She gave up everything to lace on practice shoes and stand at the barre.

"You are quite good, you know," the people around her said, but she screamed, "No no no no!!!" inside her own head for compliments were not what she was after.

She was after the next dance, the next haunting song that lifted her up beyond no toenails and aching ribs.

Someone whispered "diva" when she asked to try again, but she turned off her hearing to humans voices.

She traced her marks…