Jeanette Thompson sits down with new Raiderette Director Vandana Patel for an interview.
Watch the interview here.
Part two of my trip to Florida took me to Jacksonville to see the Sharks Attack Dance Team.
The Attack Dance Team is under the the direction of Kimberly Newbern. Kimberly was a competitive cheerleader for 10 years and won over thirty State and National titles in partner stunting, individuals and quads. She was a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars ROAR from 2003-2006 where she was honored to tour Greenland and perform for our troops. Kimberly was also featured in the ROAR Calendar in 2004 and 2005. She was cast in the movie Bring It On: In It To Win It as a Shark and Shet dancer. She also owns and is the head coach for the First Class Athletics All-Stars and enjoys developing young talent each day.
By Linda Palacios
CincyChic.com
Former Ben-Gal Cheerleader Brooke Griffin always pictured homelessness as the panhandling men on the street until she learned about the Welcome House of Northern Kentucky. Once she saw that reality of homelessness, including women her age without a place to live, she knew she wanted to do something to help — but what?
Looking for some help in answering that question, Griffin wrote into Redbook magazine, and they had some ideas. They sent Griffin If it Takes a Village, Build One, a book by Mallak Compton-Rock (Chris Rock’s wife), and then they set her up with conference calls with Compton-Rock to help brainstorm ideas.
Griffin decided on a goal to raise enough money to support the Welcome House for a year, and she wanted to hold a charity gala to do it. Without any funds to start up, she hit the streets for willing donors.
In a matter of four weeks, Donna Salyers of the Madison stepped up to the plate to offer a venue and food. Kevin Ford, who had been Griffin’s wedding florist, took care of the décor with flowers and linens. Ford put Griffin in touch with Brittany Ruby, Jeff Ruby’s daughter, and she donated two food stations. One after another vendors jumped on board with the event until a full-fledged gala was ready to go with every detail donated.
Through all of the planning, the Welcome House Outreach, a.k.a. the WHO Women helped Griffin make everything happen. And each of the women brought in more volunteers to help with the cause.
“Yes, it was my idea, but it never would have happened without the help and the love of our community,” Griffin says.
So with that community support, the gala sold out four days before the event, and Compton-Rock even came to the event. With Channel 12 Chief Meteorologist Steve Raleigh as emcee and auctioneer, both a live auction and a silent auction worked toward Griffin’s goal. Even the 100 Mylar heart balloons that decorated the place were sold for the Welcome House.
At the end of the night, Griffin had helped raise almost $40,000. While Griffin didn’t meet her original goal of $90,000 (the annual overhead of the Welcome House), donations continue to come into the organization, especially after Griffin’s efforts were spotlighted in Redbook itself. (Read the story here.)
To learn more about the Welcome House and how you can help, head to WelcomeHouseKy.org.
by Ahsan Awan
Sacramento Press
The UFL’s Sacramento Mountain Lions cheer and dance team is set to hold tryouts June 5.
The team’s director, Lindsay Shoemaker, was hired in late April, and has been busy preparing ever since. With preliminary tryouts only a week away, there is still a lot of work to be done. For example, the team needs a name. Cougarettes, Lady Lions, Capital Kittens? “We’ve narrowed it down to a few names, but nothing is for sure yet,” said Shoemaker.
But coming up with a name isn’t the first priority. About 200 women are registered to try out for 32 spots, and Lindsay said she and her assistants have to come up with a routine for the women to learn and perform in one day.
The women on the team will be announced June 12, but first comes a week of interviews and performances in front of judges and fans. “It’s important that the community be involved in the process,” Shoemaker said.
Indeed, the life of a Mountain Lion cheer and dance team member calls for broad community appeal. In addition to two practices per week, and one team workout and physical training session per week, there will be many public appearances. Shoemaker said the team could make appearances every week. “Any time our girls are out in public, they represent the league and the organization,” she said.
According to the Sacramento Business Journal, members of the squad will be paid for the four home games and promotions that they attend. Shoemaker confirmed this, but added that there will be work on behalf of charities, and appearances at schools and other community events.
