Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Ballerinas, Champagne Bars & Dance Clubs
    Ballerinas, Champagne Bars & Dance Clubs
    Ballerinas, Champagne Bars & Dance Clubs
    Ebook207 pages2 hours

    Ballerinas, Champagne Bars & Dance Clubs

    By Paul Stansby

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    the first four parts of a dance series. Takes part around South Manchester and Cheshire. A Ballerina comes over from Russia with the intention of setting up a possible business along with her friends , younger dancers are coming up through the ranks and their dance careers are fading. Upon arrival in the UK she meets with her friend at Manchester airport who she met a while ago in St Petersburg.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPaul Stansby
    Release dateAug 7, 2020
    ISBN9781005561314
    Ballerinas, Champagne Bars & Dance Clubs

    Read more from Paul Stansby

    Related to Ballerinas, Champagne Bars & Dance Clubs

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Triffic Tenby

      May 24, 2022

      Triffic Tenby
      4 min read

    • Article

      Triffic Tenby

      May 24, 2022

      Triffic Tenby
      4 min read

    • Article

      A SONG for Europe

      Feb 20, 2020

      A SONG for Europe
      3 min read

    • Article

      STRIKE IT RICH ... With This Gem

      Oct 15, 2020

      STRIKE IT RICH ... With This Gem
      7 min read

    • Article

      Murray River Pubs Part Two

      Oct 21, 2021

      Murray River Pubs Part Two
      6 min read

    • Article

      We Got This!

      Jan 13, 2022

      We Got This!
      14 min read

    • Article

      Overland CORNER HOTEL

      Aug 14, 2019

      Overland CORNER HOTEL
      6 min read

    • Article

      Right Place Wrong Time

      Dec 10, 2017

      Right Place Wrong Time
      4 min read

    • Article

      Postcards from Europe X

      Sep 21, 2022

      Postcards from Europe X
      13 min read

    • Article

      Benji Webbe

      Dec 7, 2021

      Skindred ruled British festivals in 2021. From the Download pilot to Bloodstock and beyond, the Welsh ragga-metallers were a resounding highlight (in a run of notably homegrown line-ups), building on a long-standing reputation for having more fun wit

      3 min read

    • Article

      Jaffa, Israel.

      May 3, 2019

      Jaffa, Israel.
      3 min read

    • Article

      Lippy From The Liffey

      Nov 11, 2021

      Lippy From The Liffey
      3 min read

    • Article

      Craig Hassall

      Aug 4, 2022

      Craig Hassall
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ladies’ Night

      Aug 15, 2023

      Ladies’ Night
      5 min read

    • Article

      Salty & Satisfying

      Sep 5, 2017

      Salty & Satisfying
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Different River

      Jan 16, 2019

      A Different River
      9 min read

    • Article

      Armatree HOTEL

      Jul 17, 2019

      Armatree HOTEL
      6 min read

    • Article

      Raise A Glass

      Jan 2, 2020

      Raise A Glass
      4 min read

    • Article

      Hitting the WRONG NOTE

      Aug 16, 2023

      It is Sunday morning at Chateau Dear, and I am sitting at the kitchen table with many bits of paper and a pocket calculator. I am trying to make sense of the Ladies’ Cricket Club accounts, for which I was volunteered on the grounds that Mr Dear is th

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Alchemist

      Apr 29, 2024

      The Alchemist
      7 min read

    • Article

      Learning Samba In Rio

      Jan 18, 2022

      Learning Samba In Rio
      7 min read

    • Article

      MY PICTURE ONTO The World

      Oct 18, 2019

      MY PICTURE ONTO The World
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Ballerinas, Champagne Bars & Dance Clubs

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Ballerinas, Champagne Bars & Dance Clubs - Paul Stansby

      © Paul Stansby

              Falmouth UK,   

                2018         

      Ballerinas,

      Champagne Bars

        & Dance Clubs       

              In four Parts 

      Fiction

      Previously titled Bubbly Ballerinas

                    Part One

        Arriving in the Uk

      Chapter One Manchester Airport
      ‘Olga, Hi.'

      ‘Al least It’s warmer than Russia here at the moment Serena, seems be a very rainy place, so this a provincial airport in the UK, it’s a very grand affair. I’m just taking a coffee after the flight, flying was five hours, getting to the airport then getting on it took two hours, then changing at Brussels, immigration here was one hour.’

