Congrats to former Washington Redskins Cheerleader (and as seen here Washington Kastles Cheerleader) Stephanie who just made the 2010-111 Miami Heat Dancers!
From our friend Phil:
When it comes to training camp, the Bills PR department has fallen behind the rest of the league where their cheerleaders are concerned the last few years. Whereas the Jills were requested at every practice in the past, they’ve only been at a few practices each year more recently, which deprives the fans of getting to meet the beautiful young ladies who they’ll see on the sidelines of Ralph Wilson Stadium this fall. Saturday, however, was one of the days the Jills were in full force. One day for training camp, the Bills host a Jr Bills Backers day, giving the next generation of Bills fans a bit of a VIP treatment at training camp complete with special autograph sessions and appearances by the Buffalo Jills.
Plenty of photos at the Buffalo Pro Cheer Blog.
By Amy Huddleston
MagicValley.com
It seems to happen when people least expect it, the way famous starlets go from being just a girl who waits tables on the weekends to becoming a sort of celebrity, seemingly overnight.
A modern-day Cinderella story, perhaps, but Nicole Bulcher will tell you it was a lot of work made easy by what she attributes to being right where she needed to be.
A graduate of Twin Falls High School and the University of Idaho, the 23-year-old has the ambition to become an international human rights lawyer but along the way she has made a few stops. One in Malta for a study abroad experience, a few weeks in Los Angeles taking dance lessons and most recently back in Twin Falls where she was working as a barista for Java Jungle, waitressing at Canyon Crest and substituting teaching for the Twin Falls School District, all while studying for the LSAT and looking at law schools.
But then she got a whole new break and put her school dreams on hold to do something that requires a whole new kind of workload as one of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders (DCC).
Bulcher and one of her best friends from U of I made the trip to Texas along with more than 500 other hopefuls for two weeks of spring auditions and three demanding elimination rounds. Forty-four women were chosen to attend the eight-week training camp of fitness conditioning, daily rehearsals and dance training. On July 22, Bulcher was chosen to join the elite group of 34 women who get to wear the famous blue and white, star-studded uniforms.
“I still don’t think any of it is real,” Bulcher said. “Maybe when I run out on the field for the first time or maybe when we start signing autographs, I am not sure when it will hit me.”
The whirlwind trip has left her very thankful for all of the help her strangers-turned-friends have given her. When she found out she needed to stay longer than originally planned, she faced the issue of not having a car on hand or a place to stay. One of the returning veterans, Meredith Oden, took Bulcher under her wing and helped her find a family to stay with while she was in the training camp.
“I felt like the kid from The Blind Side,” Bulcher said, laughing when she described the first time she met the family. “I was expecting a normal lunch but they took us to the Ritz-Carlton, I’ve never eaten such a beautiful lunch!”
Bulcher has been exposed to more than just the Ritz. CMT’s fifth season of Making the Team, a show about the DCC will be putting her on air for a few interviews and shots of the girls trying out.
Texas, Bulcher said, is a whole new culture for her.
“I love Texas. They have big hair down here and everyone is really conservative,” Bulcher said. “I’ve already started picking up the word y’all. It’s just so much easier to say.”
The rigor of being a cheerleader has just started for America’s Sweethearts. Bulcher said the rule of thumb for the girls is to “look good in their uniform and be healthy.”
Between staying fit and working at a middle school as an ESL teacher’s assistant during the day and cheer practices at night, it is sure to be a busy season for the curly-haired beauty who has taken dance lessons since she was three.
Bulcher was the captain and choreographer for the U of I’s dance team and taught hip-hop lessons for the University’s wellness classes.
“The biggest part of preparing for this was when I took dance lessons in LA,” Bulcher said. “Dancing for U of I helped me to be a stronger person and mentally tough.”
And if there is one thing Bulcher wants people to know about her new role?
“People don’t realize what standards the DCC adhere to,” she said. “We are a very professional, classy organization. It’s different than other teams, many of the women are engaged or married and most of the girls are Christians. They are beautiful women. I am really excited for this.”
By Bill Lohmann
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Jaqui
The past few years have been difficult ones for Paul Bennett. He has endured a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and a stroke, and now he’s residing in hospice care.
His face brightens when his daughter and grandson come into the room, but the 82-year-old retired railroad man otherwise shows little recognition when he meets anyone.
Except yesterday when three Washington Redskins cheerleaders showed up to surprise him. Once he spotted the Redskins logo — he perhaps noticed the short-short pants and long legs, too — Bennett clapped his hands, and his eyes grew as wide as pom-poms. He grabbed one of the cheerleader’s hands and didn’t want to let go.
“For him to show that kind of emotion . . . the Redskins are way up there,” said his daughter, Lynn Campbell, with a laugh. “That shows how much it meant to him.”
Bennett is a longtime, devoted Redskins fan who held season tickets for a while and didn’t think twice about sitting through rain or snow to watch his favorite team. His room at Emeritus Senior Living at Deep Run in western Henrico County is a testament to his loyalty: Redskins comforter, Redskins wall-hanging, a Redskins stuffed dog.
