Rex, Beckanne, and Josh, a boy dancer we've haven't met (but who is black! Minorities do exist at Ballet West!) discuss how Katie's coming back from Idaho tomorrow. Beckanne makes it all about her and how much she's missed Katie, and Rex is like, unless she's been having sex with you, I think I miss her more, wench.

In Idaho, Katie says she's excited to audition and tells us again that auditioning is expensive and she has to pay for all of it herself. She comes into a crowded rehearsal room and all the barres are full of bitchy, territorial Idaho dancers. She goes through the audition and does not seem thrilled with how she did.

Back at Ronnie's apartment, he mentions how he misses his family. He calls his sister, Sher'ron, who he says is his best friend. The more I see of Ronnie the more I think those enormous muscles and sperm tattoos hide a bottomless well of crazy. He also has a tattoo (of starting flags, I think?) behind his left ear. I would think visible tattoos would be a professional liability for a dancer, no? It's not like all those leaping princes in iridescent tights are expected to have major ink.

Katie calls Ronald. She's been offered an apprenticeship in Idaho but isn't sure if she wants to accept. I can certainly understand trying to decide between job offers, and the difficulty of being separated from loved ones, but it strikes me that most people these days would grab at any job, especially in the arts.

At rehearsal, one of the boy dancers we haven't met is doing chest presses using a girl dancer as his barbell. I used to do that with my youngest brother. When he was three. Roslyn Anderson is the Petite Mort choreographer, and as Adam explains that this is a ballet for the 21st century, and it's very adult, we see that all the boys are performing wearing only tiny shorts. It is here that I should point out that in French "petite mort" literally translates as "little death," but the idiomatic meaning is "orgasm." Ronnie says that it's a very sexual and sensual ballet, and then Rex hilariously says that part of what makes this work difficult is the swords. No, wait, the actual swords. The boys all have fencing épées. Ronnie helpfully points out that he thinks the swords are stand-ins for penises, because apparently ballet school doesn't include a course on Freud.