Dream 40: Dancing Man
I was in a musical, a huge West End production, but I was appearing as a man. I was still me, but I was in some sort of disguise which allowed me to be a John Travolta-type all singing all dancing man in this show. There was a real male lead who was doing most of the show and then I was to do the last few big numbers and the finale. But no-one realised there were two of us and that I swapped in towards the end.
I went on and did the finale which went great and felt wonderful, but then the crowd were screaming for an encore and they wanted a particular number from earlier in the show. We were told to do the number again, but it wasn't one of mine and the other performer had already gone. I'd watched the number earlier and thought I could do it. It was a 50's style rock 'n' roll song (Buddy Holly-ish) and the choreography was spectacular and included a huge leap in unison with the female lead, it made a great tableau and was a highlight of the show which is why they wanted it again.
I was confident I could do it as I'd watched the scene pretty carefully and knew how the other actor danced etc. I also had the big leap in my mind and knew just how to do it. The number started off with the male dancers coming through the audience as the song started. I was leading the way, but there were these channels or pathways we had to go down (it was through and around the audience, but not). The ones which were open to us were the ones we had to go down, they were lit in a dim blue light, there were other lanes but these had fluorescent blue springy ropes zig-zagged across them at ankle height. I started off leading them down the lanes ok, then I took a wrong one and had to sort of dance around over and between the ropes which added to the performance but was taking more time and was wrong, the other performers had gone down the correct lines. Then I saw the ramp leading up to the stage and I knew I had to go up there and explode onto the stage as the song really took off. I did it just as I seen the other guy do it and there was a huge cheer, scream and applause from the audience. I danced through the number and it is was fantastic. We got to the leap. We were up on a platform and had to leap off and land on the main stage. It was a leap upwards first so we were high above the stage, then we had to hold our hands high in the air and twist our lower bodies to one side and bend up our knees. It was me and the main female lead and we were frozen in this tableau with just a spot on us for a split second that seemed to last longer as we suspended in the air, then landed together and finished the dance. As we did it, it felt brilliant, we timed it perfectly even though I'd never actually done it before, with me leaping slightly first but holding as she joined me. The crowd went even more crazy.
Afterwards I was chatting up the female lead. I was thoroughly enjoying my role as a bit of a macho male and I grabbed her around the waist and spun her around. I did feel a bit bad that I was fooling her because I was really me and a woman, but I thought that when the other male lead returned he could enjoy the benefits. I seemed to be far more outgoing and forward than the real man and so it was going to be noticed by the other performers perhaps that I seemed to have two personalities...