Essexville woman lands dream job as Detroit Pistons Automotion dancer

ESSEXVILLE — Former Garber High School pom-pom dancer and Michigan State Dance Team member Stephanie Estes is going pro.
By Andrew Dodson
MLive.com
8/20/2011

Last week, Estes, who grew up in Essexville and graduated from Garber in 2004, was named to the Detroit Pistons Automotion Dance Team. The 25-year-old outlasted the competition and scored a position on the team that performs at all Pistons home games and team promotional events.

“I’ve always wanted to dance for a professional team,” said Estes, who found out she made the cut last week. “And it’s great that I can continue my dance career, here in Michigan.”

Estes’ mother Amy Estes said she knew her daughter had potential at the age of 2 to be a great dancer.

“She’s been entertaining us mostly on the stage, but even at home, since she was a little girl,” said Amy Estes. “I just looked at her when she was a little girl and said, ‘That girl needs to go to dance lessons because she has something special.’ ”

So Amy Estes sent her daughter to the Perry Woodard School of Dance in Bay City and later to Miss Lore’s School of Dance in Essexville, where Stephanie says her true potential blossomed.

“Miss Lore’s school was a big influence on my dancing, and I really owe everything to them,” Stephanie Estes said.

After performing as a member of Garber’s pom-pom squad, Estes went on to Michigan State University, where she was a member of the dance team performing at Spartan football games.

She wasn’t sure if she would continue dancing after graduating from MSU with a degree in communications in 2009, so she went on to a career in modeling for the next two years.

Now, as a member of Automotion, Estes says she’s been given another opportunity to pursue her passion.

“At this point, just to be able to dance again after two years off is such an honor and very exciting for me,” she said.

Being a member of Automotion is only a part-time job, but Estes will be plenty busy as she plans to return to school at Oakland University to follow in her sister Sarah Estes’ footsteps and become a nurse.

“She’s good with people, cares about people — she’ll make a great nurse,” said Amy Estes.

Plus, studying at Oakland is much closer to the Palace of Auburn Hills where rehearsals and games takes place, Stephanie Estes added.

For now, the dancer says she’s living her dream, but will never stop aspiring for more.

“I would love to be on Dancing with the Stars, either as a star, or a dancer,” she said. “Either would be good.”