by Ahsan Awan
Sacramento Press

The UFL’s Sacramento Mountain Lions cheer and dance team is set to hold tryouts June 5.

The team’s director, Lindsay Shoemaker, was hired in late April, and has been busy preparing ever since. With preliminary tryouts only a week away, there is still a lot of work to be done. For example, the team needs a name. Cougarettes, Lady Lions, Capital Kittens? “We’ve narrowed it down to a few names, but nothing is for sure yet,” said Shoemaker.

But coming up with a name isn’t the first priority. About 200 women are registered to try out for 32 spots, and Lindsay said she and her assistants have to come up with a routine for the women to learn and perform in one day.

The women on the team will be announced June 12, but first comes a week of interviews and performances in front of judges and fans. “It’s important that the community be involved in the process,” Shoemaker said.

Indeed, the life of a Mountain Lion cheer and dance team member calls for broad community appeal. In addition to two practices per week, and one team workout and physical training session per week, there will be many public appearances. Shoemaker said the team could make appearances every week. “Any time our girls are out in public, they represent the league and the organization,” she said.

According to the Sacramento Business Journal, members of the squad will be paid for the four home games and promotions that they attend. Shoemaker confirmed this, but added that there will be work on behalf of charities, and appearances at schools and other community events.

According to information provided by the UFL, Shoemaker is trained in jazz, ballet, hip- hop and funk. She was a member of the Universal Rhythm Dance Co. and Sheldon High School’s cheer and song team. She also danced for Chico Dance Theater at California State University, Chico, and Sacramento’s Empire Dance Team.

Lindsay Shoemaker. Photo Courtesy of Tanya Atkinson.

Shoemaker worked for Radio Disney as an on-air personality. She also developed a dance group made up of Radio Disney listeners that performed at events including the California State Fair and a number of festivals, and she coached the Sheldon Huskies Junior Cheerleaders.

Shoemaker was the lead dancer and scheduled all appearances as a charter member of The Lipstick Girls and Groovement. She also managed and taught at Get Dancing Academy of Dance in Fair Oaks. Her dancers performed at Paramount’s Great America and the California State Fair.

The Sacramento native has a degree in public relations and communication studies from California State University, Sacramento and currently works for the State of California’s Department of Public Health. She also competes in triathlons and half marathons, and is a football fanatic.

She’s a busy woman with a big task in front of her, and yet the question remains: What will the team be called and who will decide? Shoemaker said, “We’ve thought about asking the community to decide, much like they did with the naming of the football team.”

There’s no official suggestion box, but suggestions are welcome (below).

The Sacramento Mountain Lions cheer and dance team preliminary tryouts will be held at 24-Hour Fitness at 1314 Fulton Ave. (corner of Fulton and Hurley) on June 5 from 12:30-8:30 p.m. on June 5. Registration forms available on the Mountain Lions website. The finals will be held at Cosmopolitan Complex, 1000 K St., June 12 at 4:30 p.m. Lindsay Shoemaker can be reached directly by email at mountainlionscheer@gmail.com.

The Inland Empire 66ers are a minor league baseball team that plays in the California League. They are the Single A affiliate of Los Angeles Dodgers and play their home games in San Bernardino, California. The origins of the organization date back to 1941, but for the last several years the Inland Empire 66ers have fielded a dance team.

Dance teams are a somewhat new innovation to baseball and in California the concept hasn’t quite caught on with our Major League Baseball Teams. Sure, there are squads that do in game promotions and community service, but there are only a few, real dance teams in all of baseball and we are lucky to have one in our backyard here in sunny Southern California.

One of the great things about minor league baseball is that they go the extra mile to create a fun and entertaining environment for the fans. Perhaps it’s the nature of minor league sports, but there are more fun and quirky promotions than in the big leagues. And on this night, the Inland Empire 66ers Spirit Girls turned back the clock to give the crowd that 50’s feel.

Continue reading The Best Kept Secret in Southern California – The Inland Empire 66ers Spirit Girls

Pacemates alongside the Pointer Sisters' Float

Amidst the fun, sunshine, and excitement of attending the 500 Festival Parade in Indianapolis are the occasional concerns that these might be the last moments of life if you are sitting in the front row.  Motorcycle daredevils whizzing past your feet, a horse that seemed a bit TOO nervous, and always (and why, on days with little wind?), helium cartoon character balloons that seem WAY out of control (yes, I’m talking about you Uncle Sam).  But, if I had been squished by a large multi-colored cartoon figure, I would have died happy having seen the Pacemates along the parade route.

Jessica R leads the way along the 500 Festival Parade route

From my seats, the Pacemates, the dance squad for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, walked alongside a float carrying the Pointer Sisters.  The Pointers performed at one the pre-Indy 500 concerts later that night, no doubt Neutron Dancing up a storm.   The Pacemates were in appropriate race week checkered attire, and walked along a parade route on a sunny and a bit hot Saturday afternoon.  The 500 Festival Parade is the state’s largest parade and features all 33 drivers that race in the next day’s Indy 500.

Brittany and Kayla escort the Pointer Sisters

But walking in the parade was the LEAST of the Pacemates’ role in the parade.  For those sitting in the big bleachers at the front, where the TV cameras capture the parade, the Pacemates were part of the big opening musical number, featuring country music’s Laura Bell Bundy.

Pacemates perform in 500 Festival Parade

By Jan Pudlow
FloridaBar.org

Yolyvee Rivera, center, an associate at Richman Greer in Miami, works with the Miami HEAT dance team. Rivera danced with the squad while in law school. Now she volunteers 10 to 15 hours a month helping the team prepare for game days.

