"She's learning to dress too. I think she's beautiful. Brunettes are much more striking than blondes."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that! I wouldn't call her beautiful, but she certainly is attractive now. Her mother wouldn't know her."
Ilona Klemper's new studio was a remodeled brick garage in the West Sixties. One wall was mirrored, as in a ballet studio, the opposite and far walls were hung with monk's cloth. The second floor, reached by perilous iron steps, was cramped with Ilona's living quarters, two dressing rooms, and an office.
"My goodness, how does the studio get air?" Lucy asked practically.
"From a fan over the door and windows behind the drapes. The windows only can be kept open at the top because of the neighborhood kids. They watch and make fun of what's going on if they can look in," Vida explained, laughing.
She noted that Ilona's pupils and friends had drawn away from them to buzz about Lucy whose seductive, well-cared-for appearance made her a creature from another world. They rail against Broadway but are thrilled she is here, Vida thought. Lucy spied Ilona talking to the pianist and waved. The teacher and three pupils were clad in long tight gowns of grey sateen, slit at one side for leg room.
"What's going on?" Lucy asked.
"The première of a new dance. Alfred Vent composed the music," Vida said.
"Who's he?"
"He's from Arkansas but has been living in Paris. He says American culture stems from the Indians—just as Picasso's painting stems from Africa. He composed a modern city symphony for nine percussions and a fire siren."
Lucy eyed Vida suspiciously but her face was expressionless.
"Is that what Ilona is going to dance?"
"No, he composed something especially for her dance—it's called 'Oestrus'—which she says is a synthesis of American culture stemming from the Indian and modern abstract art."
Lucy wished Vida would give her more of a clue. The last time she had discussed the dance with Ilona she had come away completely baffled by her pronouncements and changeabouts which Ilona explained as "finding herself."
