January 17, 2016

The booming sound of Ashley Bowman’s voice over the microphone filled the air of the Cajundome as she explained to the crowd what the sweepstakes award was and the criteria a team needed to meet in order to win it. A silence fell over the crowds in the stands and the dancers waiting anxiously on the floor as Ashley unfolded the papers on which the names of the sweepstakes winners were written. In that moment, all sixty one of my teammates and I grabbed the nearest set of hands and waited attentively for Ashley to announce the division III sweepstakes winner. Everyone in the dome was so unsure of who the winner could possibly be, as told by the previous events of the award ceremony in which the various categories were not dominated by a single team. Sitting on the stage floor, tightly grasping the hands of my teammates, I had never been so nervous and anxious, and I knew the rest of the team was feeling the same way that I was. Just then, Ashley took a deep breath, moved the microphone to her mouth, and said, “And now….The winner of our Division III sweepstakes award is…”

Bzz. Bzz.Bzzz. It was seven thirty on the morning of January seventeenth when I awoke to the relentless noise of my alarm inside the Lafayette hotel room I shared with my mom and my brother. On any ordinary day, I would have had to drag myself out of bed, but not this morning. For once in my life, I sprung out of bed early in the morning because it was January seventeenth, the day of our state competition. I had never been so awake and so lively at such an early hour. I rushed around the hotel room, eagerly gathering up makeup, bobby pins, shoes, hairspray,  and costumes to pack up and bring with me to the competition. I dressed in my brown track suit pants and white Carmelette t shirt and jacket, put on a full face of makeup, braided my hair into pigtails, and rushed down the hallway and into the elevator to meet the rest of the team in the hotel lobby. Once everyone arrived in the lobby, all sixty two girls, plus Mrs. Doran, walked to the Cajundome, which was right across the street from our hotel. I could hear all the nervous and excited chatter that surrounded me on the walk to the dome. All of the girls were talking about which teams she thought would do well and which part of our dances she was nervous to perform. Upon entering the cajundome, the entire team sprinted to retrieve our section in the stands that we reserve almost every year for the team and our parents. Once our section was reserved and clearly marked with a litter of brown and white bags, we all ran to the dressing room to prepare for the rest of our day.

Our first dance of the day was jazz. Then came pom, hip hop, novelty, and jai ho. Jazz, pom, hip hop, and novelty all looked so amazing on stage. It was the most amazing feeling in the entire world to see the final product of our countless hours of practice come together so beautifully on the stage. Then the last of our dances to take the stage was jai ho. All sixty-two of us were in this dance and it was by far the best out of all of our team dances. In the dressing room, before we took the stage, all I could hear was the sound of Mrs. Doran’s voice rushing us to change quickly muffled by the jingling sound of our costumes every time one of us moved. Walking back stage, all sixty-two of us were feeling the same emotions. We were all filled with nervousness, excitement, adrenaline, and anxiety. As soon as we all filed into the straight line at the back of the stage the gym fell silent. I guess the sight of sixty two girls in a horizontal line across the back of the stage looked pretty intimidating. As we waited for our music to begin, I could hear the nervous breaths of the girls standing on either side of me. Just then, the speakers began to boom with the sound of our bollywood style music and the first group of dancers began to move into formation. Soon enough, we were all dancing in perfect sync with each other. Our technique was flawless and we kicked, leaped, and turned to the beat of the music. I was having the time of my life down there on the stage and I never wanted it to end. Before I knew it, we were in formation for our ending pose. The speakers blared the last “Jai Ho!” and we all hit our ending poses. I had never been as proud of my team than I was in that moment. I knew we nailed the dance when I glanced around at the crowd to see parents, other teams, and even the panel of judges rising from their seats to applaud our performance. In that moment, I had never felt so accomplished and so proud to be a Carmelette. When we finally exited the stage and returned to the dressing room, there were hugs being given everywhere and tears being shed as a result of the flawless performance we had just given. Upon returning to our section in the stands, we were greeted with more applause and cheers of encouragement. I never wanted that moment to end.

The award ceremony at a dance competition is the most anxious time of a dancer’s life. This award ceremony, in particular, was one of the most anxiety filled events I have ever experienced. Sitting on stage, surrounded by all of my teammates, I heard nothing but silence even though the dome around me was filled with loud chatter, cheering, and music. The director of the competition, Ashley Bowman, suddenly began to speak into the microphone. She began by congratulating all of the teams and thanking everyone, spectators and dancers, for coming to the competition. Then, she began to announce the awards. Beginning with the division I and division II categories, Ashley read off the list of names of the teams and the awards that the team received. When she finally reached the division III category, I could hardly breathe. I was so nervous yet so excited to see how our hard work paid off. The worst part of it all was awaiting our name to be called. We squeezed each other's hands a little harder after Ashley moved up from fifth to first place awards, hoping to not hear our names until the very end. In the jazz, novelty, and pom, and hip hop categories, we received second place. It wasn’t the first place wins that we hoped for, but we were all so excited. We also knew that we had one dance left to be scored, and that Ashley still had to announce the sweepstakes winner. When she arrived at the open category, which included Jai Ho, Ashley proudly announced that we had one first place, and the team went wild. We only fell silent to listen to the most important award of the night: the sweepstakes award. In order to win this award, a team’s two highest scoring dances are combined into one, big super score, which must be the greatest of all teams at the competition. We all squeezed hands and bowed our heads down, awaiting Ashley to announce the winner. A million thoughts ran through my head in this moment, and my mind only went quiet when Ashley began to speak. She slowly raised the microphone to her mouth and said “And the winner...of our Division III sweepstakes award is...Mount Carmel Academy Carmelettes!” The entire team was suddenly on their feet, but just as we stood up, e immediately fell back down to the floor into a huge dogpile of sixty two girls. We cried, screamed, cheered, smiled, and hugged until the maintenance staff had to force us off of the stage because everyone was leaving and we were the last team on the floor.

I had never in my three years of being a Carmelette been so proud to be a part of such a wonderful team and group of girls. We were so proud of all of our hard work that we had put in all year long. I couldn’t believe that we had just won state. It all felt so surreal. January seventeenth was a day that I will absolutely never forget. The feeling of being a state champion with all of my best friends/sister was a feeling like no other that I will always cherish for the rest of my life.