This upcoming Sunday, March 3rd, the Boston Cannons Dance Team will hold their auditions in Cambridge for the 2013 upcoming Major League Lacrosse season, which stretches from May through August. Ashley Wagner is Dance Team Coach/Choreographer of the Cannons Dance Team, and always assembles a squad that loves performing on the field and has interesting lives off the field filled with diverse interests and careers. If you want a glimpse of what it is like to be on the Boston Cannons sidelines at Harvard Stadium, last season, four of the members filled in UltimateCheerleaders about their feelings about being on the squad.
Last summer, I met third-year member Cara, second-year members Lauren and Deanna, and rookie Charlene. Cara explained that when she first tried out, “I was just about to graduate college, my friend asked me if I wanted to audition, so it was kind of spur of the moment, and I made it! I have been dancing for twenty years, and I want to keep active. It’s awesome to dance in front of a great big crowd.”
And personal connections are a big part of the Cannons Dance Team. Rookie Charlene said, “I actually danced with Cara in college at Salem State and she told me how fun it was, so I wanted to try out for the team.” Charlene also enjoyed performing on the big stage of Harvard Stadium. “I love performing in front of a big crowd; I love being the center of attention,” laughed Charlene. “My first game here was kind of weird because it was such a Coliseum, and I am so used to dancing on this little square stage. So it was a little weird dancing here at first because you kind of get lost on the field. ‘Oh my gosh! Where am I?!’”
Lauren learned about the BCDT similarly to Cara, and said, “Actually, my friend from college was on the team before I was, and we were on dance team in college together, and then she told me about it.” Lauren continued, “This is awesome especially because I just graduated from school, and it is something you can keep doing for dance. Because after school, you can teach but there is really no performance opportunities, and this is performance.”
Deanna was prompted to initially try-out due to an important unique connection between her college dance team and her pro dance team. “I go to Bentley University Business School, and I am on the dance team there,” Deanna explained, “and Ashley, who is the coach of this team, is the coach of Bentley University’s team. So she mentioned it to us that we might be interested in trying out.”
Was there an advantage for try-outs and the team because Ashley used the same choreography that Deanna learned at Bentley? “Not really,” Deanna replied. “She tries to not use the same choreography, because once you know a dance to a song, you are kind of stuck to that song.”
Asked what she liked about being part of the Cannons Dance Team, Deanna replied, “Definitely the performing. There are not a lot of opportunities as a dancer that you can perform for 13,000 people, eight times a summer. Definitely that thrill is why I came back.”
Part of that thrill is the atmosphere itself of dancing at Harvard Stadium. “Dancing in it is amazing,” Deanna said. “When you get out on the field before the music starts, and you just look up, and it is all these people screaming, and I am in the middle of the field.” Though this can generate some initial nerves, Deanna continued, “But it’s the adrenaline, it’s thrilling. You come back for it.”
Plus, Deanna loved the friendships among the team, and said, “We get along really well. The whole team is really good friends.”
Many of the members of the BCDT I spoke with have been dancing since they were little dancing kids. And those first performances are still vividly memorable, despite the passage of time. Deanna remembered, “I was five, and were called Country Cuties. We had red and white little cowgirl outfits, cowboy boots, and sequins everywhere. I remember the song; I can still sing it to this day. I think I was most nervous for my mom to leave backstage. I said, ‘When are you are you going to leave?! When are you are you going to leave?! Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!’”
Lauren added, “I remember the make-up. You were allowed to wear make-up, which is what made it cool for me.”
Charlene’s mom owns a dance studio, so Charlene dance started at three and includes competing all over the US, and now teaches dance. But Charlene still envies the junior dancers from their Cannons Dance Camp that get to dance with the BCDT. “They get to be on the field with us,” Charlene said. “I think that is so cool. Someone that’s five or six dancing on a HUGE field with the pro dance team!”