The float in front of us crawled along slowly as our younger dancers struggled to keep up. The crowd of people lining the streets whooped and hollered as the parade rolled by. My fingers quickly grew numb from carrying our troupe’s banner. Earlier on, we saw other dance troupes performing steps as they walked. Marissa, Taylor, and I quickly decided that it was time for us to do the same. We passed our banner off to our instructor and we stepped forwards to lead our troupe. The three of us quickly debated what step to do before deciding on a simple reel.

“Five, six, seven, eight…”

We launched ourselves into the step, dancing down the crowed streets. Finishing the step, we decided on a new one and continued to dance along with the parade. Performing warmed us up almost immediately and feeling returned to my fingers. The parade ended in no time and we left the people-lined streets behind to go watch one of our seniors perform a solo at Cancun.