Dancing the Night Away at Cotillion 2022: Viva Las Vegas!

Bass-boosted music, a photo booth, poker tables, and hundreds of students. This was the scene at the 2022 Sophomore Girls’ Cotillion.

Greeted by excited mothers, girls in dresses and their tuxedo-clad escorts poured into The Ballroom at Bayou Place on the evening of January 29, excited for a night filled with dancing, chatting, picture-taking, and card-playing. 

Organized by a group of volunteers, Girls’ Cotillion is an established tradition among Houston independent high schools, going back several decades. There are two main cotillions, both including a dinner and dance: one organized by mothers from Kinkaid, St. John’s, and Episcopal High School, and one by mothers from Duchesne, Houston Christian, Lamar, Second Baptist, St. Agnes, St. Francis, and Memorial High School. Each grade celebrates separately (i.e. Senior Cotillion, Sophomore Cotillion, etc.)

Essentially, girls from each high school class ask a boy to be their escort, flipping the script on the traditional expectation that a boy ask the girl out. The girls’ parents generally orchestrate the night, beginning with pictures at someone’s house, then dinner at a restaurant like Ouisie’s Table or Fleming’s Steakhouse, the dance afterwards, and sometimes an after-party. Black party buses zooming around downtown are a common sight, as dozens of teens, each of whom will carry forward special memories of this event, rush to the event before the doors close at 8:30. 

The theme for this year’s Girls’ Cotillion was “Viva Las Vegas!” With aerial silks and card dealers galore, the ballroom was transformed into the popular casino city. Students danced and gambled all night, and the experience, as sophomore Kaveen Shah expressed, “was unforgettable!” 

The Sunday after the event was filled with excited chatter about the event, hundreds of posts from the dance, and reminiscing about the night.