Flyers’ Dancers on Their Toes
Dance team to have higher profile for Schaumburg baseball club
By John Keilman
Chicago Tribune
From a perch overlooking the still-brownish grass of Alexian Field, Dayna Wyatt had a question that likely has never been asked at a ballpark:
“When you do the attitude, are you on relevé or flatfoot?”
That is the lingo of dance, baseball fans, but it might be as relevant to the success of the Schaumburg Flyers this year as anything that happens on the diamond.
The Flyers have one of the few dance teams in minor-league baseball, and at the squad’s tryout Sunday, General Manager Ben Burke said he was planning to give the performers an oversized role this season.
They’ll be taking tickets as fans enter, tossing T-shirts into the crowd between innings and generally assuming a higher profile than most ballpark entertainers, he said. “Dance will be just a quarter of what they do every day,” he said.
That works into the team’s efforts to play up the show-biz aspects of game day, hoping to distinguish itself from its more traditional, more expensive big league competitors. Burke, in his first year as general manager, also plans to feature flame jugglers, stand-up comedians, acrobats, confetti guns, a tiki bar and a hot tub.
Such hoopla might wither the souls of purists, but it has long been part of the minor-league experience, and even big-time teams have begun to appropriate some of it. The Florida Marlins, for instance, have had their own dance team since 2003.
Ashley McLees, the new captain of Schaumburg’s team, was a Miami Dolphins cheerleader in 2004 and performed for the Chicago Shamrox indoor lacrosse team. She figured the average baseball fan wouldn’t be much different than what she has been accustomed to encountering at a sporting event.
“Everyone loves sports,” she said. “Everyone’s just out here to have a good time.”
Some of the 13 women who showed up for the team’s audition, held in a restaurant overlooking the field, said they had been cheerleaders or members of a pom squad growing up, and they just wanted to continue an activity they had enjoyed.
“Dance is pretty much my passion, and I go to a fashion college, so there’s no dance team there,” said Wyatt, 20, of Glendale Heights.
Others were more laid-back about their participation.
“This is just fun,” said Angela Grayson, 28, of Carol Stream, who was counting on nothing more than a strenuous Sunday workout. “I like dance. I’m not serious about it.”