      ‘Its got a lot bigger this airport as the population has grown at a fast rate.’

      ‘Flying used to be a lot easier. So you’ve found me a large building surrounded by bourgeoise types and its only four miles from here, unbelievable.’

      ‘It’s very large.’

      ‘Expensive?’

      ‘Can be, the owners are flexible, used to be theatre, now it’s a Vodka Bar, some irony there.’

      ‘Oh yes we Russians have got our foot in the door, keep the vodka bar and add a champagne bar, a stage would be even handier.’

      ‘That may take some adjustment Olga, you’ve a rich uncle, daddy, admirer?’

      ‘Oh I’ve many admirers, not sure on their financial status, otherwise not’

        ‘There’s a possibility of a business arrangement with the jewish community which is large in this area to finance your idea and may have interest.’

      ‘Even better, there’s strong connections with ballet and the Jewish people, not forgetting great Jewish Ballerinas of the past, so maybe this is the place, I’ve looked in London and there’s not anything suitable below a 10 million investment and that’s just for the renovation.’

      ‘I’ve found you a chic hotel.’

      ‘Ah, chic means expensive to me, and my diminutive compensation can’t stretch to that, you know anybody with a big house who would like having a famous ballerina staying.’

      ‘I know somebody who’s a little wacky.’

      ‘Ah, how wacky?’

      ‘Smokes grass, lives off Chinese food, worked in entertainments for twenty years, knows ballet and opera well and has a car.’

      ‘Does he have a spare room and a kitchen?, We dancers do not do English Breakfast, and space for some practice bars.’

      ‘He does, single, he’s kinda of old, often away, but he’s here at the moment, but it’s rather a crash pad, lots of space.’

      ‘Ah fantastic as I need ‘to crash’, as you say in English, preferably before I become the wreck in this case, the clock is counting and It will soon be forty  on the clock for me, dancing is an art and similar to  your famous football clubs of this place as in the players only have a good ten years if they’re lucky,.’

      ‘Manchester does have history of football, there’s some theatres here too.’

      ‘Ballet is very specialised and needs a following, a great art that needs bringing into the twenty first century so its more available and accessible.’

      ‘So the idea of a Ballet type of follies set up. Oh yes, Liverpool is near too.’

      ‘Ah yes, they played last month in Moscow, so this is a land of football up here which will make a good location for they’ll be some added affluence.’

      ‘You can crash on my sofa tonight and check this guy’s place tomorrow if you wish.’

      ‘I do wish. I’m Russian so as you say ‘a tough cookie’, so a little roughing it is not a problem. Ah a photographer.’

      ‘Is that okay, he’s from the Manchester Evening News.’

      ‘Oh yes, I’ll just get my coat and hat off and flick my hair back, I don’t get photographed much nowadays.’

      ‘You’ve a glamorous history.’

      ‘Oh yes, I was at the top for a while, the premier ballerina of Russia.’ 

      ‘There’s looks to be a journalist as well.’

      ‘Good, ah, I’m a blast from the past in Russia, so here, who knows, I’ve had nothing named after me so little known to the English.’

      Chapter two Next Morning

      ‘Lets go along to this guy Olga.’

      ‘Oh yes I was awake along time watching Netflix, excited, do I get to see this place you’ve suggested.’

        ‘It’s close by so yes.’

        ‘I’ll just make us both a coffee you want a shower?’

        ‘Please, you’ve a shower cap, I’ve thick Russian hair, great in winter hell in summer.’

      ‘So, there’s all your gear when you come over?’

      ‘Ah yes, the future, I’ll just keep it over there in Moscow in case this doesn’t work and if it does it maybe for a year or two as the novelty wears off, plus all the other possibilities especially with these attractive athletic girls who come over there’s always men wanting to sweep them off their feet other than the dancers in our routines.’

      ‘I believe there would be, the shower cap is in the airing cupboard as are the towels and shower gels.’

      ‘Yes there’s no liquids allowed on these planes, terrorists are a damn nuisance, I have some great perfumes, alas in Russia.’

      ‘Make-up.’

      ‘Oh yes, that would be terrific, good to be perfect.’

            An hour later

      ‘We’re walking?

        ‘Oh yes, I’m just ten minutes from the centre Olga.’

      ‘I’ve not seen one of those before, an Aston Martin Garage, very bourgeoise, that’ll impress the dancers, puts a dimension into a spin.’

      ‘Its just along here.’