He wore a Redskins shirt and a Redskins cap as his daughter, wearing a No. 47 Chris Cooley jersey, pushed his wheelchair into the lobby to greet the cheerleaders. A Redskins blanket lay across his lap.
The three cheerleaders — Lee-Ann, Tecoya and Jaqui (they don’t publicly share their last names) — hugged Bennett, chatted with him and posed for pictures. A group crossword puzzle game in an adjoining room ground to a screeching halt.
The cheerleaders later made the rounds of the facility, signing autographs with Sharpies tucked in their white boots and spreading, well, good cheer. Their appearance was arranged by Melinda Jones of Hospice Community Care, which partners with Emeritus Senior Living to provide care for hospice patients, after they learned of Bennett’s devotion to the Redskins.
The cheerleaders drove from the Washington area yesterday morning on their day off. All have full-time jobs: Jaqui is a business analyst, Tecoya is an education coordinator and Lee-Ann operates a dance studio.
“We do a lot of these things all year-round,” Lee-Ann said. “We like to visit people just to brighten up their day, just to make them happy.
“It’s an honor to be able to do something like this.”
Born in West Virginia, Bennett served in the Army, worked as a truck driver and spent more than 30 years as a railroad foreman. He later volunteered with Meals on Wheels. He turns 83 on Aug. 16.
“Some days are better than others,” Campbell said of her dad. “Yesterday and today have been really good days.”
Let’s see: Three Redskins cheerleaders pay a visit to your room and make a big deal over you? Yep, I’d say that’s a pretty good day.
Bennett made the most of it, enjoying their company and patting their arms, prompting one of the cheerleaders to note, “You haven’t lost your touch.”
He was living a dream, but Bennett wanted more. As long as he had their attention, Bennett mentioned he hoped the Redskins finish in first place this season.
I don’t know. Some dreams might just be too wild.
From the UFL Website:
The Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League have officially named their cheer and dance team the Lady Lions.
“In picking the cheerleader team name it was important to create something that would last,” said Mountain Lions Cheer and Dance Team Director Lindsay Shoemaker. “I didn’t want to give this team a name that would be out of vogue five years down the line. The Lady Lions is timeless.”
Mountain Lions fans were involved in suggesting team names, primarily chiming in on facebook.com.
“I loved having the community and UFL fans involved with choosing the name,” Shoemaker said. “We had over 50 unique suggestions and ultimately the Lady Lions was a fan suggestion.”
There are 32 cheerleaders on the Sacramento squad. The team was selected based on a three-part process that included dancing, personal interviews and judged performances.
“The Lady Lions is a perfect description of this team of cheerleaders,” Shoemaker said. “They are strong, proud, beautiful and classy women.”
The dance team will perform at all four Mountain Lion home games this fall and will serve as ambassadors for the organization throughout the season.
By John Tapley
Ingersoll Times
While hymns no longer echo through Zion United Church near Thamesford, the building will soon be filled with music of a different sort.
Expressions Dance Arts Inc. recently purchased the 139- year-old building, and is converting it into dance and cheerleading studio that will offer a variety of classes for ages three and up starting in September.
“It’ll be our new hub of activity for east London and all of Oxford County,” said Elizabeth Morgan, owner and director of Expressions Dance Arts.
In its 17th year of operation, the company already runs classes in St. Thomas, London and Goderich, offering instruction in various dance styles, from ballet to hip hop and Irish dance.
Cheerleading is another specialty.
“A student can study ballet and cheerleading at the same time and they’ll have good instruction in both,” Morgan said, adding that offering both dance and cheerleading instruction makes Expressions unique.
Adult programs, including ballroom dancing and wedding choreography, are available as well.
Fielding competitive dance and cheerleading teams, Expressions has produced provincial, national and international award winners. Its senior level-one cheer team won provincial and national championships this year, and the school’s students have earned seven national dance titles in 2010, including ballet, hip hop, musical theatre and contemporary/ lyrical. The 2010 Dance World Cup silver medalist in Irish dance also studies with Expressions.
“Our motto is, ‘Imagine it ; achieve it,'” Morgan said. “It’s the philosophy we go by when we’re teaching.”
While she runs a successful school, Morgan has achieved quite a bit on her own. Having studied jazz, tap and ballet since she was three years old, she branched out into hip hop and Celtic dance before getting into cheerleading when she started university. Morgan has been a cheerleading captain with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
Maintaining her ties to those organizations, Expressions is the host studio for the 2010 Junior NFL Bills Cheerleaders in Canada.
Some of Morgan’s students will perform at the Rogers Centre in Toronto when the Bills take on the Indianapolis Colts on Aug. 19.
The popularity of cheerleading is growing in Canada, she said, but it still has a long way to go to reach the level it enjoys in the U.S.
Cheerleading teaches a variety of skills, Morgan said, including teamwork, problem solving and trust.
A team from Expressions’ studio in Goderich will travel to Walt Disney World in Florida in October for a workshop and to represent Southwestern Ontario in competition.
