A Decade of Dance: The 2013 P-R-O Convention – Part Two

The P-R-O Convention is the premier professional cheerleading and dance convention and cheerleaders from all over the country gathered in Atlanta, Georgia for two days of intensive dance training and team building.  This year, we celebrate the 10th year anniversary of this wonderful event.   And if you weren’t in Atlanta, here’s what you missed.

The staff of All-Pro3 gave James and I complete access to the convention’s events.  In the second part of my article, we continue our coverage of P-R-O with a report on Sunday’s events.

 

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SUNDAY

I woke up early after five hours of sleep, still suffering from some jet lag induced insomnia.  Or perhaps I was too excited from the previous day’s events to get a solid night of sleep.  Oh well, such is life.  At least I got to order some room service while I reviewed my photos from Saturday.  Best $26.35 I ever spent and a mighty tasty breakfast, indeed!

So after a hot and leisurely shower to work out the kinks in my sore muscles, I meandered on down to the Marquis level at around 8:00 a.m.  I figured that I would snag a few girls as they wandered into the grand ballroom and snap a few photos.  The hour before the convention starts on the second day is usually the best time to do this, as the girls are still feeding off the excitement of the previous day.  Some of them were sore, showing the visible signs of six hours of intensive dance training.  I, too, was feeling sore…the balls of my feet and my left shoulder were killing me…but nothing a couple of advil wouldn’t fix.

At 9:00 a.m., the instructors gathered at the front of the room and ran the girls through a vigorous warm up and stretching session.

 

With the warm up session completed, the organizers of P-R-O did something that I had not seen previously in my four years attending this convention.  They did something called the “lightning round”, where each of the instructors came up to the dais and demonstrated 8 counts of dance.  At the conclusion of the instruction, the girls were expected to perform all the 8 counts learned in this lightning round.  It went by fast and in the end, the dance was furious…and a lot of fun.

The lightning round seemed to perk everyone up and the group dance, a holiday themed routine entitled “Christmas in July”, was up next.

Sunday is usually a day that is all rush – rush.  There’s a lot of routines that still have to be taught and it’s getaway day for most of the girls.  So at the conclusion of the group dance, the girls made their way to the various rooms for the first breakout sessions.  In the grand ballroom, Derric Whitfield choreographed a routine to the song “Wings”.   In room 2, Paige Carter of the Oklahoma City Thunder demonstrated a routine to the song “Blurred Lines”.  In room 3, Kelli Wagner taught a routine to the song, “A little party never killed nobody”.  And in room 4, Stephanie Jojokian led her group in a dance technique class.

Immediately after instruction, the girls gathered in the grand ballroom to showcase the dance routines just learned.

After the showcase, the girls were encouraged to quickly move on to the next round of dances.  It was 11:30 a.m. and there was still seven more dances to learn.

In the grand ballroom, Stacie Kinder from the Titans demonstrated a country theme dance to the song “Done”.  In room 2, a dance was choreographed by Tami Krause to the song “Play it like a champion”.  In room 3, Heather Karberg choreographed a routine to the song “Kickin & Screamin”.  In room 4, Tracy Rutledge led her group to the song “She cranks my tractor”.

As was usual, after the instruction the girls showcased their skills in the grand ballroom.

With the second breakout sessions completed, we broke for lunch.  It was a little before 1:00 p.m. and some of the girls began to filter out of the convention to catch their flights home.  Others changed outfits one final time for the last breakout sessions.  I grabbed a quick bite at Starbucks and returned to the grand ballroom to once again snag a few cheerleaders for some posed photos.

At 2:15 p.m., the girls reconvened for the last breakout sessions.  I made my way to Room 3, fully expecting to see some of the hottest looking cheerleaders in professional sports but I must have made a mistake and wandered into a convention of librarians.

Yikes! What happened to all the cheer hotties?  Oh, I get it.  It was just Brandii McCoy choreographing a routine to New Kids On The Block’s “Remix”,  a song about a girl who transforms from a wallflower in thick-rimmed glasses into a heart breaker.

Whew!  That was a relief…I was reminded of my youth when I frequently said, “you wouldn’t hit a guy wearing glasses, would you?”  Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t wearing any…but I digress.

So for the last dance sessions of 2013, in the grand ballroom Denise Garvery demonstrated a hot dance routine to Bruno Mars’ “Locked out of heaven”.  In room 2, Shannon Kingsley of the Seattle Seahawks choreographed a hard edged routine to the song, “Live it up”.  And the aforementioned, Brandii McCoy was turning a bunch of notties into hotties to the tune, “Remix” by NKOTB.

After the last dance was showcased, all the remaining cheerleaders gathered together to take a group photo for posterity…the 10th year anniversary class of the P-R-O Convention.  It was another fantastic convention featuring the hottest cheerleaders, the best choreographers and a weekend full of dance.

As the girls said their goodbyes and the staff began to disassemble the stage, I reflected upon this year’s P-R-O Convention to try to get a sense of what is so special about this group of people.  It’s their passion.  Their passion for dance and what it means to them to share this with their fellow cheerleaders and dancers.  I get it.  My passion is photography.  It’s something I try to do as much as possible.  It’s something that I work very hard to improve upon and to create my own distinctive visual style.  It’s something that I love with all my heart.  And I hope that if you are reading this, you can see their passion and mine in these photographs.

The 2013 P-R-O Convention – celebrating a decade of dance.

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I would like to thank Brandii McCoy, Alto Gary, Tracy Rutledge and the staff of All-Pro3 for allowing me to cover the 2013 P-R-O Convention.  And I would like to thank the instructors of P-R-O and all the cheerleaders and dancers for allowing us to get a glimpse of the glamorous life of a professional cheerleader.

Thank you for the wonderful experience.  I had a great time and hope to be back next year.

 

For more cheerleader photos, please visit my personal website: thehottestdanceteam.wordpress.com.