Fort Wayne Madame Ants Alicia and Emma take a spin at pro cheer in the NBADL

Fort Wayne’s Madame Ants of the NBA-D League team are comprised of women that run the gamut across a range of experiences and dance studios. This is exemplified by Alicia and Emma, both with years and years of training, but both needed to learn new aspects of pro cheer/dance. For instance for Emma, dance started in high school after growing up in gymnastics. Emma explains, “It is completely different because we turn opposite ways in gymnastics. (Coach Melanie) says, ‘No, you have to turn the other way. And you have to do it on the other leg,” Ugh!” In contrast, at the age of three, Alicia started dance training with Madame Ants choreographer Tiffany Winling. So Alicia should have no trouble transitioning to the Madame Ants, right? “I was kind of scared at first,” Alicia explains. “I don’t do gymnastics, I don’t do cheerleading, I dance. For time outs, we have to go out and dance with poms; that’s not my thing. I like choreography. All of the free style? No. But it turned out more fun than I thought.” Being part of the Madame Ants has provided both Alicia and Emma the chance to experience new aspects of dance, make new friends, and look to the future for further expansion of their dance horizons.

Emma’s gymnastics training covered 18 years, and she only started dancing during her sophomore year of high school. Emma’s high school started a hip hop group, and Emma had always danced at the school dances, and people encouraged her to try out. At auditions, Emma recalls, “I was asked, ‘Where have you danced at?’ ‘Does my basement count?’ It kind of went from there; I ended up running the hip hop team for a couple of years.”

Emma is in her second season with the Madame Ants, and was encouraged to try-out by, “My old dance coach, she just thought it would be good for me,” Emma explains. “What really made me to come back (for season two) is it really is a fun thing to do. The crowd is always nice to talk to, especially the kids when we do the clinics. The main motivation is experience to move up dancing.”

Fort Wayne native Alicia also was encouraged to try-out, as Alicia laughs, “My dance studio owner that I have known since I was little is the choreographer, and she kind of made me. And I knew (Madame Ants coach) Mel beforehand.” And being part of the Madame Ants provided Alicia a chance to do something she had never done before, “This is the first time I have seen basketball,” Alicia says. “Game one.”

And not only are Madame Ants like Alicia and Emma at the game, but for most of it, the squad is sitting on the ends of the court, right near the action. Sometimes, too close to the action. Emma explains, “Last season, I was landed on a few times and sometimes the refs step on you as they run by. I almost had my head taken off with a basketball. I don’t know where the pass was supposed to go, but it wasn’t near a player. Down here, usually the closer to the basket you are, the more in danger you are.” This season, Emma is further from the basket, so less interactions with the action for her. As Madame Ants coach Melanie laughs, “We like to switch it up for accident prone opportunities,” and Melanie and Alicia are closer to the basket this season.

Emma’s biggest sports fan-hood is for NASCAR, and she always roots for the Lowes drivers like Jimmie Johnson because her dad worked for Lowes “forever.” With some Southern roots, including a lot of family in Kentucky, Emma has also lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and says, “I love Texas. The people down there are nice. The steaks are amazing!”

In the future, Emma would like to study criminal justice, either case working or at crime scenes. Meanwhile, Alicia is studying to be a math teacher at Fort Wayne’s University of Saint Francis. Coach Melanie likes seeing Alicia breaking the mold of a dancer with a mathematical side also.

During this spring season, does all of this spring break activity remind Emma of any particularly fun spring breaks? “Because of gymnastics, I never had a chance to go on spring break, until last year,” Emma recounts. “My family’s ‘happy place’ is the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando; I have met the lead singer from Quiet Riot there, I’ve met Van Halen, Deep Purple.” Since the hotel is on-site of Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, known for their Harry Potter extravaganza, is Emma a Harry fan? “YES!” replies Emma. “We went down there right after it opened, and I was there an hour before the park opened.” Once the gates opened, they told the guests not to run, but, shh, don’t say anything, but Emma may have taken off at high speed. “If they had a Lord of the Rings place, I would never leave,” Emma says.

Both Alicia and Emma would like to further their dance careers, and the possibilities are endless, whether it be NBA dreams like their Mad Ants hoops counterparts or other dance venues. For Alicia, her rookie Madame Ants season may lead to more in pro cheer, saying, “I really like doing this but I have to finish school first before I decide.”

Emma also is contemplating next steps. She is a huge Miami Heat fan and likes their hip-hop style, but also won a radio contest last fall to dance on stage with Britney Spears during the song, “I Wanna Go,” at her concert in Indianapolis, which made Emma think of back-up dance/video opportunities.

Last season, when the Madame Ants performed at the Pacers game, it gave Emma a chance to feel that NBA atmosphere. “I had (perfomed at a Pacers game) before with my studio, and so it was not as nerve wracking for me as for everybody else,” Emma recalls. “At the same time, it is so fun to be on that different stage. It gives you that look into, if I did NBA, this is the kind of crowd I would be dancing in front of. More adrenaline, in my personal opinion. The more people, the more energy. For our sold out game, after we were done with dances, I did not feel tired. I did the exact same dances the exact same way, but you don’t feel tired because everyone is screaming, yelling, or clapping.”

But during this past season, both Emma and Alicia just concentrated on enjoying the experience of being Madame Ants. For Alicia, her favorite part has been spending time with new friends. And spending time with Melanie and Emma better be enjoyable, because they not only spend Madame Ant time together, but the three of them support a local recording artist as backing dancers, so they spend twice as much time together. So they can enjoy spending time together as their heads spin trying to keep so many dances straight for their multiple projects, learning as Melanie says, “crash course choreography.”

But dedicating so much of their time to their various projects shows the dedication and love that Alicia and Emma have for all of their interests, particularly dance, and despite coming to the Madame Ants from different directions, both are using their experiences to assess their future goals. Whether it requires changing what direction they spin, and adding a little free-style to their repertoire, Alicia and Emma demonstate that the “development” in the NBA-D League also applies to dancers, who can develop their skills, maybe even to pursue their own NBA dreams.

We profusely thank Alicia and Emma for sharing their time and memories with UltimateCheerleaders, and their lead dancer/coach Melanie for all of her help. Plus many thanks also to Mad Ants Team President Jeff Potter and Director of Communications and Operations Heidi Busch for all of their assistance! And, of course you want to see more photos of Alicia and Emma during the March 18th game against Erie, right, so here is a link.