(This sounds like Australia’s version of the Super Bowl)
By Naomi White
The Daily Telegraph
It was the war of the cheerleaders as Manly Sea Eagles’ Chloe, 20, faced off against Sydney Roosters’ Olivia, 19, at Balmoral Beach ahead of Sunday’s Grand Final.
Showing it’s not just the boys who are busy preparing for the game, the girls face a gruelling week of cheer practices and fitness sessions to get their routines game ready.
The first Grand Final for both, the girls agreed the pressure was definitely on for the squads to bring their A game.
Sea Eagles and Roosters cheerleaders, Chloe and Olivia are looking forward to their first NRL Grand Final.
Sea Eagles Cheerleader Chloe is feeling the pressure in the lead-up to the NRL Grand Final.
“The Grand Final routine is definitely more heightened, there’s a lot more pressure,” said Chloe.
Olivia agreed and said the energy of the crowd would keep their spirits up for their “fun and vibrant” routine.
“There’s a lot more nerves for a Grand Final game, but the nerves give you a bit of a rush, more energy.”
And while both cheerleaders are calling the win for their own team, both wished the other well.
“We’re going to bring the trophy home,” Olivia said, “but we’re all pumped up for the game and wish the players the best of luck, we’re their fan club so we’re there to cheer them on.”
Chloe and Olivia are confident their respective teams will get the cash in the NRL Grand Final on Sunday.
Olivia says the Roosters cheerleaders are pumped for the big game.
[Manly Sea Eagles Cheerleaders]
[Sydney Roosters Cheerleaders]
Fort Worth’s First and ONLY Professional Performance Team is looking for NEW high-spirited talented ladies to join their Performance Group!
We will be Hosting our 3rd Annual Auditions Nov 9th
Sign up for your Private Preliminary round NOW at FortWorthPink@Gmail.com – Email your Full Name and we will send you More information Concerning Auditions
*LAST DAY TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR PRELIMINARY ROUND IS NOV.9TH
Email us to receive your Registration Form and to set up your Private Audition time
Sign up for FREE Prep/Private Classes at FortWorthPink@Gmail.com
Prep Classes are every Saturday 11-12pm at THE STUDIO
Studio Located:1510 Nw 28th Street Ftw Texas 76164
For More information about Fort Worths Team Find us on Facebook: Fort Worth Pink Vixens
Contact us at FortWorthPink@Gmail.com With Any questions!
**HERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT REQUIREMENTS YOU NEED TO BECOME A 2013-2014 PINK VIXEN**
Dance Technique- a DOUBLE is Required
Enthusiasm
Great Smile
Poise
Energy
Showmanship
Personal Appearance
Figure
Personality
Flexibility
At least 3 years of Dance Experience
At least Two Different Splits (One of them has to be the Right Leg)
18+ With a High school Diploma/GED
**AUDITION PROCESS**
*Auditions are a multi-step process beginning with
1.) Email/Application
2.) Private Preliminary Audition
you have to perform free-style dance moves by yourself in front of the director & Possibly another judge . At the end of the performance, The Director will give you a Call back. If you receive a positive call back you will be able to set up date for your semi-final round
3.) Semi-Final Audition, You learn a SASSY dance combination. Candidate will perform the dance combination.
Your technique will be Reviewed by the director and Judges. After your Audition the Judges will announce if you made it to Finals
*Finals will be Nov.9th
4.) Personal Interview With Judges/Director
5.) Finals-Review and PERFECT the Sassy Dance Combo
Learn and Perfect Vixen walk & Signature Moves
Pink Boot Camp Candidates will be announced
6.) Pink Boot Camp-We will be looking for Attitudes and Energy and each Future Pink Vixen will be learning a total of 5 routines -Boot Camp can last up to ONE Month until Final Candidates are selected!
By Megan Rose Dickey
BusinessInsider.com
Kim Taylor danced for the Milwaukee Bucks Energee!
