Out girls performed on an actual stage for the first time today, and they blew me away. 

Not because they were perfect — they weren’t; nobody is.

But whenever one of them made a mistake, she just kept on trucking like that was exactly what was supposed to happen — so the mistakes disappeared from view.

Likewise, they all broke out of their shells. Apparently the key to getting this bunch out of their own way is to stick them in front of an audience of strangers (and let them bust some hip-hop moves in the hallway before they go on). We’ll remember that! 

The other team that made it to the show(1) was pretty awesome, too. They did a very different piece than ours, which which was cool. They have a couple really, really good movers.

1. Of the remaining two teams that were registered, one evidently had the wrong address and got hella lost, and the other had a legit flu outbreak, which is not a big shock, since Louahvuhl is more like Flu-ahvuhl right now.

I was also really impressed by the fact that our team wished them luck, cheered for them, and congratulated them, and vice-versa. I can think of at least a few adults who could stand to learn that kind of sportsmanship. 

Anyway, our girls were thrilled, we were thrilled, and nobody went home in tears (not even our dancer who got accidentally elbowed in the nose in the locker room—she got herself together, got back out there, and danced her brains out).

It’s hard to express how proud they made me today. It was awesome to see them rise to this occasion like they did. So, yeah—I think by the time competition season rolls around, they’ll have no problem holding their own.