Stories

The Dancer by Nguyen Quoc Thanh

Sometimes, while walking down the busy streets of Hanoi, Chi feels how people are staring at her. At those moments, she just shakes her head gently so her fringe swings away from her glasses with thick plastic frames, and walks on. Her steps look like a dance. She is just 15. Some day, she believes people will admire her. She will be a star.

When you are 15, suddenly everything is different. You move to another school and it's not easy, because nobody you know from your old class is there with you. But you have to always be good, so your parents would allow you to do things that you are really interested in. Such as hanging out with friends. Chi likes school though, it's a real challenge and she studies hard. Physics for example. How many kind of frictional forces are there? How can you decrease the strength of the forces? How could you possibly decrease the pressure of being a 15 year old girl, who has independence beyond her years?

Chi's family moved into this house five years ago, but her parents don't really live there. They live in Berlin, Germany. Chi only sees her mom, dad and her younger brother once a year during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. Or when she chats with them via webcam on weekends. Sometimes her father comes visiting. He is really proud of his oldest daughter, although he doesn't seem to know how to deal with this situation. Would his daughter like to join her parents in the future? But to live in Berlin is such a strange idea right now. Without all her friends, familiar foods and far from places that she likes to go to.

On a sunny day after school, Chi went to a small tailor shop in Ton Duc Thang street, where a boy called Tiep was already waiting for her. He is a leader of the hip hop dance group that Chi joined 6 months ago. He treats Chi like his younger sister. Today they completed the new clothes for an upcoming competition. This will be Chi's first step to fame.

‘’Look, this is not moss green like your green” - she pointed at the slogan in Tiep's t-shirt. ‘’Don't you think those should match? And moss green looks definitely better!” The slogan on Tiep's tshirt read SLICK. It's not just another slogan on a white tshirt. SLICK is the name of their dance group.

After the tailor shop the two headed to a popular teenagers pizza bar. The place was filled with the rythems of their role model Justin Timberlake singing , ‘’My love”. How could you have one girlfriend in Hanoi and one in Saigon?” Chi teases Tiep. She wants to have a boyfriend too, somebody who would dance hip hop with her.

By the time darkness fell and the warm yellow street lights came on, Hanoi got gridlocked with thousands of people getting home on motorbikes and cars. Lenin plaza seemed to exist at another time and space, so packed with hip hop dancers, breakdancers and skaters. The music was loud and the dance steps were intense. SLICK was part of that young, vibrant universe. Chi was practicing with Huyen, another girl from the group. The girls looked as though the world outside didn't exist. When Chi dances, she only feels how the music makes her blood flow faster in her veins. She wants to dance all night.