        ‘I can see it I think, that’s big.’

      ‘The other side is theirs too so they could move the vodka bar as it’s empty down to the coffee shop at the end of that block.’

      ‘I see a lot of those over here, it’s a greek name over an English cafe.’

      ‘Its works well’

      ‘It’s coffee, a lot of profit like the vodka,  Ah that place doesn’t look so big.’

      ‘It’s huge behind just a small entrance for the Vodka bar.’

      ‘I guess so, so where’s this guy.’

      ‘Behind and across the car park.’

      ‘Really, very handy for travelling as it’ll saves hours each day; for me it used to be a walk to the train, then get off the train, after catch a bus then walk to the theatre in Moscow, though St Petersburg is far better.’

      ‘You’re?’

      ‘Moscow.’

      ‘So lets see this guy he’s……….?

        ‘Stu, short for Stewart.’

      ‘Ah as in that American cartoon series, the girls watch it, that’s how we all speak English so easily ogling the American TV .’

      ‘We cross here and through that tunnel.’

      Five minutes later at Stu’s door.

          ‘Ah, you’re exotic looking.’

      ‘More so in Ballerina costume, not one for spinning round a pole just on stage, pirouetting.’

      ‘There’s a lot of money in nightclubs for those willing to do so.’

      ‘I’m Olga, a famous ballerina, I have some DVDs to bore you with.’

        ‘I know who you are, hi Serena.’

      ‘Is it safe in here?’

      ‘Oh yes, the respective hoodlums have been bundled back to their dwellings and wives.’

      ‘Oh yes, the wives feel safe when their men go out with him cause they get so wrecked they’re totally incapable.’

      ‘Good stuff, Serena?’

      ‘Oh yes Olga, removes their speech mostly and real bla bla is uttered, we can come in?’

      ‘Oh yes come up.’

            They go in and up the stairs

      ‘This looks good and spacious, you’ve space for bars I see.’

      ‘Yes the table folds up, so they could go there. I’ve already folded the dining table up so you could measure. I eat off trays anyway.’

      ‘I can see a huge TV screen at one end, very good, I can put some mirrors on the walls.’

      ‘Why not.’

      ‘There’s a good sized kitchen, soup maker, panini type grill, microwave, all fitted units, very good, the ovens are clean too.’

      ‘So the bedrooms?’

      ‘Just further along, all ensuite, fitted wardrobes, down lights on dimmers.’

        ‘All right, lets have a look, very palatial, try the bed, oh yes a lovely mattress’   

      ‘TV in the room, spacious ensuite, entry cam on the front and backdoor to view by the bedside.’

      ‘Excellent, very exclusive residence, wife or girlfriend?’

      ‘Ah no.’

      ‘Superb, keep it that way, one night in here and they wouldn’t want to leave Stu, so anything else?’

      ‘Bathroom’

        ‘Why with three ensuite’s? Or just for visitors but there’s a WC off your hall’

        ‘Jacuzzi, Sauna, airing cupboard, clothes washers, drier and ironing board’

      ‘Oh right, and you’re here for how long?’

      ‘Three to four months’

      ‘Yep I’m more than happy Serena, just see these guys about this bar come brasserie proposition now’

      ‘That’s him too.’

        ‘Ah, right.’

      ‘Your Ballerina follies bar, though not quite the right term to describe it’

      ‘Folies Bergere is a reputed entertainment place’

      ‘More Moulin Rouge I think’

      ‘Maybe Serena, I think Bubbly Ballerina is a good name for this venture so a definite French influence as it’s referring to champagne, so theme nights once a week to toast these famous Paris establishments and honour some of the prestige names that been in residence there.’

      ‘We’ve not a lot to toast in Russia, we’ve had a turbulent 100 odd years’

      ‘What’s bubbles in French language.’

      ‘Bulles.’

      ‘Really, that doesn’t work Serena, only one B.’

      ‘Paris would be better, but it's very crowded and working there is difficult for we’re not EU and all of us speak Russian and English, or American English, South Park, that what as thinking of, the girls watch that.’

      ‘You’re lost in France without French, a lot of them know English but let you carry on in very bad French.’ 

      ‘Yes with internet they will learn a lot of English no doubt.’

        ‘Uh huh, Ballet is a word originating from French as well, though originating in Italy the French kings promoted it, nowadays I’m surprised Paris has still the only the two iconic places as its city of love and to celebrate one’s love would be in such establishments.’