Growing up in Madison, Wisc., Ranku CEO Kim Taylor became a force to be reckoned with on the dance floor, the beams, and the ice. As a girl, she loved dancing and she loved ice hockey. By age of seven, that passion for dancing ultimately led to an interest in gymnastics.
That mix of school and sports has been a theme throughout Taylor’s life, right up to her current project: Ranku is a tech startup that helps students discover and rank online college degree programs. It’s backed with $500,000 by Mark Cuban, the tech investor who is perhaps best-known as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
Taylor became a very competitive gymnast thanks to the help of her coaches, the parents of Chellsie Marie Memmel. Memmel was a member of the U.S.’s 2008 Olympic women’s gymnastics team.
“I was a very serious gymnast,” Taylor tells Business Insider. “That was my whole life. I also just really liked sports. I was kind of very well known (for the beam). No one could ever beat me at a handstand contest.”
But since her brothers were ice hockey players, Taylor decided to take up ice hockey while continuing to excel at gymnastics. She joined her high school’s boys hockey team as well as a private girls hockey team.
Also on that girls’ team was Ranku co-founder Cecilia Retelle, the now-former senior director of education policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. When their team went to the national championship, Retelle and Taylor bunked together and have been friends ever since.
The college years and dancing in the NBAOnce she entered college, Taylor snagged a spot as an NBA dancer for the Milwaukee Bucks. That year, the team ended up going to the eastern conference finals.
But that was her first and last year as an NBA dancer. That’s because she realized she wanted to be a sports writer or broadcaster.
After her first year of college, Taylor stopped dancing for the NBA, and transferred from a small Jesuit school in Wisconsin to Arizona State University, to study journalism.
While at ASU, Taylor wrote for The Arizona Republic where she mostly covered football. Her coverage involved a lot of statistics, and that’s when she fell in love with research. Research, she says, is most of what drives her online education startup today.
Given that she essentially grew up in the boys locker room both as an athlete and sports writer, Taylor says, it was good training for the male-dominated tech world.
After college, Taylor switched from the editorial side to advertising. Around 2008, Taylor was working for an online publisher in Chicago where she focused on online education.
At the time, Taylor says, for-profit institutions were exploding because newly unemployed people saw schools as a safe haven, an alternative to an unstable workforce.
“I knew it was a big industry, but no one in Chicago appreciated it,” Taylor says. “So I started thinking that I should look at startups, but I knew nothing about startups.”
So she came up with a checklist. Taylor wanted to join an early-stage startup with no revenue, and no capital.
“I wanted to run revenue,” Taylor says.
And that’s what she ultimately did.
Starring on Bravo’s “Start-Ups: Silicon Valley” reality TV show
Taylor came to Silicon Valley as the fifth employee at a startup that builds Facebook ads for brands.
She joined contingent on fact that they would let her do things her way, she says.
“They didn’t know how to make money and had zero contacts,” Taylor says.
Within her first year at the company, Taylor demonstrated how to reach $1 million in revenue.
Along the way, Taylor found out about Bravo’s new reality TV show “Start-Ups: Silicon Valley.”
“It sounded like a complete joke,” Taylor says. “I just wanted to see if I could get on it.”
So she bypassed the standard application process and sent the producers a well-crafted email instead. Two days later, she was invited to join the show.
The show received negative feedback from the moment the first episode aired. People criticized it for not depicting an accurate, authentic view of life in Silicon Valley.
A few episodes into the season, we found out that Taylor had decided to leave the Facebook ads company to start a new fashion startup called Shonova.
By the time she left, she was bringing in $3 million a month in revenue. She would’ve stayed, Taylor says, but the startup’s executives wouldn’t give her a VP title.
She told them, “If you don’t give me my title or give me a raise, I’m out.” As Taylor reflects back on what happened, she wonders if the CEO thought she was kidding. She wasn’t.
