The dance team for MLS Chivas USA is in midseason form! Click here to check out photos from their home game on 4/21. For this game, they wore their brand new promo dresses, which are stinkin’ adorable and were a big hit with the fans.

Click here for more photos from the game!

The 2012 ChivaGirls! Back row (left to right): Traci, Denise, Sarah, Melissa, Brittany, Chandra, Alex, Maryedith, Cynthia, and Lucy. Front row: Cameron, Mekayla, Ashley, Natalie, Andi, Brandy, Sujan, Shauna, and Whitney.

It’s March, and the Major League Soccer season is well underway. The ChivaGirls, dance team for Chivas USA have hit their stride. With only two games under their sparkly belts, they’ve experienced both the highs and lows of pro sports entertainment. The home opener on March 11 was a blast. It’s always exciting to get back out there after a few months of hiatus. The girls mingled with fans before the game, signing autographs and taking lots of pictures. They also performed two short dance routines on a stage outside of the arena. Their performance at halftime was a real marathon, with a kickline, individual introductions, and a full out routine to Flor Rida’s “Good Feeling.” The crowd’s energy was up and all the girls were riding high after the game.

Game two was six days later, on St. Patrick’s Day. All week long, local meteorologists broadcasted dire warnings about major storms over the coming weekend. (This being Southern California, “major storms” consist mostly of some rain and maybe some wind, but around here it’s a BIG deal.) It was cloudy and cool during the pre game rehearsal. All of the ChivaGirls were bundled up, until they got warm enough from dancing to peel off layers of scarves and sweatshirts. No one said it, but they were all thinking about how cold they were in sweats, and how much MORE fun the weather would be once they ‘d changed into their uniforms. Spandex has many outstanding qualities, but warmth isn’t one of them.

When it was time to go out and meet the fans, the girls marched out with their chins up. Not a one of them complained as the signed autographs for fans who were bundled up in blankets, hats and scarves. The girls just kept smiling and while the wind flipped their skirts around and blew their hair every which way.

We are very very very cold.

It was cloudy during rehearsal. It was cloudy before the game. It was cloudy during pre-game. And it was cloudy as the girls headed out for halftime. But everyone was jazzed because we’d escaped the big rain storm. The halftime performance was a novelty dance to “Shake Your Groove Thing.” There were some cartwheels involved in the choreography, and no one had looked forward to cartwheeling on a muddy soccer field in the rain.

About to take the field for halftime. Poor unsuspecting dears.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature was in a snarky mood that night. It started drizzling just before the girls took the field, and turned into a full on downpour during their routine.

And then just as they hit the ending pose, the rain stopped.

I don’t think it rained again the rest of the night. How fortunate we were that the sixty-second rain storm took place entirely during the ChivaGirls halftime performance. But these girls are pros. The photos don’t tell the true story. Yeah, there are rain spots on their uniforms and a little stringy-ness to their hair, but otherwise you can’t tell at all they were freezing their pom poms off the whole night. Good times, ladies. Good times.

In the meantime, watch the dancers strut their stuff for the judges at Tuesday night’s final audition.

Tonight, a truly outstanding group of dancers will put it all out on the dance floor, in the hope of making the team. I’ll provide photos, etc in the next couple of days. But for now, I want to wish each and every young lady the best of luck.

Here they are (minus Whitney and Sherra, who I didn’t get photos of at Sunday’s interviews. My bad.)

Alexandra, Stephanie, Kyra, and Traci

Alyson, Lauren, and Mekayla

Ari, Sonia, Cameron, and Denise

Ashley, Bernadette, Merria, and Sabrina

Chandra, Andi, and Sujan

Jenny, Melissa, Maryedith, and Cynthia

Joanne, Brittany, Brandy, and Natalie

Lucy and Dani

Tina, Shauna, Sarah, and Simmone

BIGTIME thanks to Will for sending the link the this video he produced the year before last.

Looks like fun, doesn’t it?

Woohoo – can’t wait! If you’re not sure, why not give it a go anyway? If nothing else, it’s a free dance class with John Peters, who is friggin’ awesome.

Click here for details.

What to expect from this year’s auditions:

Check out some highlights from the 2011 season:

In case you hadn’t noticed from the banner in rotation at the top of this page, ChivaGirl auditions are coming up soon. January 21st to be exact. (Write it down. Circle it in red.) Those of you who have been with us for a while, know that the ChivaGirls are one of my very favoritest teams. Favoritest. Yes. That is what I said.

Over the past several years, I have watched this program develop and mature by leaps and bounds. It has been an exciting time. This is a team with highest of standards in choreography, performance, professionalism, and costuming. Besides that, they are outgoing, fun, and just a great group of talented dancers. I know this because I’ve spent many many hours with them. All last season, in fact. I hung around so much, they made me their official photographer.* (It goes with my modus operandi: Grab hold and cling like a barnacle until they accept you as one of their own.)

