Former Highlander Joins NBA Dance Team
By Nora Olabi
Chron.com
As recent Woodlands High graduates prepare to start their college careers, one former High Stepper has turned an extracurricular activity into her dream job.
Kara Robinson started competitive dancing as a fifth grader at Mitchell Intermediate in The Woodlands. She kept dancing all the way through high school, when as a senior at The Woodlands High School she became captain of The Woodlands High Steppers.
After graduating, she took her dance skills on the road, attending college with acclaimed dance teams. She danced with the Kilgore College Rangerettes, the first women’s precision drill team in the country, and, a few years later, danced for the Dallas Cowboys for three years.
Earlier this month, Robinson signed her second season contract with the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder to dance as a Thunder Girl.
“Performing for a crowd is one of my passions in life. I know that there’s only a short amount of time that I’m going to be able to do this, and I’m coming up on that time where I have to start focusing on a career,” Robinson said. “But for now, I have the most supportive parents in the world that have always wanted me to follow my dreams, and I was lucky enough to do that.”
The Thunder Girl auditions are rigorous. Before the auditions started, dance coaches held boot camps and prep classes for anyone interested in being a dancer.
On the big day, 60 new and returning dancers went through three audition phases over five days this summer. The prospective dancers learn three routines – pom, hip hop and jazz – go through a fitness bootcamp, and undergo business interviews all in full makeup. Those who make the first two rounds perform a final show at the Riverwind Casino in front of an audience of TV and radio personalities, some season ticket holders and the entertainment department of the OKC Thunder. In the end, seven new girls joined the Thunder Girls, and 12 returned, including Robinson, to dance in the upcoming season.
“She’s great; she’s made for this,” said Paige Carter, manager and dance choreographer for the Thunder. “She’s a wonderful person, and her big talent is how remarkable she is at learning choreography and retaining it.”
Once brought on, all 19 dancers train two to three nights a week, perform several dance routines during the games, and make about 200 public appearances throughout the season. And although it sounds like a full-time job, most of the women have part- or full-time jobs outside of the Thunder Girls.
When Robinson is not performing as a Thunder Girl, she works as a brand ambassador for the Austin-based designer jewelry store Kendra Scott. After transferring from Kilgore College, Robinson graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s in merchandising. Although she’s learned and grown as a professional dancer, she hopes to one day blaze her own trail in the fashion industry.
“There are a lot of different options I can take with fashion. Being in the fashion industry, I’ve always wanted to open my own store and sell my own merchandise there. That’s definitely in the far away future,” Robinson said.
In the meantime, Robinson will wield her pompoms and entertain fans for the 2015-16 NBA season.