“I think a lot of women get held back in their careers,” Taylor says. “I was held back. They didn’t want to give me a title. They didn’t want to push me forward. I always knew I was capable of more.”
The show got canceled before the end of the first season, but Taylor has no regrets.
“It was an amazing thing for me,” Taylor says. “Anything is what you will make of it.”
Though, she’s not sure if she could say the same for some of the other cast members. She didn’t specifically mention these examples, but the season featured plenty of drama, a strap-on sex toy, and other bizarre moments involving some of the other cast members.
From Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley
Just a few weeks out from launching fashion startup Shonova, Taylor pulled the plug. Her real passion had always been in education, so she decided to pursue Ranku, the online education startup that she had first started thinking about back in Chicago.
Even though the application deadline had passed for the new Kaplan Education accelerator powered by TechStars in New York, the program said it would make an exception for her if she could get a team together.
Within two weeks, Taylor convinced Retelle, her childhood friend and former ice hockey teammate, to quit her lucrative job as the senior director of education policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to join Ranku as a co-founder. Taylor also brought on board an engineer and user interface designer, and convinced her brother to help out, too.
With a team intact, she received her term sheet for a $20,000 investment in Ranku.
Ranku wants to become a destination for people to find the best online degree program from top-notch universities. For Ranku, the “best” school isn’t necessarily the one with the highest ranking on the “U.S. News and World Report” list. Instead, the best schools in Ranku’s lists are the ones that give students great job outcomes.
The three-month accelerator program started this past June. A couple of days before Demo Day, where each startup pitches to an audience of investors, Ranku announced that Mark Cuban would be leading a $500,000 seed round in the startup.
“Mark was coming to town to do press for Shark Tank,” Taylor says. “He pinged me and asked how my startup was doing. I said, ‘cranking’ and he asked me to meet. I knew he wanted me to pitch.”
Aiming to find a place to go where people wouldn’t want to talk to Cuban, Taylor scheduled a meeting at her favorite Green Bay Packers bar (Cuban is a diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fan).
“No one bothered him,” Taylor says. “No one said anything.”
So she gave him the high-level pitch, but after a few minutes Cuban interrupts her.
“Kim, stop talking,” he said. “I’m in.”
Ranku launched just three months ago, but it’s already cash-flow positive. Going forward, Ranku wants to solve some of the biggest, most complicated issues in education and close the skills gap.
“It’s something that needs to be solved in the private sector,” Taylor says. “That’s how I see it. We start here. This is the logical starting point for online education. New rules are being written. There are no rules about what makes a great versus a terrible online school. No one even understands if and why they’re good. We want to champion idea of measuring the quality of schools by output.”
It goes in line with what President Barack Obama wants for our education system, Taylor says. The only difference is that Taylor and her co-founder Retelle plan to have that done by next quarter.
Auditions for the 2014 Philadelphia Wings Angels Dance Team were held last Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center.
Four-year veteran Nadia with co-director Dana. This is Dana’s 15th year running the Angels.
Veteran Elisa
New comer Ashley
Veteran Alisyn
Look for the new squad when the Wings return to action this January.
Rachel Vicknair is the new San Diego Surfettes Director and Choreographer and comes to the Surf with over 5 years of professional sports entertainment experience as a former dancer in the NBA and AFL. She has over 28 total years of dance experience and has danced professionally in commercials, TV, film, variety shows, and promotional tours. She has done feature work in numerous TV projects and feature films and was a cast member of the Style Network show, “The Amandas” in 2012. She also holds the title of 2011 Ms. New Orleans and 2011 Ms. Louisiana State.
Rachel is originally from New Orleans, LA and possesses a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Performance and Health Promotion with a concentration in Exercise Physiology. She is currently the International Sales Executive for a beauty and skincare company based in Southern California.
[Surfette Audition Registration]
Sasha already posted about prep classes and auditions for the 2014 Arizona Rattlers Sidewinders, but I would be remiss If I didn’t mention that the Sidewinders were named the 2013 AFL Dance Team of the Year. (They also earned this honor in 2011).
