Zirpolo 1 Xauen Zirpolo Ms.

Poticny British Literature February 11, 2014 The Waltz of the Powers Its quiet in the auditorium. For hours, people have watched performances of dance, song, and bravado; now the show reaches its 45th and final performance of the day, until it resumes again in 4 years. The show is exciting, yes, but the entire crowd seems to be familiar with it already. Judges, clad in robes of solid black, sit patiently at a table. The lights dim, and a man delicately steps onto stage, clad in robes of royal blue and small spots of red spattering the outfit. Behind him, two columns file out; each side is the same size, and they too wear outfits of red and blue; but split down the middle, one color on each side. Oddly, the blue side is young and moves liberally, while the other side is restrained and conservative in their movement yet dances with just as much authority. The music begins, and the man at the head of the line begins his dance. Behind him the red and the blue start as well; although their dances match up, they are dancing to different music in their minds. The ballet continues, but it is slow and lagging, and although the show is beautifully and flawlessly done, people begin to doze off waiting for something to happen. All of a sudden there is a step out of place by one of the two colors; the dance falls out of order, and both sides rush to gain footing where it has been lost. The more they attempt to right their dance and organize themselves to fix the show, the farther out they get. Within minutes, the sides are a jumbled, squabbling mess. Now the audience sits up, as the ballet begins to progress much faster, although nothing is

Zirpolo 2 actually happening quite yet. The lead dancer, previously trying to remain in harmony with the two quarreling columns, abandons this effort and surprises the crowd by beginning his own show. Separate of both sides, he engages in a fanciful twirling, so fast and so elaborate that the blue and red on his outfit seem to blend together into a swirl, and no one can tell what color he is anymore. The two lines of dancers are too busy squabbling; they cannot see that their leader is stealing the show! However, the stress of doing the show alone soon gets to the lead dancer, and as he makes mistakes the dance grows sloppier, and the fighting behind him grows more and more vocal as they begin to realize what he is doing. Desperate to finish his show before the dancers make a move, the leader leaps onto the judges table! Shocked, unsure of themselves, the judges have no choice but to signal him to continue! They flash scores of 10 all around, too shocked to do something! The dancer bows and returns to his fumbling dance, but by now the others have caught on. They pursue him around the stage, blocking him at every turn! The red dancers doggedly pursue him, while the blue dancers try to help him finish, but the combined effect simply creates chaos. The lead dancer continues to pirouette and prance until he has backed himself into a corner, and there is no escape. As the dancers move in on him, determined to put a stop to his one-man show, the curtain falls.

All is silent in the auditorium.

Zirpolo 3 Then suddenly, the curtain springs up, and a team of dancers, all colored in magnificent red white and blue, take the stage! They are not divided, they are not in disharmony. They dance together, beautifully and gracefully, and the audience recognizes not a single familiar face from the old dance. All the judges score the performance perfectly, and the audience stands and applauds. It turns out all the show needed was a change of characters to run like it intended in the first place.