A Time for Dancing by Davida Hurwin

“Friends to the end- but does the end have to come so soon?”

Imagine if your best friend was diagnosed with cancer. That the cancer infecting the inside of your “second half” was so far gone in the stages that there was no cure and that no matter what you did, you’d soon have to say goodbye.

In Davida Wills Hurwin’s novel, A Time for Dancing, Sam and Jules have to deal with just that. Having met at a young age as rival dancers, the stark opposites quickly become two peas in a pod. Literally. Everywhere Sam goes, Julie follows and vise versa; not to be together would mean the death of the other. Both girls are devoted to becoming professional dancers when they grow up and are training rigorously at their dance studio to achieve their goal. One day during practice Jules collapses to the floor clutching her hips and back. At first, doctors tell Jules that she has probably torn a ligament, but the pain keeps increasing. After numerous doctor visits and dozens of different diagnoses, a specialist named Dr. Conner discovers Julie has a type of cancer called Diffuse Histoicyric Lymphoma. Without missing a beat Jules is sent straight into chemotherapy in an attempt to stall the cancer and cure her illness.
Her family starts acting weird and being around them makes her nervous. To make things worse, every time she goes for chemo therapy she has to look forward to two weeks worth of throwing up, sleepiness and grogginess as side affects. Time flies by and she ends up not even being able to complete junior year exams resulting in the possibility of her having to repeat the grade. As Jules is going through all the difficulties of dealing with the medicine and chemo, Sam is struggling at school. Without her “one and only”, life doesn’t seem to have any meaning anymore. Dance class is different, school is boring and her relationship with Julie seems to be going down. Due to the treatment and the sleeping side affect means that her messages and calls left for Julie are left unanswered. One day, after many months of non returned messages Sam walks into her friend’s house to find Julie bald. I thought this part was horrible. I’ve often tried to imagine what it would be like to have cancer, since my grandmother had breast cancer not too long ago. She lost her hair and I never saw her without it, but to go through that as a girl or woman would be so awful. TI have a hard time deciding if I’m going to cut my hair four inches or not and struggle with the idea of loosing so much hair at once. To wake up as Julie did with clumps of her hair on her pillow upon awakening would send me OVER THE EDGE!! I thought it was really sweet how Samantha acted like nothing was wrong and ignored Julie’s bald head in the story. Sam ends up convincing Jules to buy a wig and get out of the house so she can continue on with life.Sam wants Jules to go to a party with the new hair, but Jules is totally against it. Regardless of her protests Sam forces her to eventually go. Upon arriving at the party Sam is pushed to the background because of the “celebrity” appearance of Julie. Jealousy and distance creeps in between them when people who weren’t supportive of Julie before become Julie’s new best friends, succeeding in leaving Sam out in the cold. Eventually Jules quits chemotherapy and is able to force some new found energy out of her wasted body to attend dance class again. She arrives on the day of try-outs for “The Little Girl’s Dance”. It tells the story of two best friends who are growing up and saying goodbye to their childhood and each other. Jules and Sam get the part and perform it for the dance company’s showcase. They dance it beautifully and the audience ends up being emotionally moved by their touchingly personal performance. I was definitely crying here because this was the last chance for Jules to dance in her life and in a way the dance ends up being their last big goodbye to each other before Jules dies.
The showcase pushes Jules over the edge and she has to go back to chemo, but by now the cancer has spread into almost all of her body. On the morning of the dance company’s flight for the LA dance tour, Sam gets a call over the intercom while waiting in line for the plane security check. Julie’s mom is on the line and asks Samantha to come to the hospital to say goodbye. This book moved me by the display of Sam and Jule’s intense, enduring friendship. I can’t begin to imagine how it would be to say goodbye to my one and only. I was extremely impressed that even at the end Jules fought for her right to live and Sam continually fought beside her by supporting her choice to do so. Sam helped Julie enjoy her last moments to the fullest and never abandoned her, which, in my mind, is a true friend. The message the novel portrays really makes the reader think and ponder about the length one has left on this earth. One must always appreciate friendships because no one really knows when the end must come.