Kalasko Milan edges Maria Russell
I met Maria Russell in the summer of 2000 at Pakington village while fishing. I always enjoyed playing music while fishing …. as I listened to my soothing Chinese music there came this blond Russian girl with blue eyes just like the skies.
She caught my attention at once. She asked me why I was listening to Chinese music, and I told her it helps me close out of the world and focus on my world.
For some reason, she started moving her beautiful body around as she asked me, “Shall we dance? I told her I would like the idea, but I am not good at dancing, and no one has ever dared me to dance so if you don’t mind leave it alone.
She insisted, said now more than ever am asking you to let me help you. Not knowing what I was ahead I gave in to her request.
As the music played, she asked for my hand …. With my body trembling she held my right hand and put it over her left shoulder and the other around her waist. Now at this time, I didn’t know what to expect anymore.
Slowly, we started moving around and over. It felt strange yet it was a whole new sweet adventure for the country lad who enjoyed fishing. Not too long I picked an interest in dancing and who wouldn’t with such a beautiful Russian girl?
One day as we were coming back from fishing, we picked a flier for a dancing competition. She asked me are you thinking what I am thinking, I told her NO.
She said yes you are, and we are going for it, if I had trembled before now, I froze. I asked her how we are going to pull this off more so with me as shy as I was… she held my hands while facing me as she told me “Trust you queen my king” again I was left speechless, but I recall saying that whatever you do please count me out.
As days went by, we started practicing our moves with my Chinese music playing which had fallen in love with. Slowly by slowly, Maria Russell discovered the dancer in me, and sooner than later we went in for the local auditions where we were declared winners.
As we drove home, I asked her what she meant by “my king” …. she looked me in the eyes and said I have never met an innocent boy like you…. I told ok leave it at that.
We went for the regionals and later to state finals where we were declared winners in our category and now it was time to prepare for the Nationals Grand Finale. Everything went as we planned and by this time, we had fallen in for each other.
The morning of the mornings came, and Russell was at my door by 5 am because we had to take a long drive to be at the Capital Center by 7 am.
Like any other normal day, we got to the road …. but we had this neighbor called Kalasko Milan who was doing a solo dance.
A beautiful girl who always looked at me with a keen eye but all we said to each other was hi, as we were driving out, I saw Kalasko I stopped and asked her to enter the car since we were going to the same place. All our journey she never said a word till we reached the Capital Center then she said, “Thanks guys”.
We entered this huge Capital Center Auditorium and man it was huge. We took our seats but shortly Russell steps out for Ice cream.
Now it was winter, and this was an annual event which is always held once a year during the winter season as part of the Christmas and New Year Festive events.
As I sat in my seat dance after dance, group after group, and soloist after soloist came up the stage, boy it was good with all different kinds of dances from Ballet to salsa to capoela just name it.
The sound of the drums was something I had never seen or heard before. Inside me, I was wondering how we are going to do our dance. But one consolation I had was that no single person had a similar dance, and our dance was something new to the competition.
Not long Kalasko was called and oooh boy she was good. But now I had started worrying …. Russell was nowhere to be seen. I called her number, and she didn’t pick up, I tried to look for her, but it was all in vain.
And now the hour came, and the announcer called “William Barthez & Maria Russell”. I stood and looked around thinking she would appear somehow but never. In shame, I started moving to the stage with my eyes closed, and all of a sudden, I had someone holding my hand … to look back she was Kalasko.
She told me “This is one annual winter event; you are my neighbor, and I can’t let you down … I always saw you practice with her; I love Chinese music and am also Russian! …. One thing I ask of you, just imagine you are with Russell and let me do the rest”.
As we reached the stage the announcer said sorry for the mistake it’s William Barthez and Kalasko Milan, we started on a high note with these Chinese soothing chains playing. Before I knew it the judges were up and as Kalasko moved me around the whole crowd stood up shouting “Go Barthez Go Kalasko”. It was the best moment of my life but inside I said where was Russell? We ended our dance with a kiss which was never in the script, off the stage I asked Kalasko why she did it. She told me I want the trophy and the prize money in our hood.
We emerged winners in our category and Kalasko also won the solos. Two days after the event Russell sent me a message apologizing, I told her you knew it’s an annual event what happened to you my dear, but she never replied. The next time I saw her it was summer, but I did not know what to say or do. She said, “Will I don’t know what I did but just forgive me and we move on, I was fooled and am afraid of not knowing what you are thinking of me now”.
I told Russell that my mama told me if it’s an annual event then never miss it for anything more so if you have a role to play. But I will always be grateful Russell taught me how to dance and Kalasko won the accolade and today many people and groups adopted our Dance.
The dance will never end, as we seat under the palm tree at our beautiful beach house Maria Russell is asked to Dance.