Spirit of St. Louis: The 2013 St. Louis Rams Cheerleaders Auditions

The spirit of St. Louis is alive and well and last Tuesday night it was at The Pageant theatre, where the St. Louis Rams Cheerleaders were holding their final auditions.

Though they might not get as much attention as some of their more famous cheerleading sisters, the St. Louis Rams Cheerleaders are one of the most beautiful and glamorous squads in the NFL.  The girls are absolutely beautiful.  They wear Angela King designed uniforms, which in the opinion of this reporter, are both sexy and classy.  And they put on one fabulous final auditions show.

This past Tuesday, I was fortunate to be present for the 2013 St. Louis Rams Cheerleaders final auditions, a pageant style affair.  It was an exciting evening of entertainment, consisting of an interview segment, a swimsuit portion, and a final dance audition.  Just the thing for the most ardent cheerleader fan.

People started lining up a little after 3:30 pm to ensure that when the doors opened an hour and half later, they would have a prime seat for the start of the festivities.  I was lucky.  I had a media credential that allowed me all access to the event, so no waiting for me!

Well, that’s not quite true.  I misunderstood the show time and arrived inauspiciously early, but that wasn’t all bad as I was able to photograph the pre-event preparations.  The girls began arriving a little after 3:00 pm to get their hair and make up done.  With 49 finalists, this would be a huge logistical undertaking.  Around 4:00 pm, the retiring veterans and 2013 Captains arrived to rehearse their dance performance which would kick off the night’s events.

During the down time, I seized the opportunity and snapped a few posed photographs of the Rams Cheerleaders.  I don’t think they minded too much.  After all, posing for photos is one of the primary responsibilities of an NFL cheerleader and I am sure that they this was nothing new to them.  For the retiring veterans, it was one last time to pose in the uniform.

Shortly after 6:30 pm, the curtain was pulled back and Master of Ceremonies Tim Tialdo, host of the RamsNation broadcast, introduced the retiring St. Louis Rams Cheerleaders and the 2013 Captains for their opening performance.

After the performance, the hopefuls were lined up on the stage for the interview portion of the final audition.

The finalists were escorted to the microphone by several members of the United States Marine Corps and they were asked a variety of questions.  Some of the more interesting were, “who would you like to have dinner with, living or deceased?” and “if you could exchange places with someone for a day, would would that be?”.   All of the girls were articulate and didn’t hesitate at the microphone.  Some answers were very entertaining and a couple were rather brief, but all of the finalists proved that they could handle a public speaking appearance.

When the last finalist had spoken, the curtain was closed.  The stage was reset, the microphone removed and the risers moved to the rear.  After a brief moment, the finalists returned for the swimsuit portion of the final auditions.  As they were called to the front of the stage, they were escorted by Rampage, the Rams official mascot.

On a side note, I chatted with Clin…uh, er…”Rampage” before the night began and he was nice enough to give me an autographed Rampage bobble head for a friend of mine.  I am told the bobble head is one of only a few hundred and very collectable.  Thank you, Rampage.

And here are some of the finalists in their swimsuit finery.

As the last swimsuit finalist exited the stage, they queued up the first set of girls for the dance portion.  There was literally no stoppage of time between the two phases of the auditions.  There was so little time in between, I did not have time to change out the four double “A” batteries in my flash before the first pair began their performance, that is how quickly things progressed.

Finalists were brought up in pairs and introduced to the crowd.  They performed a two minute dance routine that was scored by the judges. The points earned tonight for all three phases would account for 40% of their total audition score.

 

At the conclusion of the dance portion, the house ran a video of the making of the 2013 Rams Cheerleaders while the judges scores were tabulated.  Ten minutes later, the results were in.  The lucky girls were escorted to the front of the stage by Rampage and given a warm up jacket, the symbol for making the squad.

After the last name was called, the girls were gathered together at center stage and the 2013 Rams Cheerleaders were introduced to the audience.

The spirit of St. Louis, the 2013 Rams Cheerleaders.

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I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Keely Fimbres, Director of Special Events, and the St. Louis Rams for allowing me to cover their cheerleader auditions.  I had a wonderful time and hope to be back next year.

And for more St. Louis Rams audition photos, please visit my personal website: thehottestdanceteam.wordpress.com.  New photos will be up in a few days.