Two weeks passed and our replacements arrived from Las Vegas. They were two young dancers who had met for the first time on the plane. I was in shock! We had only two weeks to teach partner work that had taken us almost a year to perfect.

With no additional pay we rehearsed our replacements six hours a day and performed at night. We taught, re–choreographed and guided Sheryl and John through their new dance numbers every day of our last two weeks.

Opening night arrived and we were scheduled to fly to Vegas the following morning. This time rather than performing, my partner and I sat in the audience with the Producer, feeling like expectant parents.

The show began. It was rough, but I thought the dancers did one helluva job. As the curtain fell the Producer leaned over to me and said, "They were unacceptable, we're not letting you go."

I laughed, taking his remark as a ‘joking compliment' and headed backstage to give corrections and encouragement.

The day of our departure arrived. We said our good–byes to the other dancers, grabbed our bags, and headed for the International section of the airport. It's funny, I was as excited about going home as I was about arriving.

I handed the agent our airplane tickets, the copies of our work visas and birth certificates.