According to information provided by the UFL, Shoemaker is trained in jazz, ballet, hip- hop and funk. She was a member of the Universal Rhythm Dance Co. and Sheldon High School’s cheer and song team. She also danced for Chico Dance Theater at California State University, Chico, and Sacramento’s Empire Dance Team.
Lindsay Shoemaker. Photo Courtesy of Tanya Atkinson.
Shoemaker worked for Radio Disney as an on-air personality. She also developed a dance group made up of Radio Disney listeners that performed at events including the California State Fair and a number of festivals, and she coached the Sheldon Huskies Junior Cheerleaders.
Shoemaker was the lead dancer and scheduled all appearances as a charter member of The Lipstick Girls and Groovement. She also managed and taught at Get Dancing Academy of Dance in Fair Oaks. Her dancers performed at Paramount’s Great America and the California State Fair.
The Sacramento native has a degree in public relations and communication studies from California State University, Sacramento and currently works for the State of California’s Department of Public Health. She also competes in triathlons and half marathons, and is a football fanatic.
She’s a busy woman with a big task in front of her, and yet the question remains: What will the team be called and who will decide? Shoemaker said, “We’ve thought about asking the community to decide, much like they did with the naming of the football team.”
There’s no official suggestion box, but suggestions are welcome (below).
The Sacramento Mountain Lions cheer and dance team preliminary tryouts will be held at 24-Hour Fitness at 1314 Fulton Ave. (corner of Fulton and Hurley) on June 5 from 12:30-8:30 p.m. on June 5. Registration forms available on the Mountain Lions website. The finals will be held at Cosmopolitan Complex, 1000 K St., June 12 at 4:30 p.m. Lindsay Shoemaker can be reached directly by email at mountainlionscheer@gmail.com.
By Jan Pudlow
FloridaBar.org
Yolyvee Rivera, center, an associate at Richman Greer in Miami, works with the Miami HEAT dance team. Rivera danced with the squad while in law school. Now she volunteers 10 to 15 hours a month helping the team prepare for game days.
By day, Yolyvee Rivera excelled as a third-year law student at St. Thomas University, serving as senior articles editor of the Law Review and making the dean’s list.By night, she sweated through grueling rehearsals from 7 p.m. to midnight, perfecting spirited routines to rev up the fans at pro basketball games as a Miami HEAT dancer.
Her dual life in 2008-09 combined her two passions: law and dance.
Before lacing up her dancing shoes for her big gig before an audience of 19,600 at American Airlines Arena, she was buckling down with law books.
In the spring of 2008, she’d interned for Florida Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Anstead. From May to August, she completed another internship at Richman Greer in Miami.
Before embarking on a demanding legal career, this classically trained ballerina wanted to “scratch her dancing itch,” so she tried out for the very competitive HEAT dance squad.
Since she no longer worked there and had no idea she’d make the cut from 300 women trying out for the team, Rivera never told her supervisors at Richman Greer.
“The partners are HEAT season ticket-holders, so they figured it out. But I have gotten nothing but support from them,” Rivera said.
She also got the promise of a job after graduation and passing the Florida bar exam and was hired in 2009 at Richman Greer.
Now an associate at Richman Greer in the practice areas of commercial and complex litigation, and family law, 27-year-old Rivera is no longer on the dance team, but still stays involved with the HEAT dancers.
She donates about 10 to 15 hours a month assisting Janine Thompson, director of the Miami HEAT dancers, with coordinating the dancers on game days.
“On game day, we go nonstop from 5 p.m. to 10:30,” said Thompson. “Yoly (pronounced Jo-lee) is extremely helpful and so professional and so sweet at the same time. I have to say, Yoly is the one who has dedicated her time the most out of everyone. She has gone above and beyond.”
Thompson, who was an IT consultant when she was on the dance team, said a lot of dancers are in school or just starting careers, including one dancer in medical school.
In looking for dancers, Rivera said, the HEAT wants to make sure the women have not only the right moves but the right stuff for representing the team in the community at promotional and charity events.
