That's not so weird. Male ballet dancers aren't pansies: it takes a lot of training and a lot of upper body strength to dance. Maybe Jim got into it sort of by accident, like helping out a girl he was sweet on when he was about 12 years old, and he discovered he had a talent for it. Of course his dad kicked him out when he found out what his son was really doing with his evenings, but by then Jim didn't care.
Of course, this meant he never joined the army, never got lost in Peru so the whole Sentinel thing never really kicked in for him. It's there - that hypersensitive touch and his way of picking out the tiniest subtleties in music is part of what makes him such an amazing dancer. But it's never gotten to the point of being a problem for him. The real problem with ballet is you have to retire young. By the time you hit 30 or 35, no matter how hard you train your body just can't do it any more.
On the tour that's going to be his last, Jim's company plays a week in Cascade. It depresses the hell out of him because he hates coming home under these circumstances. But backstage after the first performance he meets this hippie anthropologist who apparently talked his way backstage because he's dating one of the stage hands. Jim goes from annoyed to tolerantly amused in about fifteen seconds, and at the end of the first minute he asks the guy to dinner. What the hell, right? You only live once.
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That's not so weird. Male ballet dancers aren't pansies: it takes a lot of training and a lot of upper body strength to dance. Maybe Jim got into it sort of by accident, like helping out a girl he was sweet on when he was about 12 years old, and he discovered he had a talent for it. Of course his dad kicked him out when he found out what his son was really doing with his evenings, but by then Jim didn't care.
Of course, this meant he never joined the army, never got lost in Peru so the whole Sentinel thing never really kicked in for him. It's there - that hypersensitive touch and his way of picking out the tiniest subtleties in music is part of what makes him such an amazing dancer. But it's never gotten to the point of being a problem for him. The real problem with ballet is you have to retire young. By the time you hit 30 or 35, no matter how hard you train your body just can't do it any more.
On the tour that's going to be his last, Jim's company plays a week in Cascade. It depresses the hell out of him because he hates coming home under these circumstances. But backstage after the first performance he meets this hippie anthropologist who apparently talked his way backstage because he's dating one of the stage hands. Jim goes from annoyed to tolerantly amused in about fifteen seconds, and at the end of the first minute he asks the guy to dinner. What the hell, right? You only live once.
(You can write the rest yourself...)