Attend a Dance Class with the Redskins Cheerleaders

By Moira E. McLaughlin
Washington Post

Hopefuls at the 2010 Redskins Cheerleaders Auditions Finals

There are dance classes, and then there are dance classes with the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders.

“It’s a little intimidating,” says Ena Bermudez, 30, who attended her first class in 2006 and is now a Redskins Cheerleader Ambassador.

From Thursday through March 24, you can be intimidated, too: Redskins cheerleader coaches host open classes to help women prep for the team’s real cheerleader auditions.

Not all the women in the classes intend to audition. Some come for one class; others go to all. Take Dawn Washkewicz, 28, who has a background in studio dance. New to the D.C. area in 2005, she decided to check out a class to make friends.

“I wish people would come just to see how fun it is,” says Washkewicz, who is still friends with a woman she met at that first class.

Washkewicz later auditioned and has been a Redskins cheerleader for three years. “The prep classes were essential to me to understand the level and intensity of being on the field,” she says.

The classes, which include 20 to 70 women ages 18-35, start with short dance sequences, including leaps or twirls. You do the moves together and then individually across the floor. Stretches follow, and most of the class is devoted to learning a complete dance routine.

“Everyone should have a basic background in performing,” Bermudez says. The women in the class generally have a background in dance or cheerleading and are fit and toned.

Technique, however, is not everything. “the look” matters just as much.

“A lot [of women] show up in dance clothes and yoga pants with their hair pulled back. They don’t have ‘the look,'” says Bermudez. To fit in, wear a sports bra, dance shorts and tan dance shoes (tan elongates your foot). Have your makeup on and your hair down. (Tossing your hair is part of the choreography.)

Look “glamorous,” says GeNienne Samuels, 35, was a Redskins cheerleader for eight years. The class vets “always come in looking very polished and sure of themselves.”
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Of course, if you’re not intending to audition, achieving “the look” may be a little less important. Regardless, wear something you’re comfortable in, preferably fitted, and understand that many of the women around you will be going for “the look.”

“It’s still tense because you know that people are watching you, but I found that girls are willing to help you, too,” Samuels says. “I was comfortable once I got into it .. . . [And the coaches] want girls to come in and be successful.”

Even if you don’t have the right skills, the classes will afford you a behind-the-scenes look at Fed Ex Field. You’ll pass the players’ tunnel on your way to the mirror-filled dance studio at the park.

The most important thing to remember, says Samuels: “Come with an open mind.”

Where is it? FedEx Field, 1600 FedEx Way, Landover. Park in Lot B-1, enter through the South Field Tunnel and register and change in the cheerleader locker room. Must be 18 by April 1. If not 18 until after prep classes begin, a parent must sign a waiver.

When is it? 7 and 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Thursday through March 24. The 8:30 class is typically less well attended. Routines are different at every class.

How much is it? $25 a class.