DREAM DANCER

PART THREE - STARTING OVER

Karen told Michael that what Howard O’Markerty was doing for Irish dance was wrong. He taught students the style and the outward form, so that they danced with flair but no inner convictions. No Howard O'Markerty student would ever win the All Hibernian, where the inner strength came out during the grueling
competition.

She argued that Howard had to be checked in his ambitions. She offered to train Michael, to help him to beat Howard out in the big audition. But Michael refused. He argued that his legs and body were too work-hardened now to ever dance properly. Karen argued that she understood how he felt, but that she had some new training ideas to change all that. Her daughter Fiona was studying Anatomy and Physiology in Ireland and was reporting to her on some remarkable new theories.

As they talked, the senior O’Flaherty drove up and wanted to know what was going on. They repeated their arguments for him. At the end, Michael said that he was tired this pointless squabbling. He had made his choice and was committed to the family business. That was a commitment he could fulfill and not let everyone down who believed in him.

Mr. O’Flaherty, who had listened patiently, asked whether Karen truly believed that Michael could get back his skill as a dancer. She said that her belief was that if he pushed, he could be even better, for he was so much stronger from all the hard work. Nothing was certain, but she thought it was worth trying.

Michael got his back up at being discussed by the two as if he wasn’t even there. He said they could argue all they wanted, but he had a ditch to dig, and that was the end of it. He was working for O’Flaherty and Son and had no intention of going off on wild goose chases to break everyone’s heart again!

Mike’s Da told him he was wrong. "What?" Michael exploded. "wrong about not wanting to get caught up in futile dreams again?" "No," said his Da, "wrong for thinking you have a job and a commitment to the business. The only commitment you have is from God, who gave you a rare talent. As for the job, I’m firing you! I’m sacking you for slacking off on your talent and the beauty and power that Irish Dance will never have if you don’t get up off your sorry duff and show them. Go, train with your teacher. Show Howard O’Markerty what Irish dancing is like. Make us all proud. Don’t worry about the business, I can hire a dozen good men to dig ditches who need the money for their families."

Karen worked him hard, exercising off his muscular work bulk in saunas and heated pools, making him force his legs through the water to relearn the steps. She loaded him down, running and dancing with weights to rebuild his leg muscles for dance. It is painful beyond anything he had suffered when he was first learning to dance. Now it was Michael who had to struggle mightily to relearn the disciplines that had come to him so easily in his early training.He fought and strove, but there eventually came a time when he despaired of winning through the pain.

And just then, as he was in the depths of depression over the pain and clumsiness, Karen brought a visitor. It was a very old man whose face was familiar to Michael. Shamus O’Faolain had been one of the judges of the famous All Hibernian competition that he had competed in. He told Michael that the judges had all thought that Michael O’Flaherty’s dancing was first-rate in technique, better even than Howard O’Markerty’s, but that he had seemed just a bit earthbound. Howard O’Markerty’s leaps were a tad higher, a tad crisper.

The vote for First had been almost a tie, but Shamus had cast the deciding vote for Howard O’Markerty, because at the time, his performance had seemed to show that he had worked harder, more purposefully. At the time, Michael O’Flaherty seemed to have just been doing it without true dedication. Now after speaking with Karen, Shamus understood that it was the  work muscle that had held Michael O’Flaherty earthbound.

Shamus did not look back on the decision as being wrong. The judges had judged properly based on what they had seen. But as lovers of the Irish dance, Shamus and the others had not been pleased by what Howard O’Markerty had done with his fame. So Shamus had come to tell Michael about the vote, and their reasons, and the reasons why it was important for someone to defeat Howard.

"Michael O’Flaherty, I believe you are the only man who can do it. For the sake of your heritage, I have come to beg of you to do it."

END - PART THREE OF FOUR - Copyright James F. Quinn, 1997]

  PART FOUR THE SECOND COMPETITION Rededicated, Michael O'Flaherty redoubled his training and drills, and  began to feel some of his old fluidity coming back, little by little.  Eventually, the word of Michael's secret training began to become known.  When Howard O'Markerty got wind of it, despite his great arrogance, an inkling of concern began to insinuate itself into his heart.

To Michael's amazement, Moira came to see him the Friday night before the big Saturday audition, as an old friend who was interested in how and what he was doing.  Despite his reawakening feelings, or at least a remnant of them, Michael was uncertain of her motives.  She told him she regretted her anger at him, that she had not understood how desperate the situation had been in his Da's business.

She had decided to break up with Howard, she said, and wanted to get back with him.  She wanted to know if Michael would go away for the weekend with her.  They had once had a chaste relationship.  She wanted  to see if they could rekindle that relationship and possibly take it to a new level.  She had a car, and reservations for a hideaway inn out in the country.

Michael said he'd like nothing better.  As she hugged him, he also said that she might as well cancel the reservations and reschedule them for the next week, because he had an audition this weekend he wasn't going to miss.  She looked at him, and he wasn't smiling, as if he had made a joke. She stepped back, away from him.

"You are a fool, Michael," she said.  "You have no chance, tomorrow.   As a dancer and a man, Howard has left you behind."