Having said all that, it’s no surprise that I have a vested interest in seeing this team become the very best of the best. The group of women who auditioned last year was the most talented bunch yet, and I hope the bar will be raised even higher in 2012. Seriously, it just keeps getting better.

So here I am, doing my small part to get the word out about auditions.

Did I mention the open call is on January 21st?
Did you write it down? And circle it in red?
(Click here for audition details.)

If there’s anything I can do to attract the most positive, talented, beautiful, committed, and outgoing dancers, I’m going to do it. And I figure the best way I can help is by showing rather than telling.

Below are some of my favorite moments from 2011. (Please click here to check out the entire collection of photos from last season. )

One thing the ChivaGirls do a lot of is rehearsing. Twice during the week, and also before each home game.

Their very first performance as the 2011 ChivaGirls.
The new uniforms hadn’t arrived yet.

Introducing the promo squad! A huge portion of the Chivas USA fan base has roots in Latin America, so it’s important to have ChivaGirls who speak Spanish. In recent years, it has become more and more difficult to find young women who are excellent in both areas: dance as well as fluency in the Spanish. ChivaGirls Director Aimee Edmundson solved the problem by creating the Promo Squad. The promo girls are non-dancing ChivaGirls who are bilingual and represent Chivas USA during both English and Spanish-speaking appearances. The promo squad was a big hit and will definitely be back in 2012. (Pictured above: Alma, Luz, and Gladys)

The ChivaGirls perform two dance numbers before each game, and they rehearse right up until they go onstage.

A shameless cry for attention, but I guess you can’t blame a guy for trying.

ChivaGirl alumni Emi, Mandi, Ariel, and Liz came for the game, and cheered louder than anyone else in the crowd. All four of these ladies went on to dance for other pro teams after ChivaGirls. Emi danced for Tokyo Apache, an NBA-style dance team in Japan. Mandi, Ariel, and Liz danced for the Los Angeles Clippers. Ariel is currently a Charger Girl and Liz is a new mommy.

Hey, I wonder if I could talk Emi and Mandi into coming back…?

The ChivaGirls sign autographs before every home game. It’s one of their favorite parts of the gig.

Brittany especially likes talking with the little ones.

Poor Britt. I don’t think the Hamburger Helper was fully in control of all of his appendages

Sidebar: Does anyone else think the Hamburger Helper is a little…creepy? Notice how they never say what happened to his other finger. And what’s he so happy about, anyway?

The ChivaFighter has moves like Jagger. The crowd went wild.

When you rehearse in a shoebox, sooner or later you run into the wall.

A special game with the Sparkle Cheerleaders

First time wearing the new uniforms without the jacket. It took some getting used to. Everyone was feeling kind of nekkid.

The Fourth of July performance.
Every year, with those wacky hats.
This year I hope to talk Aimee into sparklers and fire batons.

Oy vey, these mashugana tube tops. They looked fabulous under the lights, but hip hop in a tube top? Are you high? With 19 girls on the field, a wardrobe malfunction seemed inevitable. But we pinned those tube tops six ways from Sunday and the number went off without a hitch. Thank you, God.

(Sigh.) Ancell, Jenn, and Linette won’t be back next year, but for the best of reasons.
You can’t be a Laker Girl and a ChivaGirl at the same time.

The girls wore these outfits for the big Chivas USA vs. LA Galaxy game. This is always the biggest game of the season. You should’ve seen the looks on their faces when they got a load of these. But they looked fantastic on the field, and besides, it’s not like they had to wear fruit on their heads.

The funniest thing about these outfits is some of them were “slightly irregular.” Whitney’s outfit was clearly not inspected by #12. One of the ruffles on her sleeve had been sewn clear across the front of the blouse, almost all the way to the other shoulder. I think someone at the factory had a little drinky drink at work that day.

Zumba night! A big group of Zumba-ers arranged to perform at halftime. Aimee threw the ChivaGirls into the mix to make it look more like a production and less like a massive aerobics class. Everybody Zumba!

Several of the home games are “dance nights” when cheer and dance teams from local schools perform alongside the ChivaGirls at halftime. The little ones always have lots of questions for the ChivaGirls.

The 9/11 tribute. Beautiful.

Cam’s first game without braces. Smile!

Handing out candy for Halloween

Every year, for the Halloween game, the ChivaGirls make their own poms to match their costumes. After halftime, they give the poms away to little girls in the stands.

Halloween was also Laura’s last game. From now on, she’s Staff.

From the first game…

…to the last game, it was a pleasure.

So now I have shown you a little bit of what it’s like to be a ChivaGirl. If this looks like a fun gig to you, make sure you turn up at auditions on the 21st!

*I am aware that some of you may be asking yourselves, “Hmm…if she had all of these photos, why didn’t she post any of them on this site?” Ok, I’m sorry for holding out on you, but it was for a good cause. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say that the photos were going to be posted on the Chivas USA site, but then stuff happened, as it usually does. There was an array of technical difficulties that made the situation a non-starter. Hopefully that will change this year. (And if not, I promise to post the photos here in a more timely fashion.)