On the eve of the 25th Anniversary Orlando Magic Dancers auditions, some insights from last season’s Team Leader Ashley and rookie Elyse

Whew, time flies! It seems like it was just smack dab in the heart of the NBA season. But it is time to think ahead to next year, already! If you go to the Orlando Magic Dancers website, you will see the clock ticking down until the start of auditions for next season’s team. The Magic’s basketball future appears bright with some good young talent, including the selection of Victor Oladipo with the number two pick in the NBA Draft. So, Magic Dancers got next, as they will soon select the veterans and rookies that will make-up a dance team marking 25 undefeated seasons of successfully entertaining Magic fans.

So for those of you a bit curious about trying out, the Magic Dancers are a close knit group of supportive teammates, with a wide range of interesting careers. In the middle of her rookie season last year, I asked Magic Dancer Elyse if she was enjoying the experience. “Absolutely!” Elyse replied. “Because all of the girls are so nice, the veterans have taken us all under their wing, and taught us the ropes. So it’s been a really good experience. Then again, I am a Magic fan because I am from Orlando, so it’s been nice to be able to watch the team up close. I would have been at the games anyway, I just get to dance now, which is always fun.”

Once upon a time, Elyse actually was a Junior Magic Dancer, and also taught dance and was part of the dance team when she attended Auburn, then transferred to Florida State where she received her degree in Sociology with minors in psychology and child development. After Florida State, Elyse enrolled in nursing school at the Florida Hospital College at Adventist University, with the goal to eventually work in pediatric oncology.

Elyse was one of seven Magic Dancers last season that was part of Darlene Cavalier’s Science Cheerleaders program. This group also includes high flying Ashley, who works as a contract specialist for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “I manage engineering services,” Ashley explained. “I can see the launch pad from my office right across from the Vertical Assembly Building.”

Ashley said of NASA’s activities these days, “There are a bunch of different programs that are starting up, the commercial crew, they are redoing the VAB and the launch pad so they can adapt to all of the different rockets, the commercial companies are already launching. There are still rockets and satellites, just no manned flights at the moment.”

So would Ashley, who has flown through the air as a Magic Dunking Dancer, be interested in some space flight time if given the chance? “Yes, it would be so cool,” answered Ashley. “I would definitely. They have a bunch of simulators. I just need to get in with the right people so I can get into it,” Ashley laughs.

Ashley has been part of the prep classes leading up to this season’s OMD auditions, but not as a participant, but as one of the instructors. After I talked with Elyse and Ashley last December 23rd, Ashley became engaged, and after last year’s fifth season as Team Leader, she will not be trying out for the team this season. Last December, Ashley reflected on her fifth season, saying, “It has become part of life, I cannot imagine not doing it. I’ve grown up on this team since I was nineteen.”

Asked about her advice for rookies, Ashley said, “It sounds really cheesy, but cherish every moment because five years has flown by so fast. And it is so crazy how fast it goes by. (As far as advice), just to be involved and active in every opportunity and take advantage of it.”

During Ashley’s five seasons, she had seen a lot of changes on the Magic roster, but last season she liked how the fans responded to the young team. “It’s been great this season, despite the changes that have happened,” Ashley said. “The fans have been great, and have been very supportive, and it has actually been very high energy. The players are definitely hustling, the games are so much fun because you can tell they are fighting for it and they want it. So it’s good.”

And like the Magic, Ashley had to deal with some setbacks, tearing two ACLs, one during performance and one during a Dunking Dancers practice. But Ashley never let it get her down, as she said, “It hasn’t held me back from anything else, I came back as soon as I could.”

During the 2011-2012 season, Ashley was part of the compacted schedule of games due to the lock-out. “It was just constant, it was crazy,” recalled the Titusville native. “It was like a blur, kind of a whirlwind, because we went from nothing to full blast. And then we had the All-Star Game, so that was a whole new experience, a whole new set of challenges, and a whole new set of craziness. It was awesome!”

Reflecting on what it must have been like for that compacted year before she was on the squad, Elyse commented, “I already feel like we are so busy, I couldn’t even imagine, living and breathing basketball,” as Elyse pauses to rethink. “That must have been really fun!”

And 2013-2014 will be a really fun season for the Orlando Magic Dancers as they celebrate their 25th anniversary season. Also, Jeanine-Klem Thomas, the Orlando Magic Dancers Manager and Appearance Coordinator, also has the Dancing Dads (fathers of former and current Magic Dancers) that will be celebrating their tenth season, with her senior dancers, the Silver Stars, right behind on their way to season number nine.

So the young women that try-out Saturday at 9 am at the RDV Sportsplex Orlando Magic Gym will have a chance to be part of the silver anniversary team of the renowned Orlando Magic Dancers. Just as the Orlando Magic Dancers countdown to a new season like they do down the road at NASA for lift-offs, the young woman that make the team are in for an exciting ride!

Thanks to Ashley and Elyse for sharing the their insights with me last season, and of course to Jeanine Klem-Thomas for all of her invaluable assistance. And if you want to see some more photos of the Orlando Magic ancers from back in December click on this link.