going to be the Bluebird. Everyone knows I’m the best dancer in the class.”