Three local ladies on Timberwolves dance team

By Eric Hagen, Staff Writer
ABCNewspapers.com
October 5, 2011

Of the 12 members on the Minnesota Timberwolves Dance Team this season, two are from Andover and one is from Coon Rapids.

Alisa Hetrick graduated from Anoka High School in 2008 and is now a senior at the University of Minnesota working on a major in communications.

Mayem Metzger graduated from Coon Rapids High School in 2009. She is attending the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and is majoring in psychology and minoring in sociology and family studies.

Amanda Zulegar graduated from Andover High School in 2010 and is now a full-time student at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. She plans to transfer to either St. Cloud State or University of Minnesota and major in psychology.

This is the third year for Hetrick and second year for Metzger on the Timberwolves Dance Team. Zulegar is a rookie.

The team practices every Tuesday and Thursday evening for two to three hours depending on how productive the sessions are, Hetricksaid. The 12 ladies make multiple appearances at promotional and charitable events. Some were at the Minnesota State Fair. There are upcoming marathons they will be attending.

But they will not be performing at any NBA games in the foreseeable future until team owners and players can reach a collective bargaining agreement and end the lockout. The first game they performed at was Sunday evening (Oct. 2) in Game 1 of the WBNA Finals between the Minnesota Lynx and the Atlanta Dream.

The team’s coach Natalie Alvarado was a dancer for the Houston Rockets during the 1998-99 season, which was shortened by the last lockout, so she knows that the season could begin at any moment. Therefore, the team continues to practice and will be ready for a game whenever the lockout is lifted.

“It’s obviously discouraging to know that they have not come to an agreement, but we’re all optimistic,” Metzger said. “We still have practices and appearances and hope that something will be worked out.”

They all noted that outreach in the community is as much a part of their job as are dancing routines at NBA games. Each of them are expected to sign up for as many appearances as possible during the season.

Metzger said she always had a passion for dance, but one of the reasons she wanted to be on the Timberwolves dance team is to be able to do outreach in the community. She liked being at any event last year where there were kids. Fund-raising events for cancer research such as the Relay for Life in Blaine were also very important to her because her uncle died of pancreatic cancer in 1998.

One of Hetrick’s favorite events was when the team performed at a half-marathon at Lake Nokomis this past August. The runners and their families were very receptive and energizing throughout the event, and the team was able to dance on the stage to the music the band played.

Metzger and Hetrick were two of six dance team members who traveled to China for two weeks in early September. This was part of an eight-week outreach cosponsored by the NBA and the China Mobile Communications Corporation. The Timberwolves dancers made appearances with the Washington Wizards mascot at three universities. They danced four routines they had learned during the week-long tryouts just before the China trip, and they signed autographs.

The team was able to do some sight-seeing at a Buddhist temple, Family Temple, a historical garden and a tomb. They also were able to dine on the local cuisine. What stood out to Hetrick and Metzger was how fresh the food was. Hetrick tried a bunch of different foods and was not always aware of what she was eating, but she did not try the food if she recognized it as something she would not willingly eat.

“If it had a head on it, I didn’t eat it,” Hetrick said.

Hetrick loved seeing the culture of China as well. American culture tries to modernize everything, but the Chinese hold onto their rich traditions, she said. A Moon Festival was going on while the team was in China, which is a popular lunar harvest festival celebrated by the Chinese and Vietnamese.

The team made an appearance in Paris, France, in the fall of 2010 when the Minnesota Timberwolves played an exhibition game against the New York Knicks, but the team did not have the chance to do a lot of sight-seeing on that trip, so Hetrick was happy to be able to get out of the gym and see the country for the trip to China.

“It’s a great experience,” Hetrick said. “I obviously love to dance and perform, but to get to travel around the world with the dance team and friends is completely different than any other teams I’ve been on.”

How they got here

Any dancer must try out every year, including returning veterans. Zulegar estimated there were about 75 people when the tryouts began. After two rounds of cuts, the group got down to about 20 dancers.

The remaining dancers went through a week of boot camp to learn new routines for the upcoming season. Throughout the week, the coaches kept an eye on each of the ladies to see who could be a valuable member of the team. The week culminated with a performance at the Treasure Island casino.

Even though Zulegar was mindful that this performance was a key part of the audition, she was not very nervous because the dancers’ friends and family were able to see the show, which made it feel like less of an audition.

Zulegar was confident in her abilities after going through a few of the prep classes the Timberwolves Dance Team put on before auditions began, she was still shocked she made the team and was brought to tears.

“There was a lot of competition, a lot of girls on the same level of skills,” Zulegar said. “I honestly had no idea whether I’d make it or not.”

There have been 16 dancers for most seasons, so 12 is a low team number, Alvarado noted. Most dancers are from the Twin Cities, but there is a dancer from Orlando, Fla., one from Iowa and one from Wisconsin. Alvarado said it is not rare to have three team members who grew up in the same area.

Hetrick and Metzger had known each other before trying out for the Timberwolves Dance Team last year. Both danced at Stage Door of Performing Arts in Coon Rapids.

Zulegar was at Dance Fever in Andover and Studio One in Ramsey, so she never met Hetrick or Metzger. She attended the same high school as Hetrick — Andover High School — but they were separated by two years. Zulegar danced on the high school dance team during football season only during her freshman year. Hetrick never joined the high school team because she wanted to concentrate on the dance studio work.

Zulegar later found out that Hetrick’s parents live close to her parents. It is pretty cool for Zulegar to think that three of the 12 Timberwolves Dance Team members grew up so close to each other.

“It shows that this area has some pretty good dancers,” Zulegar said.