Lakers Nation (7/21/2012): On Saturday morning at the team practice facility in El Segundo the Lakers held their annual Laker Girl tryouts. Hundreds of girls from around the country arrived to show their skills and try to make the Laker Girl squad for the upcoming 2012-13 NBA season.
Here are a few behind-the-scenes pictures from this year’s tryout. [Click here]
Clippers Spirit Dancer Kellie at this year’s auditions
Sarah Hecht
Portland Trailblazers
July 18, 2012
Last Saturday and Sunday eager dancers converged on the Trail Blazers’ Tualatin practice facility to put their skills to work for a chance to earn one of 16 coveted spots as a 2012-13 BlazerDancer.
Day one saw the field of new hopefuls learn multiple routines and perform them for the judges of the day—the panel was composed of Trail Blazers broadcasters, local media members and former dancers. The group was narrowed through two rounds of cuts and the remaining dancers learned yet another routine to practice and perform the next day.
[Check out this video of all the day one action.]
The Sunday returners danced before another panel of judges for one more round of cuts. After the morning of auditions the finalists were announced and veterans, who are automatically included in the finals, joined the narrowed field to learn the routines for the finals.
Now, the talented finalists have a week to practice their finals routines and prepare solos before the final audition takes place this Saturday. With every spot up for grabs each year even the veteran dancers are hard at work.
You can watch the entire Finals via a live stream on Trailblazers.tv starting at 12pm this Saturday, July 21st.
[Enjoy a full photo gallery of the first weekend of auditions.]
By Evie Lichtenwalter
BSU Daily News
July 18, 2012
Four Ball State alumnae, and former members of the university’s Code Red Dance Team, have made it as finalists to be selected as part of the 2012-2013 Indiana Pacemates squad.
The Indiana Pacemates are the Indianapolis Pacers dance team and are made up of a selected group of female dancers who audition for the spots.
Laura Beth Clymer, Chelsea Hoover, Marie Serafin and Jordan Whitacre, all Ball State graduates, are currently in the final rounds of auditions for the team.
Chelsea, Marie, and Laura Beth
Hoover was also a member of the 2011-2012 Pacemates team.
The 2012-2013 coach for the Indiana Pacemates is Michelle Duggan, another Ball State alumna.
Duggan became the coach and choreographer in 2008 after seven years as a Pacemate.
The audition showcase will take place July 24 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The dancers for the 2012-2013 Pacemates will be announced July 26 on the Pacers website.
CBS Los Angeles: Clippers Spirit hopefuls try to dance their way onto the 2013 team during the final day of tryouts on July 18, 2012 in Torrance, California. (Photos by Mel Blackmon/CBS)
Congratulations to the dancers selected to this year’s team. Click here and check out a few photos from the final audition!
By BRAD RICHARDSON
TBN Weekly
July 17, 2012
SEMINOLE – Tricia Cusmano of Seminole fulfilled a longtime dream recently when she was named one of the 34 talented women to join the Tampa Buccaneers cheerleading squad this season.
This was her second tryout for the team. It was three rounds of auditions within a month long process and with each round came more and more cuts. After dancing in front of a judges panel and making it into the final round with just the two coaches making the final decision, she said it was great to know that the hard work and many years had finally paid off.
“I just jumped up and down screaming,” said Cusmano. “I was at home when I found out. My name was the last one posted online, so I had to go through every one’s names to get to mine at the bottom. I can’t really explain the moment other than it was very exciting and so surreal.”
For the 20-year-old Cusmano, cheerleading has been an ever-going part of her life. Although she participated in soccer and swimming in her youth, she felt most comfortable when she was holding a pair of pompoms, dancing and cheering on the home team.
“I just enjoy being in front of a crowd and I’m just a very positive person,” said Cusmano. “I always have a smile on my face and I really enjoy expressing that in front of the fans. I just really like the sport of cheerleading.”
This is not her first time getting the experience of what its like to be a part of the Buccaneers organization. She first got what it was like at age 10 when her mom, Rhonda Cusmano, enrolled her in the Junior Buccaneer cheerleaders. She said the first time cheering next to them was an experience she would never forget.
“They were role models to me and I knew then and there, that’s what I wanted to do,” Tricia said. “My coach now, Catherine Boyd, was one of the Bucs cheerleaders back then, and in one of the group pictures that was taken, I’m right behind her. It’s kind of cool to look back at that from time to time.”
After that experience, she wanted to continue it further. She started youth cheerleading at SYAA for peewee football games. When she entered middle school in the fall of 2003, she began cheerleading for the volleyball and basketball teams. At that point, it was no longer the parents who were the audience watching; now it was her closest friends and classmates.
“It was kind of hard being in front of people you know in school,” said Cusmano. “When it was SYAA, I knew a few people in the stands, but when I cheered at Seminole Middle, we were very close to the bleachers so it was a closer contact with the fans. So very little room to screw up.”
By the time she entered her freshman year at Seminole High School, multitasking became a balancing act. While being on the swim team, she joined the freshmen cheerleading squad as well as the high school’s competitive cheer squad.
“I always knew I wanted to be a Warhawk cheerleader after all the times that I looked through my mom and aunt’s high school yearbooks,” said Cusmano. “With competitive cheerleading, there is a lot of hard work and dedication in order to keep your endurance up. Practices were three times a week for two hours. Once we had the routine down, we would have to do it over and over. With all-star cheerleading your not cheering for the team, you are the team.”