From AZRattlers.com
The Arizona Rattlers Sidewinders dance team has been named as the 2013 Arena Football League Dance Team of the Year.
The Sidewinders put together stellar performances throughout the 2013 season. Highlighting the season were memorable routines such as special Mother’s Day and Father’s Day dances with the dancers’ parents and of course the fan favorite “Football Player” routine.
The Sidewinders are led by Director Angie Baker, who has coached the team for four seasons. She cheered professionally for six years with both the Sidewinders and the Arizona Cardinals, making one Super Bowl appearance and three ArenaBowl appearances, including one as the Dream Team Director.
“This is a huge honor for the team and a testament to the hard work we put in outside of games. We have outstanding leadership within our captains and veterans and a very talented group of rookies that made it happen. It’s been a textbook season and being recognized for something you love to do is icing on the cake,” said Baker. “Thank you to the AFL for this honor and a special thank you to owner Ron Shurts, President Joe Windham, and Head Coach Kevin Guy for providing the opportunity for the dancers to be part of the best sports organization around.”
Not only an integral part of the Rattlers game experience, the Sidewinders also spend time in the community continuing the strong efforts put forth by the organization as a whole to give back to Phoenix and the rest of the Valley.
A Boston Cannons Dancer
Atlanta Falcons Cheerleader Natalie S. may be the youngest on the team, but she’s no rookie. The 21-year-old is heading into her third year with a team she’s grown up with.
By Daniela Duron
AtlantaFalcons.com
Atlanta Falcons Cheerleader Natalie S. may be the youngest on the team, but she’s no rookie. The 21-year-old is heading into her third year with a team she’s grown up with.
Performing in her Falcons cheerleader outfit in front of thousands of people at the Georgia Dome field as a 7-year-old, Natalie S. couldn’t believe where she was.
Now, 14 years later, when she goes out onto the same field on gameday to do the same thing, she still gets just as excited.
“I feel like I’ve literally grown up with the team,” Natalie said. “I was a baby when I first started this team. I’m always in awe when I go out on gameday. Like, how am I standing here?”
If anyone knows what it’s like to be a cheerleader for the Falcons, it’s Natalie. For three seasons from 1999 to 2002, she was a Junior Falcons Cheerleader and then transitioned into an Atlanta Falcons Cheerleader when she officially joined the squad in 2011.
“When I did Juniors, it became a dream to be with the Falcons,” she said. “The Falcons cheerleaders were there for every practice so they mentor you. They’re very inspiring because they all have these amazing careers and were all very educated. They were just a great influence on younger girls. It was awesome to be around them and be surrounded by them, so it kind of made me want to be that.”
Although Natalie grew up as a dancer and did it competitively for six years, Kim Holland, a former Atlanta Falcons Cheerleader and a coach at her dance studio, encouraged her to try out for the cheer squad after she graduated.
Once she turned 18, Natalie went to try out for a spot on the Falcons cheerleading squad and was the youngest to audition. Now, three years later at the age of 21, she’s still the youngest on the team.
Despite being considered a veteran, she still looks up to the rest of the cheerleaders, just like she once did as a 7-year-old.
“Being around these women that have these great careers, it’s helped me grow as a person,” she said. “It’s been such a phenomenal experience.”
Just like they still inspire her, she realizes that there are Junior Cheerleaders who now look up to her the same way and dream to be where she is. Although she encourages them to pursue their dreams, she also wants them to realize that being on the team goes beyond what you do on the field, despite what age you are.
“Just stay in school and get an education because cheerleading for the Falcons isn’t just being pretty and being physically fit and your ability to dance,” she said. “It’s about what you do outside of that, outside of the performance aspect of it. So be career oriented and get your life together before you audition because it’s so much more than a performance.”
[Natalie S at AtlantaFalcons.com]
