Christina Iannelli

From Atlantic City Luxury Magazine

The New Jersey Nets darling dancer has been mesmerizing stadiums full of basketball fans for the past three years

Anyone who’s been to a major sporting event can recall the thunderous-road of the crowd; that strange almost electric feeling that floats with a frenzy and connects every spectator to one another, only working to make our chanting cheers louder, stronger and more primal. Like with any enchantment, there are typically a few figures that lead the bunch, stirring the crucible accordingly, and ensuring that the members of the audience are not only having the time of their lives, but that a similar sort of vigor is invoked in the tame that as about the court the grace of sudden death.

Chrisna Iannelli is on such siren. The New Jersey Nets darling dancer has been mesmerizing stadiums full of basketball fans for the last three years, bringing almost twenty years of dancing to the court. Do not be confused – Iannelli is not just another pretty face. She is a celebrity in the making.

“I’ve been dancing since I was five years old,” being the Allentown, Pennsylvania native. “I started at Dolly Haltzman Dance Academy where I was strictly ballet and tap. I took ballet at Muhlenberg College and the Ballet Guild in Bethlehem. And then I got into jazz and hip hop in elementary school and middle school through the East Coast Dance Connection in Allentown. I would dance to anything that would come on. We have home videos where I will just not get away from the camera! I was constantly putting on a show. I would make my cousins-no, I would teach my cousins a dance and put in a show at all our Christmas parties.”

After a season-long stint with the Philadelphia 76ers after high school, Iannelli transplanted to New York City where she signed with the prestigious Clear Talent Group. Within a short amount of time, the dancer was soon seen on Saturday Night Live, 20 Rock and a Timbaland music video. She also auditioned for the New Jersey Nets, made the team and has been with them for the past two years.

“It’s all very exciting,” continues the young star on the rise. “I want to continue to grow in the entertainment industry, wherever that leads me. It’s had to think about what’s going to happen in the future, tomorrow, or five years from now. The whole thing is, this goal that I’ve had for my entire life-it’s been reached. I wanted to be an NBA Dancer, I wanted to signed to a dance agency in New York City, I wanted to be in music videos, commercials and magazine and that’s all happening right now or has happened. So I just want to keep going forward with it. I’m just so in the moment right now that I can’t even think about the future. I want to keep on this path.”

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