By her senior year, she had been the captain and co-captain of two different squads starting from her freshman year, including varsity football cheerleading. She maintained over a 3.75 GPA and was a member of the National Honors Society.
Golden tanned Tricia is completing her first year as a Lightning Girl and will be moving from the coolness of the Times Forum ice rink to the “ultra coolness” of being a NFL cheerleader. She will be cheering for the Bucs this fall.
“With the Lightning games, there was a lot of interaction with the fans and we did a lot with the crowd by always trying to get them on their feet,” said Cusmano. “There wasn’t that much dancing, but we had to keep everyone energized.”
When she finally made the Buccaneers’ squad, she realized all the hard work had finally paid off. According to Cusmano, upon making the squad, what she found interesting was many of the women saw the squad as a bonus, but most of all a privilege.
“So many of them have full-time, 9-to-5 jobs,” said Cusmano. “We have teachers, career women, businesswomen; even car dealers are on the team. Everyone has their careers and then this is just the cherry on top of the whip cream.”
Along with performing on the sidelines for the Bucs, she is currently a full time student at St. Petersburg College in Seminole. She is doing her prerequisite courses and plans to apply for the dental hygienist program in November.
“I schedule my classes to balance with my cheerleading obligations. School is always during the daytime; practices for the Bucs are at night,” said Cusmano. “I wanted to originally go into nursing, but I decided on going into the dental hygienic program because I really like working with kids. I want to go into pediatric dentistry.”
Cusmano will make her first appearance as a cheerleader during training camp on July 27.
Her first game appearance will be Friday, Aug. 17 when the Bucs play host to the Tennessee Titans. That same game will feature the Junior Buccaneer cheerleaders who will be performing along side the squad during halftime. According to Cusmano, that will be a huge déjà vu feeling for her.
“I’m just excited for the moment that I just walk out onto that field and just know at this moment and time, its real,” she said. “Looking at those girls, it’s going to remind me from where I came from to where I am now.”
ETHAN SHOREY
Valley Breeze
July 17, 2012
PAWTUCKET – City native and local dance instructor Jessica Vecchiarino has won a spot on one of the most elite dance teams in the world, the Boston Celtics Dancers.
Just 20 years old, Vecchiarino said she was “super excited” and “really ecstatic” to be selected last week as one of 18 women to make this year’s squad, a chance she was only dreaming about weeks ago.
Vecchiarino, who told The Breeze she’s never had a opportunity anything like this one, is currently attending Community College of Rhode Island to study nursing.
The Pawtucket native and former North Providence resident, who now lives in Providence, is the only Rhode Islander to make the 2012 Celtics Dancers squad.
The daughter of Dawn and Dennis Vecchiarino said she couldn’t be happier to join such a great team and organization in the National Basketball Association’s Boston Celtics and its famous dance team. Equally amazing, she said, will be the chance to work with Celtics Dance Team Director Marina Ortega.
A member of the second graduating class at Pawtucket’s Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Vecchiarino said she rose to the top of a nationwide search by doing what she does best.
“They said I’m really disciplined, that I pay attention and want to learn, and that I have a lot to offer,” she said.
As a dancer and instructor at Pawtucket-based Dancin’ Spirit Performing Arts, said Vecchiarino, she has plenty of experience with the rigors of a disciplined schedule, long rehearsals, and the tough demands of dance instructor John Rondeau. Those experiences prepared her like nothing else could for the tough auditions, she said, and the Celtics’ talent evaluators got to see the results firsthand.
Vecchiarino said that Dancin’ Spirit owner Christine Atamian Bairos, a woman she called “the best,” could do little but scream when she learned that her prot?©g?© had made the Celtics Dancers team.
“We’re so proud of her,” said Bairos.
Vecchiarino said she knew she needed to take control of her finals audition in order to stand out among hundreds of participants.
“One of the compliments they gave me is that I really attack when I’m dancing,” she said.
Vecchiarino gave her Facebook friends updates during last week’s finals.
The first was on July 10.
“Learned the jazz piece, and half the hip-hop, and finished with the interview,” she wrote. “Happy to announce all went great.”
The second came on day two of final auditions.
“Learned the rest of the hip-hop piece, and ran through everyone’s solo. Also had a feedback session,” she wrote. “My biggest critique is to come tomorrow with bigger hair and more makeup. All my hairdresser friends I need your help.”
Then, on July 12, the final audition by 28 contestants for 18 spots on the 2012-2013 squad, came the news Vecchiarino’s friends and family had been waiting for.
“I am officially a dancer for the Boston Celtics!” she announced.
Vecchiarino said that winning a spot on the Celtics Dancers will open up a world of opportunities in a competitive dance world. She said she wants to be a Celtics Dancer as long as she keeps making the team. After that, she said, who knows what will happen.
Being part of the Celtics Dancers, Vecchiarino will make numerous appearances, learning how to speak and present herself. Being a Celtics Dancer will be “a part-time job with a full-time commitment,” she said. Practices will happen every Tuesday and Thursday, and she and her colleagues will perform at every home game during the upcoming basketball season.
Vecchiarino said she hasn’t talked contract yet, and said pay is one of the last things on her mind as she looks toward the opportunity ahead. Getting a spot on the Celtics Dancers was the big break she’d been waiting for.
