The rehearsal behind the posters

Text C: an original fiction extract.

The posters showed the dance group at its most successful angle: six bodies suspended above the pavement, none of their feet admitting that they would have to come down. For the neighbourhood arts afternoon, the organiser wanted an open rehearsal. Dan had agreed because it sounded like an ordinary practice with a few chairs at the side. Then he saw the chairs arranged in rows and heard someone ask when the show would begin.

He started with the opening sequence. His group knew it well, but the floor in the community room was shorter than their usual space. On the second crossing, Ella reached the wall before her turn had finished. She stopped with both palms against it and everyone laughed. Dan laughed too, then quickly moved the group back to their places. He wanted to repeat the sequence until the audience saw the version from the poster.

A boy in the front row asked why Ella had travelled so far. Dan said the room was small. Ella said that was only part of it: she had started from the old mark out of habit. She put a strip of tape on the floor and tried the crossing again at walking speed. A woman asked whether the tape was normally hidden during performances. The group began explaining how they used marks and counted each other's movements. Dan looked at the organiser, expecting a signal to resume the dancing. She was listening to Ella.

They tried a difficult lift without lifting anyone. Each dancer moved into position while Ella described where her weight would go. From the chairs, it looked like five people arranging to carry a very inconvenient table. Then they completed the lift slowly. A child asked whether being strong was the whole secret. Malik, the tallest dancer, said he had once pulled too early and made the movement harder for everyone. He showed the hand signal they now used before beginning. No visitor was invited to attempt the lift.

Dan noticed that twenty minutes had gone without a complete run. He whispered to Ella that people had come to watch dancing, not a conversation about sticky tape. She asked whether he had heard the woman at the end of the row. The woman had said that she understood why rehearsals took so long now. Dan looked towards her. She was watching the group reset the tape, with more attention than she had given their first entrance.

For the final ten minutes, Dan asked the audience to watch one short sequence twice: first as separate decisions, then at performance speed. When it ended, a girl pointed out the moment Malik checked Ella's hand. Dan had hoped nobody would notice the preparations. Now he asked what else they had seen. The organiser later requested another open rehearsal. Dan kept the poster, but began drafting a description which did not promise that every useful part of dance happened in the air.

You are Dan. Give a speech to your dance group at the next rehearsal, reflecting on the arts afternoon.

In your response:

• explain how the session differed from the performance you first imagined
• consider what you learned from your teammates and the audience
• suggest how the group should organise another open rehearsal

Base your response on Text C, developing its ideas in your own words. Write about 250 to 300 words. Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 10 marks for writing.