Former Warrior Girl continues passion for dancing
Tara-Caprice Broadwater, owner/director of Love2Dance All-Stars, poses in her Novato studio. Broadwater is a former Golden State Warrior dancer with over 20 years of dance and performance experience.
By Stephanie Weldy
Marin Independent Journal
August 22, 2015
Novato resident Tara-Caprice Broadwater, 36, has a passion for dancing. And that love and her skills for all styles of dance propelled the Marin County native to NBA courts and around the globe as a dance teammate for the Golden State Warrior Girls from 2001 to 2004.
Novato’s Tara-Caprice Broadwater, right, performs during the 30th Warrior Girl Dance team reunion in April
During that time, Broadwater opened up her first dance studio, Love2Dance, in Novato. She eventually left the basketball dance team to fully focus on her growing studio, which now has two Novato locations, where Broadwater and other instructors teach a variety of dance styles to all ages — from two to 65. The studio’s dance team, the All-Stars, has twice performed at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and each year performs during a Golden State Warriors halftime show.
Q: How was it being a Golden State Warrior Girl?
A: I had so many amazing experiences. We got to travel and meet exciting people and athletes and entertainers and that’s when I decided I wanted to be involved with teaching dance. That’s when I decided to open the studio. So I was trying to juggle that my last season and it became difficult and I decided I was going to focus on opening the dance studio.
Q: Why did you choose to focus on your dance studio over being a Warrior Girl?
A: I always felt this was my calling to help kids and help people just to find their way and their passion. I know for me, dance really saved me when I was young. It helped me in all areas of life. If you have something you’re passionate about, it helps you build confidence and find success. I love performing so much, but here I get to teach and we do two recitals as well, so I still get to perform. So I get the best of both worlds.
Q: What is one of your more interesting experiences from when you were a Warrior Girl?
A: My husband hates this story. We had a mascot named Thunder and he picked me up and brought me on the court to meet Jamie Foxx. It was right when he’d done all those movies, and the song, and he was doing this comedy show, and anyhow, I’m in the middle of the court talking to Jamie Foxx and he invites me to whatever show he was doing. And then he hugs me and kisses me on the shoulder. And my boyfriend, whose now my husband, he’s in the stands, and his friend said, ‘Isn’t that your girl Jamie Foxx is kissing?’ And he was so mad. I always told him I could’ve been with Jamie Foxx and I chose you. Which of course, he was probably just saying hi. Maybe that’s how he says hi to everybody.
Q: Any other interesting places dancing has taken you?
A: Last year I choreographed a dance for the Kalin and Myles video “Do My Step.” I also went to the Power 106 celebrity basketball game in (Los Angeles) and choreographed backup dancers for the Kalin and Myles half-time performance with Ariana Grande and Tinashe.
Q: What is dancing to you?
A: It’s my life. It’s my passion. It’s everything. It’s my world. If I don’t think of this as my job and career, it’s who I am. And I work really hard. I work 60 hours a weeks. And I’m bookkeeping, phone calls, and emails, and ordering costumes, and being a therapist to children and their parents, and cleaning, And then I teach dance. Not every single class. This semester I think I’m teaching 21 classes.
