Kat needs nine lives to keep up with her roles in IT, drumming, dancing, show jumping, and cheering for the PIFL Nashville Snake Charmers

We constantly encounter super accomplished, multi-tasking pro dancers at UltimateCheerleaders, yet I can still be completely astounded by their careers and diverse hobbies that defy the notion of 24 hours in a day. Recently I met Kat, who must have nine lives. Kat is an IT professional by day, with dance and political science degrees, and her “hobbies” of being a drummer in bands, back-up dancer, dance teacher, choreographer, she owns two horses, and participates in show jumping. So since she had all that “extra time” on her hands, Kat decided to add pro cheer to the equation this year. Kat performed at PIFL Champion Nashville Venom games, as a member of the Snake Charmers. Well, Kat’s ability to balance all of that is one equation I could never solve.

Kat shared with UltimateCheerleaders some of the dimensions of her life, from riding a show jumper to being a show stopper, and why she may frequently party like it is 1999, perhaps even in a raspberry beret.

With a degree in dance from Virginia’s Radford University, Kat says, “I’ve done almost all styles of dance and some commercial work. I’ve done back up dancer work. I teach dance. I’ve done choreography, but this is the first experience I’ve had working with a professional sports team.”

So why add pro sports to this very busy plate for the inaugural season of the Venom? “It just sounded like something that I would probably find really interesting,” Kat explains. “I knew it was a new team that was starting up. Sissy Brown, our coach, had a workshop last winter prior to auditions. I thought, ‘Let me go to this workshop and see what it’s all about.’ It was really fun. Her choreography was really hip hop heavy. My background’s in dance not in cheerleading, so I thought, ‘Okay, the hip hop background and the choreography, I can do that.’ I thought I’d try out and see what happened, and I made it. It’s been a really cool experience.”

What types of things surprised Kat about the experience? “There’s definitely so much that goes into each game,” Kat responded. “It’s not just, show up and put your shoes on, and go out on the field. There’s so much. There have been plenty of times where we’ve had to do our own hair and make-up, and help design our own outfits. We’ve had appearances, charity events; a lot things like that.”

But on the day job portion of Kat’s plate is being an IT project manager. “My career is in project management,” Kat explains. “I do have a very demanding career. Then on top of that I juggle teaching dance, being on the Venom, I do back-up dancer work for a Prince tribute band that’s based here in town. I play a lot of freelance gigs as a drummer. Then there’s a pop rock artist based in town and I play for her as well. It’s keeping the legitimate day career and keeping all the other things I love alive, all at the same time.”

Kat is a Jacksonville, Florida native but moved to Virginia, where she spent her high school and college years. Besides Dance, she studied Political Science at Radford. So has Kat always been interested in current affairs and history type things? “Very much so,” Kat replies. “Political science, history, languages. Then I just kind of fell into the career track of project management because it lined up with a lot of my already existing skills. Communications is the most important part of project management. Communications and then accountability.”

“I’ve always had like the business project management side of me and then I’ve always had the art side of me,” Kim continues. “I’ve always tried to inter-mix them as much as possible.”

And dance has always been in mix, even though young Kat was quite opposed to the whole dance thing at first. “My mom enrolled me in dance when I was three,” recounted Kat. “She enrolled me in tap and ballet, and she told me years later that I complained going to every class. I whined, I didn’t want to go, didn’t want to go. Then recital time came around and I had the costume, the hair, and make-up. After the recital, she told me as a three-year old, ‘Just make it to the recital and then you can quit after that.’”

“After the recital, she said, ‘Okay, well you can quit now,’” Kat continues. “She said I announced, ‘No, no, I don’t. I like it, no no no!’ I never complained again after that, ever about going to class.”

The performance aspect must have been a trigger to Kat’s lifelong love of dance. Kat says, “I’ve always loved performing because in real life, I’m pretty introverted and shy. I love to get on a stage and perform because you can kind of be somebody else that you can’t be in your everyday life. It’s a lot easier for me to get on stage and perform for a big group of people than individually talk to each person.”

Sometimes performance is highly valued by those with personalities that are a little more reticent but deep inside, really want that opportunity. “Yeah, like me,” Kat says. “Go be project manager and then, I love to perform.”

And perform she does! Because not only was dance an activity, it kicked off a connection to another musical pursuit, being a drummer. Kat started playing snare drum in marching band her sixth grade year. “I did marching band all through middle school on snare drum,” Kat describes. “I was drum captain my eighth grade year. By the time I was in high school I’d moved more to just the drum kit. I was taking private drum set lessons. I moved to playing drum kit and I was playing in bands and cover bands. I did a lot of that in high school and through college. While I was in college, I played for musicals like in the orchestra pit for various colleges and different regional theater productions. I really enjoyed that because that tied in my love of theater with music and drums. It really all kind of fits together.”