Zion isn’t the first church Morgan has converted into a dance studio. Nine years ago, she undertook a similar project with a heritage church in St. Thomas.
“We are excited to tackle this renovation and rejuvenation project (in Thamesford),” said Morgan, explaining she is happy to be able to preserve the building and that it will provide a nice “ambiance” for her students. “There’s a lot of history there.”
Aside from running dance and cheer classes in the facility, Morgan plans to host dance birthday parties and rent the building out for special events and other arts classes.
Already a sponsor of several charitable causes, Morgan said another goal is to become an active and valued new member of the community.
“We hope to be a valuable part of the community and give people a place to come express themselves creatively and learn a new skill,” she said.
Besides, she said, “Dance is just plain fun.”
The Vikings Cheerleaders have updated their website with plenty of photos and videos of the new squad.
[Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders]
And the MVC 2010-11 Swimsuit Calendar is now available.
[Vikings Cheerleader Calendar]
From CBSNews.com
We’ve all had our ups and downs, but few have had such highs and lows at such a young age as 34-year-old fitness model Jamie Eason.
After a few entry-level office jobs following college, Eason went to work for her family’s roofing company in Texas. But being chained to a desk was not for her, she realized.
While managing a crew of roofers, she tried out to become a Cheerleader for the Houston Texans – and got the job. Life was going great.
Great, that is, until she found a suspicious lump in her breast.
It turned out to be cancer. She had a lumpectomy, and eventually all was well. Except that she had missed so many practices that she had to quit the cheer leading squad and had to take a job as a computer instructor.
Four years later, she realized that she was what she calls “skinny fat.”
“I was soft and flabby,” she tells CBS News. “I had cellulite. I drank Dr. Pepper and ate Goldfish and fast food almost every day.”
It was her wake-up call. She hired a personal trainer and visited a nutritionist, and the new and improved Jamie Eason was born.
“Within a few disciplined months, my body began to transform,” she says. “I felt physically fit and emotionally, I had a true sense of accomplishment and well-being.”
She won the first fitness competition that she entered, and since then has graced the covers of countless magazines including Oxygen, Muscle & Development, and Fitness.
“I realized I had found a path for my life,” she says.
[Jamie Eason Gallery at CBSNews.com]
Former Redskins Cheerleader Ambassador Jessica Andrews sat down with folks at The District Dish to talk her about her blog and her involvement with the military.
Pat Healey
Enfield Weekly Press
Annalise Morash is proving even small town girls can live out big time dreams.
The Lantz native is enrolled in the Commercial Dance Studies program at George Brown College in Toronto, Ont. On July 20, the captain of the Toronto Raptors Dance Pak, Katherine (Kat) Stefankiewicz, visited her class.
Stefankiewicz e-mailed Morash the next day seeking her feedback on auditioning for the Pak at tryouts on July 24. While that would excite any other girl, the 18-year-old Morash kept a level head; she knew she still had a hill to climb to earn one of the 14 spots on the NBA club’s dance squad.
“I wasn’t really expecting a lot,” Morash told The Weekly Press from her apartment in Toronto. “I was more so going for the experience of auditioning and some of my classmates were going as well. The Raptors dance captain felt her coach would want to see what I have to offer. But I didn’t want to allow that to get my hopes up because I knew there would be a lot of girls auditioning.
“I had honestly never thought of doing this before, but after being there and seeing the Air Canada Centre, it’s pretty amazing.”
After being asked to audition, and being a tad hesitant to make an appearance, she decided she would go for it.
“I also have never been to an audition before,” she said. “I wanted the experience under my belt before graduating.”
The former Dance Zone Performing Arts Centre student has always been the type of person to dream big and follow that dream, no matter the hurdles or jumps that may be in her way.
“I have always known I wanted to be a performer,” she added. “Whether that meant dancing, singing, acting or all three, I have said since I was 15 that I wanted to be famous. Although this isn’t exactly Hollywood, it’s certainly a memorable chapter in my life.”
As she walked into her apartment on July 25, Morash heard her cell phone ring. She didn’t recognize the number. She said the conversation was surreal. It turned out she beat more than 100 other girls to land a spot on the dance team.
“I got butterflies almost immediately,” she recalled. “After the phone call I went out to the living room and told one of my roommates, Nicole Sandalis. We both started jumping up and down and then I ran back to my phone and called mom. She said she had to be the first to know, and she technically was.”
She doesn’t consider herself a one-genre music-lover. Instead, she said, she enjoys a variety, including getting up and dance, pop, hip-hop, RandB, top 20, as well as indie/coffee house.
Morash credits Dance Zone for getting her to where she is today.
“If it wasn’t for my mom (Laurie Morash), Erin (Hopewell) and the school I wouldn’t be the dancer/performer I am today,” she said. “I think my entire family deserve thanks, as well as all of my dance teachers throughout the years.”
She said her short seven months at George Brown Dance helped prepare her for the audition process. The one person she looks up to the most is her sister Rebecca, who also has a blossoming career in the dance industry.
“Without this formal training, I wouldn’t know half of the things I know,” Morash explained.
Meet the 2010-11 Dace Pak here.
