“Riley, you scared us half to death,” Vanessa quietly scolded her. “Now, I don’t know who this Trey Thompson is, but I’m sure he’s not worth your distraction right now.”
“TREY THOMPSON is worth everything!” Riley shouted. Then she caught herself. “Yes, Vanessa.”
As we waited for the MC—that is, the one and only Trey—to announce us, I subconsciously started jumping in place, Jackie and Miguel style. It was surprisingly a good way to stay pumped yet focused, and work off the false alarm about Riley. Riley joined in, because she no doubt needed to do the same. Trina, Lily, and Megan also joined in, and then pretty soon we all were doing the Jackie and Miguel. Vanessa included!
“All the way from Florida, please welcome, from DanceStarz Academy, central Florida regional champs . . . the Squad!”
WOO HOO!!! THAT’S US!!!!
“Watch your feet,” Trina whispered.
“Be high energy,” Riley said.
We all gathered around in a tight circle to do the ritual we’d made up as a squad.
“Dance!” Trina led the cheer.
Lily, Megan, Trina, Riley, and I all did a little dance move.
“Starz!” Trina continued.
We fluttered out fingers like sparkling stars. Then we leaned into a huddle and said:
“Squad!”
I guess we were riding on the coattails of the group we followed, because the applause was still going and more energized than I’d expected. But it only served to pump us up even more!
In a straight line, we strutted out, spotlighting with our profiles to the huge audience. We proceeded, each with one arm extended and held straight in the air above our heads, keeping our index fingers pointed to the sky. Our other hands rested steadily on our hips, our elbows pointed outward. Step left, step right, step left, step right.
The illuminated stage backdrop came into full view. It was a beast—larger than life. It was possibly three stories high or more. The image spread across the massive stage was a sophisticated illustration of New York’s world famous buildings. Above that was the official event logo, followed by—in fancy lettering—
WELCOME TO THE 44TH ANNUAL NATIONALS!
Awesome! Vanessa couldn’t have dreamed this up better herself. The backdrop was perfect for our dance, and we hadn’t even planned on it! So lucky!
Because our new dance theme was: NEW YORK, NEW YORK!
When we reached center stage, one arm still in the air and the other still on our hips, we pivoted in sync and faced forward. I caught a glimpse of the size of the crowd. Whoa! I didn’t know if I had ever been in front of such a huge audience! EEP! Thankfully, I immediately recovered from my surprise and flashed a broad smile. There were stage lights in our eyes, but the sea of people seemed to go beyond the horizon line.
The crowd cheered out of sheer curiosity. That’s when we lifted our other arms into the air too, and began to join all our sky-high hands to form differently shaped peaks. In each peak, the taller person kept their finger pointing up. When it registered with the audience that we in our shimmering slate-silver bodysuits and tall arm peaks were New York’s skyscrapers, they roared with applause. We held the pose until the bass dropped and started thumping.