2010-11 BlazerDancer Team Announced
Portland Trailblazers
7/20/2010
Congratulations to the 2010-2011 BlazerDancers! The sixteen dancers who make up the squad were chosen from thirty three finalists who have been auditioning for the past week to make the team.
The audition process started with a weekend of preliminary rounds where dancers learned and performed three routines for judges with cuts being made after each routine. Judges included Trail Blazers representatives, professionals from the dance community, former BlazerDancers, journalists and fans. The judges were looking for well-rounded performers to represent the Trail Blazers organization.
By the second day, the field was cut down to 33 finalists, including eleven returning BlazerDancers who were all competing for one of the 16 spots. The finalists spent the next week going through interviews with Trail Blazers representatives, practicing the 3 finals routines that they learned, and creating a solo routine to perform at the finals. When the dancers arrived for the finals at the Winningstad Theater in Portland’s Center for the Performing Arts, they were surprised with an additional dance to perform and only one hour to prepare for it. Luckily, this was a free-style “hot time-out” dance that didn’t require any choreography, but instead was meant to showcase the dancers’ personalities and their ability to have fun and play to the crowd.
After performing five routines, the judges’ scores were tallied and the audition process was over. Unfortunately for the dancers, they had to wait 24 hours to find out whether they had made the team. The next day, each dancer came to the Rose Garden and found out individually if she had made the final cut by finding a BlazerDancer uniform in her locker. Once a dancer got the good news, she joined the rest of her excited teammates.
This season’s squad includes eleven returning dancers, two dancers who were on the team in previous years, and three rookies. The Trail Blazers are happy and proud to introduce you to a group of young women the fans will come to know very well. [Photo Page #1] [Photo Page #2]
