A trio of Boston Cannons Dancers
Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader at 2011 Pro Bowl Cheerleader Poster Photoshoot
Soulmate Captains and Co-Captains Jackie Kayia, Theresa and Lora
Kings Vision was on hand for the 14-15 Ice Crew calendar photo shoot! Check out this profile featuring all the Ice Crew Guys!
Auditions for 2015-16 Fuel Pit Crew will take place on August 26.
The Indy Fuel professional hockey team is now accepting applications for the 2015-16 Pit Crew! Auditions will be held Wednesday, August 26 from 6-10 p.m. at Community Healthplex (3660 Guion Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46222). We are looking for energetic cheerleaders/dancers who want to give our fans the ultimate hockey experience. This team will be made up of individuals who are 18 years of age or older, comfortable on camera and able to motivate fans in a high-energy entertainment environment. Pit Crew members must be able to stand on their feet for long periods of time and perform dance routines. Pit Crew members must also be available for ALL Fuel home games, and able to adjust their schedules to accommodate practices and promotional appearances, as these are booked throughout the season.
Click here for more information on the audition process and requirements.
By Anthresia McWashington
YourHoustonNews.com
Alyssa Munson’s dream of dancing has been evident throughout her childhood and even into her collegiate years.
The University of Texas at Austin senior said she’s been heavily involved in different activities — including swim, gymnastics, soccer and tee ball — since she was a little girl.
Her most recent accomplishment, nabbing a spot on the San Antonio Spurs Silver Dancers team in July, is a testament to the hard work and dedication that she’s developed and invested over time.
“I rekindled a passion for dance in middle school, where I was an inaugural member of Brabham Middle School’s Sophistikats,” Munson said.
While there and later as a Willis High School Sweetheart Munson learned the dancing and leadership fundamentals that have established her as a professional today.
The biology major and business minor also spent time as a dancer and later co-director for the Austin Vipers semi-pro football team, but a life-threatening incident in the spring of 2012 had the potential of putting her dancing career to a halt.
“I was in a car wreck and broke my cervical vertebrae,” Munson said. “It was pretty bad, and all I was thinking about was ‘I’m a dancer, how can my neck be broken.”
Pam Munson Jones, Munson’s mother, said that she was afraid her daughter may never walk again.
“She was at risk of being paralyzed,” Jones said. “It was a really scary time. She couldn’t walk, she couldn’t take care of herself — it truly is a miracle that she is alive and how far she’s come in three years. If you look at her now you’d never know, but we know.”
Munson spent the next few months regaining her strength, determined to get back on the Vipers field when she returned to school that fall.
Almost three years later, Munson said a group of her friends encouraged her to audition for the San Antonio Spurs Silver Dancers team in July.
“Being a professional dancer for the NFL or NBA has always been a dream of mine, but I never had a timeline,” Munson said. “It was kind of a spontaneous decision.”
Munson attended the first day of tryouts in Austin competing against about 200 other dancers for a spot in the second round.
After a series of cuts, rigorous boot camps with tough choreography and one-on-one interviews with Spurs executives and the director of the Silver Dancers, Munson made it to the final round, a public performance at the Arneson River Theater, vying for one of 16 spots with 29 other women.
Munson was selected along with a handful of other rookies for a spot on the squad.
“I was really grateful because I got to have my friends, my boyfriend and my family,” Munson said. “It was definitely one of the greatest days that I’ve had so far.”
“She’s really living her dream,” Jones said. “The Spurs is a great organization and we’re extremely proud of her.”
Munson said her plans after graduating next spring aren’t yet set in stone, but she is considering medical school with no desires to put her dancing shoes down in the foreseeable future.
To young women and girls from small towns who also have big aspirations for large platforms, Munson said to use every opportunity as a stepping stone.
“Growing up in my small town, I loved it,” she said. “I definitely got all the preparation I needed to be successful with dancing and drill team. I was really involved with the community.
