2011 Los Angeles Clippers Spirit Audition Prep Class

If I was finding it difficult to believe that NBA audition season is already upon us, the truth came home to me on Sunday. I spent the day hanging out with my Clippers family, for this year’s audition prep class. Or rather, classes. There was originally only one session planned, but there was so much interest, team Director Audrea Harris added a second session, so on Sunday, there were two classes, back to back.

Audrea was there, of course, with big sister Adrianne in tow. Adrianne is always willing to jump in when Audrea needs an extra pair of hands to help with registration, etc. Spirit veterans Brittany, Jocelyn, Justene, Katrina, and Rhea were also there to teach the choreography, demonstrate the routine, answer questions, etc.

Who wasn’t there? Nicole, Teresa, and Recee, who along with Brittany, were the senior veterans on the team. Notice I said “were.” Yeah, you know what that means. They aren’t coming back this year. (Sigh.) I like to think I’m getting more mature about this whole retirement thing. I mean, I wish them all good luck in the future, and all that, but geez, it sucks. I mean, last year I let a bunch of girls go off to other teams, and I even let one move to TEXAS, for crying out loud. Wasn’t that enough? How much can one person be called upon to sacrifice in the name of pro sports entertainment?

Especially Teresa, my little elf girl. Nicole and Recee, I sort of saw coming. But Teresa too? Aw MAN.

No Nicole. No Recee. No Teresa. No Jac. No Liz.

But I’m keeping ten of my girls, and that’s pretty good. And when I say, I’m “keeping” them, I mean you veterans better bring your “A” game to auditions.

The other thing I noticed immediately was Rhea’s hair. The very first time I saw Rhea, back when she was on the Anaheim Arsenal Dance Team, she had brown hair. Then she made Spirit and Audrea got ahold of her and turned her into a blonde. In the two years since then, Rhea’s hair has been many many shades of blonde and all those trips to the salon started to take a toll. From what I understand, it was either go brown or go bald. So now Rhea has mahogany hair, ooh la la!

Foxy!

There were a lot of dancers there when I arrived. All told, there were around 40, give or take.

There was a girl from Japan who flew to LA just for the prep class. She’s not even auditioning until next year, but she wanted to take the class.

Speaking for myself, I don’t know that I’d go across town for prep class if I wasn’t auditioning for another year. Let alone across the Pacific Ocean.

There was a 17 year old there. Actually, she turned 18 yesterda. Let me just say, I could barely try out for the chorus in the school play at age 17. I would never have had the guts to go to a professional audition. But the girl had skills.

There were also a few alumni of other teams: Mandisa from the New York Jets Flight Crew, Tina from the Chicago Bulls, and four girls from the Golden State Warriors: Leah, Kelsey, and oh crap – I can’t read my handwriting. There were two others and I can’t for the life of me remember their names. Drat. Leah and Kelsey were fun to watch because they were perfectly in synch almost the whole time. Before Warriors, Leah was a Seattle Sonics Dancer. Ariana from the 49ers was there too. Ariana made it to finals last year. She looks even better than she did last year. She’s obviously been working hard, so I’m rooting for her to make it this time around.

It was interesting to have girls with so much experience at a prep class. I’m all YOU need a prep class? Riiiight.

But different teams are different. Miami Heat auditions are very different from Utah Jazz auditions, which are very different from Clippers auditions. Better to go into the whole thing as informed as you can possibly be. So go to prep class and get the skinny. I get it.

Audrea gathered everyone together to explain the plan for the day. The Spirit open call audition consists of three rounds. The first round is technique, aka “across the floor.” It’s pretty easy: a couple turns, a leap, a high kick, and some filler. Just to see if you know what you’re doing. Second round is a jazz combination. Third round is a hip hop routine. Prep class focused on the Jazz and Hip Hop portions of the process, so the candidates could see what the more difficult parts of the day would look like. After learning and performing both combinations, there would be time for some Q&A about the audition process.

Brittany stepped up to teach the Jazz combination. Heck if I can remember right now what the music was, but it was choreographed by the recently retired Nicole.

(A moment of silence, please. Nicole, where are yoooouuuu? Why have you forsaken me?)

One thing was immediately obvious: there were some DANCERS in this group. When it comes to prep class, I expect to see mostly girls who look like it’s their first time at the rodeo. I don’t know where I got that idea from, but it certainly wasn’t the case. They seemed to pick up the choreography quickly. I immediately started thinking about my ten veterans and trying to figure out what kind of girls we need on the team this year. And by “we” I mostly mean Audrea.

I’m not actually involved ok, but I am invested.

Here’s what I’m thinking: we’ve got a lot of brunettes. We can’t have 16 brunettes on the court, so if you’re a blonde or you’re “melanin-advantaged,” you may have slightly better odds this year. (Am I not supposed to say that? Well, too bad. I said it. Ya heard.)

Also, I am lobbying for a redhead. Or a pair of twins. Whichever. Mostly they just need some really kick-ass dancers with mad showmanship skillz, yo. And I believe I saw a few of those on Sunday.

After learning the jazz combination, the dancers split into smaller groups to perform. Like Audrea said, this was a workshop, not the actual audition, so there was plenty of time for do-overs. For the first round, she asked them to focus on retaining the choreography. For the second round, she asked them to focus on making it clean. And the third time around, she asked them to
really perform it.

It was a lot of fun to watch, in a setting where no one keeps score, and no one leaves crying.