During the interview process, Rivera recalls, she was asked why she thought she could be a positive role model.
“My response was: ‘I am a young lady of character. Not only can I feel I can serve the team, I can show diversity. I am pursuing my degree in law.’ We are not just young ladies who go out on a stage and shake our behinds. We are actually intellectual.”
Dancing since age 4, Rivera grew up in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Every summer since she was 11, she’d receive scholarships to train at prestigious Joffrey Ballet School in New York, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico in San Juan, and at the School of Boca Ballet Theatre.
Not only a classical ballerina dancing en pointe on the tips of her toes, she trained in jazz and hip-hop dance, too, and considers Janet Jackson her dance icon.
While receiving her undergraduate degree in public communications at American University in Washington, D.C., she minored in dance. Her dream to be a professional dancer took her to New York, until she realized how difficult it is to make ends meet in the big city on a dancer’s paycheck and her family so far away.
Rivera wondered what else she could do to make a good living that would incorporate her love for dance, and decided to go to law school, where she wrote an article titled: “Dance and Copyright: Twirling Around the Issues of Statutory Protection for Choreography,” and dreamed of representing dancers in court one day.
Dancing for the HEAT was a part-time job with full-time responsibilities, she said.
“At first, it was so overwhelming dancing in front of such a large audience,” Rivera said.
“I enjoyed doing what I love to do, which is dancing. After a while, it became so easy. Our role was to entertain the audience. I had such an amazing experience as a Miami HEAT dancer. The message I would like to get across is these girls who sacrifice their time are extremely dedicated. It’s a job we take very seriously.”
While her colleagues at Richman Greer have been “extremely supportive with this decision,” Rivera acknowledged everyone doesn’t think it’s dignified to be a scantily clad dancer in tail-shaking routines. But to Rivera, it is an art form and vehicle for self-expression.
“I am aware that other attorneys are not happy with that decision. When people see dancers for the first time, and see the costumes they wear, they automatically, just being natural human beings, think of it as degrading,” Rivera said. “There is a negative stigma about dancers from the NBA. It’s very sad. My goal in this whole thing is to be one of the individuals able to take that stigma away.”
[Cheerleaders/Dancers who are also lawyers]
Here’s what the Prowlers wore for their pre-game performance.
The uniform for the first half.
And the uniform for the second half.
Results from our last poll:
Kate and Amber-Joi show off their moves:
Billie O’Hara is the Cheer and Dance Development Director for the UFL as well as the Director of the Florida Tusker Cheerleaders. A former Orlando Magic Dancer, O’Hara has more than 20 years of experience in dance as a performer, instructor and director. A native of Jacksonville, Fla., O’Hara began her formal dance training in 1989. She attended several prestigious dance schools, including the Tremaine Dance Center in Hollywood, Calif. and Douglas Anderson School of the Performing Arts, where she was accepted into the All American College Program at Walt Disney World.
In addition to dancing for the Orlando Magic for four years, she also danced professionally for the Orlando Predators (Arena Football League). She served as a back-up dancer and choreographer for former Backstreet Boys member Phoenix Stone. O’Hara has served on the faculty of the Dance Conservatory of Orlando and Academy of Performing Arts.
[Complete Tuskers Cheerleader Audition Info]
Congratulations to Mallory Mills who is taking over as the Director of the Dallas Mavericks Dancers. Mallory is a seven-year veteran of the Mavs Dancers and represented her squad on the 2007 NBA All-Star Dance Team.
I can’t be everywhere. So back on May 8th while I was covering another event, I had our latest contributor, Randy, visit the Cole Fieldhouse at the University of Maryland, College Park. That night the IFL Maryland Maniacs hosted the Richmond Revolution. Here are some of Randy’s photos of the Maniacs Dance Team, the Lady Maniacs.
The Lady Maniacs are under the direction of Charita White. Charita served in Iraq with the Army Reserves, works for the Pentagon and is a member of an NFL promotional squad.