By day, Yolyvee Rivera excelled as a third-year law student at St. Thomas University, serving as senior articles editor of the Law Review and making the dean’s list.

By night, she sweated through grueling rehearsals from 7 p.m. to midnight, perfecting spirited routines to rev up the fans at pro basketball games as a Miami HEAT dancer.

Her dual life in 2008-09 combined her two passions: law and dance.

Before lacing up her dancing shoes for her big gig before an audience of 19,600 at American Airlines Arena, she was buckling down with law books.

In the spring of 2008, she’d interned for Florida Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Anstead. From May to August, she completed another internship at Richman Greer in Miami.

Before embarking on a demanding legal career, this classically trained ballerina wanted to “scratch her dancing itch,” so she tried out for the very competitive HEAT dance squad.

Since she no longer worked there and had no idea she’d make the cut from 300 women trying out for the team, Rivera never told her supervisors at Richman Greer.

“The partners are HEAT season ticket-holders, so they figured it out. But I have gotten nothing but support from them,” Rivera said.

She also got the promise of a job after graduation and passing the Florida bar exam and was hired in 2009 at Richman Greer.

Now an associate at Richman Greer in the practice areas of commercial and complex litigation, and family law, 27-year-old Rivera is no longer on the dance team, but still stays involved with the HEAT dancers.

She donates about 10 to 15 hours a month assisting Janine Thompson, director of the Miami HEAT dancers, with coordinating the dancers on game days.

“On game day, we go nonstop from 5 p.m. to 10:30,” said Thompson. “Yoly (pronounced Jo-lee) is extremely helpful and so professional and so sweet at the same time. I have to say, Yoly is the one who has dedicated her time the most out of everyone. She has gone above and beyond.”

Thompson, who was an IT consultant when she was on the dance team, said a lot of dancers are in school or just starting careers, including one dancer in medical school.

In looking for dancers, Rivera said, the HEAT wants to make sure the women have not only the right moves but the right stuff for representing the team in the community at promotional and charity events.

During the interview process, Rivera recalls, she was asked why she thought she could be a positive role model.

“My response was: ‘I am a young lady of character. Not only can I feel I can serve the team, I can show diversity. I am pursuing my degree in law.’ We are not just young ladies who go out on a stage and shake our behinds. We are actually intellectual.”

Dancing since age 4, Rivera grew up in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Every summer since she was 11, she’d receive scholarships to train at prestigious Joffrey Ballet School in New York, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico in San Juan, and at the School of Boca Ballet Theatre.

Not only a classical ballerina dancing en pointe on the tips of her toes, she trained in jazz and hip-hop dance, too, and considers Janet Jackson her dance icon.

While receiving her undergraduate degree in public communications at American University in Washington, D.C., she minored in dance. Her dream to be a professional dancer took her to New York, until she realized how difficult it is to make ends meet in the big city on a dancer’s paycheck and her family so far away.

Rivera wondered what else she could do to make a good living that would incorporate her love for dance, and decided to go to law school, where she wrote an article titled: “Dance and Copyright: Twirling Around the Issues of Statutory Protection for Choreography,” and dreamed of representing dancers in court one day.

Dancing for the HEAT was a part-time job with full-time responsibilities, she said.

“At first, it was so overwhelming dancing in front of such a large audience,” Rivera said.

“I enjoyed doing what I love to do, which is dancing. After a while, it became so easy. Our role was to entertain the audience. I had such an amazing experience as a Miami HEAT dancer. The message I would like to get across is these girls who sacrifice their time are extremely dedicated. It’s a job we take very seriously.”

While her colleagues at Richman Greer have been “extremely supportive with this decision,” Rivera acknowledged everyone doesn’t think it’s dignified to be a scantily clad dancer in tail-shaking routines. But to Rivera, it is an art form and vehicle for self-expression.

“I am aware that other attorneys are not happy with that decision. When people see dancers for the first time, and see the costumes they wear, they automatically, just being natural human beings, think of it as degrading,” Rivera said. “There is a negative stigma about dancers from the NBA. It’s very sad. My goal in this whole thing is to be one of the individuals able to take that stigma away.”

[Yolyvee at Heat.com]

[Cheerleaders/Dancers who are also lawyers]

Here’s what the Prowlers wore for their pre-game performance.

The uniform for the first half.

And the uniform for the second half.

[Prowlers Gallery]

Results from our last poll:

Kate and Amber-Joi show off their moves:

[Dance Club Divas]

Billie O’Hara is the Cheer and Dance Development Director for the UFL as well as the Director of the Florida Tusker Cheerleaders. A former Orlando Magic Dancer, O’Hara has more than 20 years of experience in dance as a performer, instructor and director. A native of Jacksonville, Fla., O’Hara began her formal dance training in 1989. She attended several prestigious dance schools, including the Tremaine Dance Center in Hollywood, Calif. and Douglas Anderson School of the Performing Arts, where she was accepted into the All American College Program at Walt Disney World.

In addition to dancing for the Orlando Magic for four years, she also danced professionally for the Orlando Predators (Arena Football League). She served as a back-up dancer and choreographer for former Backstreet Boys member Phoenix Stone. O’Hara has served on the faculty of the Dance Conservatory of Orlando and Academy of Performing Arts.

[Complete Tuskers Cheerleader Audition Info]

Congratulations to Mallory Mills who is taking over as the Director of the Dallas Mavericks Dancers. Mallory is a seven-year veteran of the Mavs Dancers and represented her squad on the 2007 NBA All-Star Dance Team.