After jazz was the hip hop combination, choreographed, I believe, by Risa Anderson, and taught by Katrina.

Again, the dancers learned as a group, then the group split in two and took turns performing, and then they performed in smaller groups of 3 to 5. By that time, everyone was ready to collapse, so they took a water break and then gathered around for the Q&A. The questions were all over the place.

How many girls usually audition? (a couple/few hundred.)

Who is choreographing the audition routines? (You’ll see.)

How long does the day run? (6-8 hours.)

How should I wear my makeup? (Smoky eyes. Lashes. Red lips. Red lips. Red lips. Lipstick, not gloss.)

Should I wear tights or pantyhose? (Pantyhose. Sheer. NOT control top.)

Do we audition by ourselves? (Nope. Groups of 3).

How many judges are there? (10-ish)

Can you have a job and be on the squad at the same time? (Yes, if you manage your time well.)

Briefs or boy shorts? (Most people look better in briefs, but nobody will hate on you if you wear hot pants.)

Do I need jazz shoes? (No, you can wear sneakers the whole time if you prefer. The team performs in sneakers, not jazz shoes.)

Should I bring pants for hip hop? (Most girls do bring pants or shorts. Loose ones that give you some swagger.)

Should I hide/cover my tattoos? (Yes. And remove all piercings except for your ears.)

I know you said no ponytails. Can I wear my hair half up? (Can you? Yes. Should you? No. Hair up is what separates the girls from the women, so to speak. And while you’re at it, practice keeping your hair out of your face while you’re dancing.)

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Key messages from Audrea:

(1) You do NOT have to spend a ton of money on a new outfit. Go to Target. Get some briefs and a cute half top. Maybe put some crystals on it if you feel like it.
(2) There’s no need to spend megabucks on makeup either. MAC lipstick is great, but Wet ‘n Wild lipliner works too. Only 99¢ at your nearest Rite Aid.
(3) Test run your outfit ahead of time. (Not just to see if you fall out of it, but to make sure you won’t spend all day tugging on your shorts and adjusting your straps.)

By then, it was 1 pm and the next session was scheduled for 1:30.

Jinkies, Scooby! We have to do this all over again?

Yep. First the jazz, then the hip hop. And because it was early afternoon, it was hot hot hot. The Spirit veterans gave it the old college try, but even they started to droop a little towards the end.

The heat was most certainly getting to Katrina, who was supposed to teach the hip hop combination, but started tap dancing instead. I never would’ve pegged her as one to go goofy from the heat. I’ll file away that bit of info for future reference.

(Audrea pointed out later on that FYI, the judges do not deduct points for sweating. Good to know.)

It was interesting to see that while the morning group nailed the hip hop and were a bit weaker on jazz, the reverse was true in the afternoon. Jazz looked better than hip hop. Maybe it was the heat.

I learned that one of the sad things about auditions is that you may be THE BEST at hip hop, but the jazz round always comes first. If you can’t get through the jazz round, no one will ever see how great you are at hip hop. You have to be strong in both styles. Them’s the breaks.

The other thing you need to know is the technique section will not be the usual across the floor combination. Instead of dancing across the room, from one side to the other, the combination will start at the back of the room and move you toward the judges. You’ll be doing the typical across the floor moves (step, step, pirouette, kick, kick, pirouette, leap, freestyle, or whatever), but you’ll be moving forward. That way you don’t have to worry about being hidden behind another dancer, or leaping into the wall a the end of the combination. They started doing this at last year’s audition and it made a big difference. For better or for worse, the judges will be able to see every little move you make.

The dancers for the most part were unfazed by me scurrying around with the camera. You never know how these things are going to work out. Generally speaking, we girls don’t enjoy having our photo taken when we are sweating like animals. I think the photos I took are tasteful though. Everyone is “glowing” a little, but they look good. (At least I think so.)

I expected some girls to actively avoid me. For the most part, they were okay with it. Besides, I’m going to have my camera in their faces all day during auditions, so they might as well get used to ignoring me. If I think about it that way, I don’t feel so bad about it.

In all these years of going to auditions, I have only had two women object to being photographed. Neither one made the team she was auditioning for. I’m not saying it was because of that. I’m just saying.

When the second session was over, the Q&A was mainly about the team’s schedule, the judging process, and of course pantyhose came up again. Pantyhose always comes up in these discussions. Get yourself some L’Eggs sheer energy, sheer to the waist, suntan. In the green box. Or was it a silver box? And bring extra.

I remember when I was little, my mom bought L’Eggs pantyhose, and they were packaged in those big plastic eggs. I miss those eggs. I used them to hold all of my little treasures.

There were also quite a few questions about the Clippers Fan Patrol. One of the girls mentioned that she had a cheer background, and after dancing for several hours, I think she figured she might have better luck with the stunt team.

One girl asked if they ever choose 18 year olds for the team. The answer is yes. Exhibit A: Brittany.
Another girl asked if it is difficult balancing the team with pursuing a career in the entertainment industry. The answer is yes. But it absolutely can be done. Exhibit B: Katrina.

The second session wrapped up and the dancers straggled out. Tired, but excited for tryouts in two weeks.

Overall, the day was a big success and I’m looking forward to seeing who comes back to audition. There were a lot of fresh faces in the classes, so I hope to see most of them at tryouts.

Did I say two weeks? Good Lord, so soon?

[More photos from prep class here]