      ‘Bubbly Ballerinas Bars is good for here Stu, Russia has the best dancers, but you’ve Ballet Rambert though English, the founder was Polish and  gained the majority of her experience in France.’

      ‘That company has been here, sometime in the Sixties.’

      ‘Oh it has Stu, so this place has or had a stage?’

      ‘It did.’

      ‘Can you reinstate it?’

      ‘No, Olga’

      ‘Ah.’

      ‘It became to small for present day productions, the stage that is.’

      ‘Yes, not enough width I would think, for ballet at least, you’d have to spin the building around and go backwards or just go backwards and put the cars underneath it, not our concern.’

      ‘No and you don’t need any more theatres in this area.’

      ‘No Serena, though this was very accessible compared to the other new places.’

        ‘In a bourgeois area too, okay. but you reckon this could work, I do, a new form of Follies with a strong Ballet influence.’

        ‘Its all dance.’

        ‘Indeed, it is Stu, but with finesse, feeling and expression to music created by geniuses.’

        ‘Count me out there, I’m not on the genius level of life, roll over Leonardo time for you to do another spin with these spinning Ballerinas, lots of spins with you guys.’

      ‘They’re pirouettes as I said, or simply turns Stu.’

      ‘Oh yes. pirouettes, more French, and you do them one leg of course. Great name for a drink, a Champagne Pirouette a Pointe’

      ‘Investors, Stu.’

      ‘Ah yes the cash, these could become a new style of nightclubs for the over thirties, where the ecstasy is got from the dance floor as you feel the dance empower you as opposed to down your throat in a pill, I’d prefer the first anytime.’

      ‘That is actually what we fell like on the stage, possessed and empowered by the wonderment of our craft.’

      ‘I know Olga, for me too when I watch the Ballet, I worked with you guys many a time, not you Russians though, my knowledge of Russian is two words, hello and goodbye, oh and cheers.’

      ‘Ah, this would be go well In Russia after smoothing out here.’

      ‘It would be good anywhere Olga, exploit Ballet for the masses and remove the eliteness associated with it.’

        ‘It does rather, going to the ballet is posh.’

      ‘Expensive as well Serena and that’s before you get to bar and wallop back a couple of flutes of champagne or gin and tonics for the less sophisticated.’

      ‘So the money?. I’m liking this apartment of yours two wide singles in the rooms as well’

      ‘You could easily have your colleagues along. Yep, we can see these guys for your project this afternoon, unless I decide to do it, which I would have been willing to do twenty years ago when I was your age with little thought, so coffee or more coffee most likely, or even to the Vodka bar and slip a couple of those down, they’ve even got French Vodka.’

      ‘I think we’ve overdone France already with Ballet terms and origins, so a Stoli Martini I think.’

      ‘So glad I didn’t bring the car.’

      ‘I’ve mostly given them up Serena as should many others, a good walk is much more beneficial.’

      Chapter Three . The Finance

          ‘ We cross over to the Vodka Bar easily from here  Olga, so as we’re out of earshot from bar staff, Olga Kurovinski, you have a stage name.’

      ‘Yes’

      ‘Any clues.’

      ‘No, but, or I was a top Ballerina, sadly a little too old but at twenty-eight I was ousted out of the company for not ‘towing the line,’ an english expression which sums up ballerinas predicaments.’

      ‘Still somewhat old fashioned over in Russia about protocol.’

      ‘Yes, for some it’s easy to go out with a man, but men repulse me, I am a woman person.’

      ‘That’s understandable, but at the moment you need to keep everybody sweet in Moscow and St. Petersburg somehow, needs some thought.’

      ‘Oh yes, I know this, but there are a lot of girls who at over thirty are not so sought after for shows so I or we would be doing the companies a huge favour by taking some on, reduce the salaries of the companies and the girls would get to get to dance a lot more here.’

      ‘You have your favourites?’

      ‘Oh yes, of course. This Vodka bar is linked to your place or its still yours?’

      ‘It is, rented out though, not long ago it was all one and took live shows and on screen presentations, fifty fifty, but a multiplexes opened up with additional facilities of paint balling, bowling alleys and skating rinks plus huge free car parks so that finished the film showing off then additional theatres appeared in the region so shows dried up as well for they found newer attractive venues, new seats, air conditioning and the necessary facilities for handicap persons that you’re obliged

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1