When I was in sixth grade, one of the yearbook staffers at Redwood Middle School asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. On first instinct, I replied, “I want to be on TV one day.”
As I grew older and started taking more programming classes instead of participating in school musicals, I realized that being a TV star might not be my lifelong goal. Still, the thought of being on TV excited me, and every time I saw a dancer on “The Ellen Show” or “Dancing with the Stars,” I wondered what it would feel like to be in their place.
But this year while in New York City during spring break, I became the dancer I always envied when I got the chance to dance on the set of “Live! With Kelly and Michael.”
On the day of the live show, my mom woke the rest of my family up at 6 a.m. to go to the filming studio because even though she had gotten priority seating tickets online, she wanted to be the first in line. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll get to see Kelly arrive in a limo!” she said.
We didn’t. But after waiting two hours in freezing New York temperatures, we did get into the show.
Soon after we were seated, the producer of the show asked for “trivia dancer volunteers.”
To be honest, I hadn’t really watched much of the show prior to this. I had only seen clips of my favorite artists and actors on it, so I didn’t really know what was going on. But when I heard they were looking for a dancer, I instinctively raised my hand.
Once the producer picked me from the crowd, I ran down to the stage, standing in a line with three other volunteers, two middle-aged women and a boy about my age who was volunteered by his family and clearly didn’t want to be there. But when the music played, we all started dancing.
After a while of nervous shuffling, I ran out of moves, so I pulled out the classic battement (high kick) and double-pirouette that I learned in my 10 years of dance training. When the audience members saw that I had a few tricks in my pocket, a few of them started cheering me on, hooting and hollering as I proceeded to do some more stylistic choreography (more like whipping and dabbing).
When the music stopped, the producer asked for the audience to vote by cheering for their favorite dancer. I don’t know if it was because I was the only Asian 15-year-old in a sea of white middle-aged women or because I had some cool tricks, but in the end, I got the job: I would take the highly coveted position of “daily trivia dancer” for one minute on national television. Jumping up and down, I was so excited that I couldn’t keep my feet on the ground.
With a unerasable smile on my face, I was shuttled backstage by one of the employees who told me what I would be doing. But honestly, while she was giving me these instructions, all I could think about was if singer Charlie Puth was behind one of these dressing room doors.
But before I could ask to get my autograph and picture from Charlie, I was told to go onto the stage to wait for my screening time.
My heart raced as Kelly walked onto the other stage. As I listened to her introduction of her temporary co-host Fred Savage, I couldn’t help but think that I could mess up and fall flat on my face, which I do pretty often.
But when the cameraman positioned one camera in front of me and began rolling, I just smiled and danced.
With the spotlight and stage all to myself, I felt as if everybody had eyes on me. And in that moment, I became what I have once dreamed of becoming — a TV star.
Before I knew it, my 20 seconds were over, and I was pulled back to reality as the screen transitioned to commercial.
During this short break, I was handed a selfie stick and was told to “dance with it” by one of the stage managers. I had never watched the show, so I didn’t know I was actually supposed to press the button and show the selfie view.
But because I didn’t press the button on the selfie stick, instead of getting selfie footage, they got a wide shot of me holding the selfie stick while doing high kicks. The show quickly faded my shot to hide my ridiculous, unbalanced dancing. But like they all say, “The show must go on.”
When the camera started rolling again, I began doing some of my overly dramatic lyrical moves to Charlie Puth’s “One Call Away,” dancing through another 7-second shot.
And just like that, it was over. I breathed a sigh of relief as my heart rate resumed a steadier pace, and then returned to my seat where my older sister and parents congratulated me on my television debut.
I left the studio that day feeling excited because I had just danced on national TV, accomplished because I had fulfilled my childhood dream and a tiny bit disappointed because I never got that darn autograph from Charlie Puth.
Nevertheless, even after “Live! With Kelly and Michael” show fades from everyone’s memory, I will never forget the time — 30 seconds to be exact — I had fulfilled my sixth-grade dream on it.