The lyrics of the song we were dancing to were positive and catchy.

We dance together/We laugh together

You’re a good friend

We dance forever/We laugh whenever

Never will it end

We exploded into our routine, dropping down to the floor and then springing back up in a fraction of a second, the way Vanessa trained us to do. We mirrored each other’s steps perfectly. It was like we were different extensions of the same body, controlled by one brain. We had the routine down. Now was the time to have fun with it.

We made eye contact with one another, smiled at one another. It was no longer just about the judges or about the audience. It was about us, dancing and having fun. And it was contagious. More people from the audience stood up and danced along. And I could bet anything that underneath that fancy white tablecloth, the judges were probably tapping their feet too.

Speaking of feet, I was so caught up in the fun we were having, I’d already made it past the footwork routine I’d needed to improve. And I couldn’t believe my ears, but the audience had learned the catchy chorus and was singing along with it. My heart tingled. It was an amazing feeling. When I looked at Trina, she already had a tear glistening in her eye. No huge surprise there. Trina was obsessed with every sappy holiday movie in existence, which she watched on her laptop with a box of tissues. But the song wasn’t over. There was one final move, and we needed to be clear-eyed and tear-free to pull it off without injury.

It was the crisscross leap move. Lily, paired with Megan, and Trina, paired with Riley, had to—in two diagonal patterns like an X—cross each other’s paths in midair and inches apart. They’d start off with a running leap, which was a lot harder than it sounded. Also, their pacing and leg extensions had to be timed right to pull the move off without knocking into one another. Not to mention, I had to time my move perfectly or I’d mess up the entire sequence. I would be doing my signature spin center stage, while moving from the back of the stage to the front. The trick was to use the music breaks as cues.

I danced my way to the back of the stage, where I positioned myself for my epic whirl-a-twirl. Trina, Lily, Megan, and Riley were at the four corners of an imaginary square, ready to take the leap. There was the musical cue! I started spinning, spotting the floodlight at the end of the ballroom while my body twisted to set each spin in motion. The trouble with turning this fast was that you were not aware of the things happening around you. I didn’t know if Lily and Megan had leapt into each other, or whether Trina’s eyes were too blurred with tears to be perfectly in sync with Riley. All I felt was the activity onstage. There was even a rush of wind on either sides of me, most likely kicked up by the run-up to the leap. But as I got to the front of the stage, the crowd erupted with this joyful amazement. That’s when I knew.