"That may well be so," he replied, "but if he truly believed it, you wouldn't be here." Moira left without another word.

When Moira reported her failure to sidetrack Michael, Howard became even more troubled.  He called a few people, seeking their advice.  He set about to recruit a goon squad to sabotage the latest big O'Flaherty and Son's construction job.  He reasoned that Michael O'Flaherty once again would again be forced to help his Da by working all night to help save the job.

Michael went to help his Da, as Howard had planned.  But around 2am, crews of men from his Da's competitors showed up to take over the work.  Work of the sabotage had gotten around.  Mr. O'Flaherty senior had worked alongside many of them as a laborer and had hired many of them for his jobs. In the Irish community, many of them knew people who'd been affected by Howard O'Markerty's predatory practices over the years.  They knew Michael, and had heard what he was trying to do. They slapped him on the back and sent him off to get some sleep before the audition. They would do the work.

On Saturday, the audition soon turned into a competition between Howard O'Markerty and Michael O'Flaherty.  All the other men were not in their class.  They each danced their own dances, traditional dance forms, and they were clearly very good, but neither clearly better than the other.  After two hours of strenuous dancing, they were tied.

The Irish producer was relying on a panel of judges much like the panel for the All-Worlds.  In the informal competition, the panel was free to consult with many of the dance teachers and experts in attendance.  Karen was one of them.  Since no one seemed to know what to do to break the tie, she proposed that the two men dance-off to her famous warmup dance, The Warriors's Challenge.

She freely admitted that she had been Michael's trainer these past months, but told them that she had not used The Warriors's Challenge in any way as part of the training.  She asked Michael if that was true, and he agreed, but also felt he had to tell the panel that he still always warmed up by doing The Warriors's Challenge, as he had been trained to do since his first dance lessons at the Hibernian Dance Academy.

Might that not give him an advantage, he asked of them?  Howard O'Markerty laughed at that.  He was a product of the same school, he reminded them, and he too always warmed up to the same routine.  He was perfectly willing to dance it off against Michael, if that's what they wanted.

So the two men took the audition stage again and started into the warmup routine devised by Karen years before, to the old cassette sound track from the her school.  It was almost amusing at first to see these well matched masters of dance doing simple beginner's steps. But as the routine shifted beyond the slow simple steps, then into faster complex steps, and then the highest kicks and leaps, both the panel and the rest of the viewers could see how it challenged the men into their highest levels of skill.

After the previous two hours of strenuous effort, the difficult routine stressed the men toward their levels of endurance.  They finished in unison, still clearly tied and both sorely tried, their chests heaving for air.

What now, everyone wondered.

The honored old Master of Dance, Shamus O'Faolain rose from his seat in the audience.  "I was on the panel that chose between these two men for the All-World's.  I was invited to be on this panel today, but I declined because I did not want to have to again have to choose between them.  My previous choice has since come back to haunt me and all other lovers of Irish dance.  But I say now that this is a man's competition and they should be judged by all the qualities of a real man.  I say, they should dance off until one of them drops, for the other will be the better man, indeed.

Karen rewound the cassette and pushed PLAY once more.  The music started again, slowly again, and the two combatants began the routine. Both had caught back some of their wind, and the slow steps gave them a slight respite.  But then, as the tempo increased, the audience could see the toll as the growing strain worked on the two of them. For a time they moved in graceful, powerful unison.

But eventually, the weeks and weeks of weighted dance training layered over labor-strengthened muscles kept Michael O'Flaherty going, getting stronger and stronger.  And Howard began to falter.  To the casual onlooker they were still dancing in unison, still looking much alike.  But to Karen, and to Shamus, and to all the expert observers, there was a growing difference.  Suddenly, in the middle of a difficult sequence of kicks, Howard O'Markerty stopped, gasping for air.  He staggered, and finally fell to his knees.  He was done.  The audition was over.  Michael had won.

Hours later, after all the contracts for the big show were signed, and all the well wishers had wished him well and gone, Michael found himself alone at last.  Or almost alone.  Karen walked over from the shadows at the back of the stage.  She threw her arms around her prize pupil, and then drew back to look at him.  "Well, you did it more than I ever did, teacher," he said, taking her by her two hands.

"No, you did it, Michael," she said.  "In the end, it was what was inside you that won.  I'll take a teacher's credit but it's what happens up on the stage where the work gets done.  It's your triumph and well deserved, too."

"Tell you what, though," she said.  "If you'll give me a ride back to my house, I'll introduce you to the young researcher who taught this teacher a new way to teach.  She should have a measure of the credit too.  Her name is Fiona."

"I think you'll like her."

[END - PART FOUR OF FOUR - Copyright James F. Quinn, 1997]

(Bring up Rocky Theme: Ba-da-daaaaah!  Ba-da-daaaaah!...)        (Just in case, Draft Oscar Acceptance Speech: "So if I have done      brought some joy into your drab little gray lives, thin it ain't been      all in vain fer nothin'!")      DAGHDA Jim has left the building. 11th December, 1997  
 

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