“The Silver Dancers are major ambassadors for the Spurs brand, and the face that people see out there giving back and being active. That sets a good example for girls to look up to even if they don’t want to be an NBA dancer, I hope they see that you can come from any background and make a dream come true.”
By Andy Larsen
KSL.com
I walked into the Zions Bank Basketball Center this weekend to a group of about 25 men and women in formation, each of them pulling a backflip from a standstill, and landing it.
Whoa.
That wasn’t the only amazing trick I was in for as I watched warmups and then the tryouts for the Utah Jazz Stunt Team. Throughout, I saw a veritable smorgasbord of flips, twists, throws and feats of strength from the stunt team hopefuls.
The Utah Jazz Stunt Team is one of three rotating groups that perform at EnergySolutions Arena during a Jazz season, along with the Dunk Team and the Junior Jazz Dancers. These groups are assigned to the 41 home games, meaning that the Stunt Team will get 13 or 14 dates on which to perform per year. At each of those games, they’ll perform at least once in a quarter break, but usually at a timeout or halftime too. Occasionally, they’ll let the Jazz Bear, a capable stuntman, in on the act.
Saturday was the tryouts for the Stunt Team. The goal of program director Summer Willis was to get the roster down to a group of about 10 women and 12 men who could perform at the games next season. Given that there were about 25 people at the tryouts, and another five submitting videos to show off their skills, tryouts were relatively laid back compared to, say, Jazz Dancer tryouts, in which hundreds of potential dancers are rejected.
But the relatively high acceptance rate doesn’t mean stunting is easy. It’s not just throwing a flier into the air and having them stand on a pedestal. The initial throw has important steps of technique, especially when flips or twists are involved. The idea, generally, is to throw the top person so that the thrower doesn’t have to bend in order to catch her at her peak: that takes ridiculous strength.
Then, balance comes into play on both parties. A sturdy base is important, then the top person’s balance is critical, or else the whole apparatus moves all over the floor. The center of balance has to be right over the thrower’s grip.
That grip has points of technique, too. It’s not a pedestal, but actually a very real grabbing of the foot that means the dancer can do stretches and stunts from high up in the air. And the dismount is tricky too: getting down safely at all is often a concern, then there’s sometimes flips and twists added as well. It’s all actually pretty complicated.
Willis admits that the crowd doesn’t see all of this. “You wouldn’t know that from the outside looking in,” she says. “You just see the end result, if she falls or if she doesn’t.”
Willis, though, is a master teacher of the hidden technique — she’s led the Weber State University Spirit Squad for 17 years. Upon taking the opening, she rebuilt the program for five years and turned it into the nationally competitive outfit it is today. The Wildcats have won three national championships, in 2009, 2012, and 2013, and haven’t ever finished worse than third at nationals.
So when the Utah Jazz were looking for a way to diversify their in-game entertainment four years ago, Willis was a natural call to make, and the team knew it could count on her, with the Weber State squad as a base, to make a group that had enough quality for professional entertainment. While the Jazz aren’t the only NBA team with a stunt team, it’s a relative rarity for NBA franchises.
For those who are on both the Weber State team and the Jazz’s team, performances at Jazz games are “a little bit more laid back,” according to Chelsi Lee, an early childhood/special education major who performs stunts for both teams. “At college, it’s everyday practicing.”
That means the participants on the Utah Jazz team are excited that they’ve gotten the opportunity. Richie Stevenson, a junior at Weber State who is going into his second year on the Jazz stunt team, said, “It’s such a rush, there’s nothing better.”
“When you practice stuff for years and you get to go out and perform in front of tons of people? It’s the best.”
A Dallas Stars Ice Girl
Date: August 22, 2015
Location: Eastwood Mall, Center Court (Niles, OH)
Registration: 9:00AM-10:00AM
Auditions Begin: 10:00AM
Kings Vision was on hand for the 14-15 Ice Crew calendar photo shoot! Check out this profile featuring Ms. October 2015, Kendall!