So is Kat from a family of musicians and dancers? “Neither of my parents have any dancing or musical ability whatsoever,” laughs Kat. “Like, none.” Are Kat’s parents surprised about the directions Kat has gone in life? “Yeah, I think that they really are,” Kat responds.

But Kat’s instinct to play drums was linked to her dance. “For me the drums were such a natural instrument to play,” Kat explains. “Tap was like my forte, and my absolute favorite style of dance. If I could only do one style of dance for the rest of my life it would be tap. When I was a young child that was what what I always picked up the quickest, and I remembered rhythms. The rhythms stuck with me, and I learned them very quickly and I can repeat them back very quickly. I didn’t have to go through a, ‘Hmm, I wonder what instrument I should play.’ From the age of eight I wanted to play drums.”

So what are Kat’s drummer heroes? “There’s so many,” Kat answers. “Jimmy Chamberlin who was the drummer for The Smashing Pumpkins for a long, long time. Certainly Stewart Copeland from The Police is one of my all-time favorite drummers.”

So how did Kat find her way to Nashville, Tennessee from Virginia? “I ended up moving here about a year after graduating from college,” Kat answers. “Initially I had a gig playing drums for the pop rock artist that I still play for. I’d been to Nashville before just to visit and I really liked the city. It was just a good size city for me. There was enough going on but it was still very affordable compared to New York or L.A. I thought that there would be opportunities for dance, theater, and music. There certainly have been. It’s a growing city. There are more and more cool things happening here. Nashville has so many colleges and universities that are based here in town; you have this influx of young people and fresh ideas. There are a lot of people that move here from elsewhere, so it has a really cool vibe.”

And one of the opportunities is to be part of the Prince tribute band, and Kat is choreographer and one of two back-up dancers for a stage show with ten additional musicians. “A lot of people on stage at once. It’s cool,” Kat says. Plus there is more dance, and teaching dance. “My friends don’t understand how I have time for everything. Project management is a demanding career but then I find ways to do it all. I teach tap, ballet, jazz, pointe, hip hop.”

But wait, there is more! Kat owns two horses. “Another one of my passions,” laughs Kat, who includes the hobby of show jumping to her list. “I have two horses. One is retired, he’s 23. He’s at a gorgeous retirement barn. I go see him every weekend. My mare, she’s a registered Oldenburg, and I still ride and show her. I try to get to ride four days a week.

Horses have always meant a lot to Kat, as she explains. “I spent a lot of time with my aunt growing up and she always had horses and ponies. I have pictures of me as an infant sitting on one of her ponies. I grew around horses, grew up around dance, very much so doing both. Love my horses. They’re everything to me.”

Kat has always been comfortable around horses, and has the skills to properly handle them. “The mare I ride and show, I got her in 2008, and she had done nothing,” Kat recalls. “She was like completely unbroken. I was taking a risk when I got her. I had done a lot of training young horses, green horses, but I was taking a risk. I didn’t really know how she was going to turn out. She’s turned out fabulously and I’m so proud of her. It’s been a lot of work but she jumps beautifully. I take her to as many shows as I can.”

Kat’s older 23-year old horse takes it easy now. “It’s a gorgeous retirement farm, I want to retire there myself,” Kat jokes. He has it made. It is like the ultimate retirement facility for a horse. He’s a lucky horse.”

So Kat doesn’t have a lot of time for TV watching, but she is a devotee of The Tonight Show. “I’m a very loyal Tonight Show watcher,” Kat indicates. “I was loyal to Jay Leno, and I love Jimmy Fallon,” and she thinks he is widening the appeal of The Tonight Show to a younger demographic.

In addition, Kat says, “All the TV shows I watch are like either older sitcoms like Three’s Company or The Jeffersons; I watch the old TV Land stuff.”

During the last regular season home game, her worlds of dance teaching and pro cheer came together as Kat helped prepare the Junior Snake Charmers prepare for their halftime performance. What’s the fun part about teaching kids about dance? “For the kids everything is new and exciting,” Kat smiles. “It’s fun to help inspire younger kids to get excited about dance and performing. For some of them, this will be the first time they’ve ever performed in front of people. It’s really exciting to see their faces light up. I love to inspire the kids to learn more. I do teach a lot, I think it’s really important to teach the younger generation how important the arts are.”

Well, Kat, you are inspiring, and somehow use that project management expertise to manage your own life with time for all of your passions and still incorporating new interests like pro cheer. Kat has so many sidelines, we love that she added being on the sidelines as another!

Thanks so much to Kat, Sissy Brown who leads the Snake Charmers, and the PIFL champ Venom for all of their assistance. More photos of Kat are at this link.