Alice Chien, a Walnut High alumna, opened Dancecapade Performing Arts Center in Diamond Bar in 2004.
By Melanie C. Johnson
Diamond Bar Patch
August 4, 2011
Alice Chien’s start in dance was a reluctant one.
The Walnut High School alumna took her first class at five years old, largely because she had no choice.
“I didn’t want to go,” Chien said. “I danced because my mom made me go.”
More than three decades later, the 36-year-old Chino Hills resident has not only developed a passion for dance, she is sharing her love of the art form with her students as the owner of Dancecapade Performing Arts Center in Diamond Bar.
Her Yellow Brick Road studio offers classes in jazz, ballet, tap, salsa, hip hop and lyrical dance for children and teens, as well as yoga and Zumba for adults.
Chien opened the studio in 2004, but she has been teaching since she was 18. Her interest in dance deepened while she was a student at Suzanne Middle School.
Suzanne had a dance club on campus and Chien started to perform. At Walnut High, she was on the dance team. For the quiet young girl who never said a word in class, dancing provided a means of expression, she said.
“Dance is like an outlet,” she said. “You don’t have to talk. You just move your body. You feel really good when you’re moving and dancing.”
Chien said she enjoyed dancing as a hobby, but never thought it for a career.
She juggled her studies at USC while a member of the university’s dance team. After graduating, she worked as a financial analyst for a real estate company.
But she kept dancing, this time on a much larger stage.
The year was 1999 and it was the height of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant era. Chien found herself vying for a spot on the Laker girls, along with around 600 other hopefuls. She made the squad.
Chien said she never took to watching basketball on television, but enjoyed the close up look she got in the four years she was with the Laker girls.
“It’s very exciting when you’re down on the floor,” she said.
Chien retired from the squad in 2003 and got married. She did a few commercials, music videos and television shows, but knew that she didn’t want to make performing her career.
Her dad’s friend owned a building on Yellow Brick Road and Chien decided to try renting it and put her teaching experience and business acumen to work for her.
“I wasn’t planning to have a dance studio,” she said. “It just happened.”
She named the center Dancecapade after the Janet Jackson song “Escapade,” which she loved to play to warm up her classes, she said.
Each year, she puts on a recital at Citrus College so her students can experience what it is like to perform on stage.
Katrina Hirabayashi’s daughter Zoe, 9, has been studying dance at the studio for two years. She takes ballet, jazz and tap, as well as tumbling.
Hirabayashi said the studio is well run. Chien pushes her students, but also makes it enjoyable and keeps it developmentally appropriate for them, she said.
“She is a perfect combination of strict and fun,” Hirabayashi said. “There is a very positive atmosphere in the studio. It’s just a feeling you get.”
by Christine Distadio
KHOU.com
August 4, 2011
Texans players aren’t the only ones working hard to prepare for the 2011 season.
Texans cheerleaders practice several hours each week to perfect their dance moves before they take the field.
KHOU 11 News Meteorologist Chita Johnson joined them for a recent practice session
Peter Peters
The Manly Daily
8/5/2011
Angela Nicotera couldn’t phone home without a camera crew filming her call for reality television when she became a member of the world’s most famous cheerleaders, the Dallas Cowgirls, this week.
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders – Making the Team was being filmed and the former Manly Sea Eagles Seabirds brunette they call “Down Under” was the star turn.
It was a stark reminder that for the next 12 months her life will undergo a massive change.
The 27-year-old from North Ryde is a nine-year veteran of cheerleading in the NRL in the much respected Sea Eagles Seabirds under the guidance of 17-season choreographer, founder, coach and confidante, Monique Carroll.
It was Carroll who planted the seed that grew into the idea that the daughter of an Italian music-shop owner should try out for the blue and white cheergirls representing what is known in the National Football League as “America’s Team”.
Despite having a thriving career as a qualified chiropractor in front of her, Angela took the bait when it was dangled in front of her.
For the past few years Monique Carroll has sensed that her most powerful dance member needed a new challenge and it lay in the United States.
“She was talking about giving cheerleading away and she was at the perfect stage of her life to make the move,” Carroll said.
“She recently got her degree in Chiropractic Science from Macquarie University and has that part of her life in a professional capacity waiting for her.
“But she was cherry ripe to have the maturity and drive to go overseas and climb a mountain. Angela is a dynamic dancer and has presence – she stands out.
“She wasn’t afraid to have a go at climbing a mountain where someone younger may have.”
And our Angela is something of a joker.
When she phoned her tutor this week her first words were: “Hi Monique, it’s Angela with some bad news!”
There were sobs and then laughter with the call on loudspeaker.
Monique Carroll has been around too long to fall for the prankster she knew was part of Angela’s personality.
Then the words: “I won’t be home for a year. I’m in!”
Angela Nicotera applied online to become a Dallas Cowgirl, was granted a tryout and became one of 540 applicants to pass the first tests.
A few photos of Angela at this year’s DCC audition
Then five days a week for four hours at night for the first month she danced her feet off.
The group was cut to 140 down to 76 and then 46 with eight girls cut this week for the group to be settled at 34.
The group of 46 was taken to an exhaustive eight-week training program before the axe came down for the final time.
The 34 girls will raise more than $1 million for the Cowboys organisation and owner Jerry Jones this season.
Angela gets paid just $150 per week as a base salary but up to $200 per performance and community work on at least three to four events each week.
Her first home-ground appearance at the team’s 120,000 capacity stadium in Dallas is in a sold-out pre-season game next Thursday, August 11.
“Down Under” has been in massive demand in Dallas this week as the American media wanted to interview the leggy Aussie with the flashing pearly whites.
Her dance mates call her “Down Under” but the media have added “Thunder” to her nickname.
*****
Life in Dallas wasn’t all smooth sailing for Angela as she had a disagreement with her first flatmate before being taken in by the family of a Dallas-born girl who has also made the final group.
The Cowgirls don’t travel to away games and have very strict guidelines about mixing socially with any of the players.
“It’s a no-no and very strictly administered, much like the Manly Seabirds,” said Monique Carroll, who started her cheerleading with the Parramatta Eels as an 11-year-old.
Parramatta and the Penrith Panthers, who were the first club to embrace cheering, trailblazed the cheerleaders as pre- and mid- match entertainment back in the early and mid-80s.
But up until now, no girl has dared go where Angela has gone.
Jennifer Hawkins went from the Newcastle Knights cheergirl squad to a Miss Universe title and is an inspiration to every young Australian female. Angela Nicotera is living proof that our girls can overcome early disappointment. Back in 2001 she tried out for the South Sydney cheergirls and didn’t make the team under the instruction of Monique Carroll who was running both the Rabbitohs and Sea Eagles cheerleaders.
In 2002 Angela’s determination and improvement saw her chosen by the same Mrs Carroll at an audition in the then club rooms opposite Manly Leagues Club.
In the end Angela’s talent and refusal won through.
That same grit and will to win still burns within her. Go girl!
Click here to watch videos from this year’s open call audition for the Detroit Pistons dance team.
Linda, Lauren, Karolyn, and Ashley
Nina, Christina, and Tina
Linda, Lauren, and Tina
Tina, Janna, Christina, and Esmeralda
Freddy Hunt
kens5 San Antonio
8/3/2011
Bright smiles, high hopes and skimpy dance outfits filled the AT&T Center on Tuesday night as two dozen beautiful women competed for a spot on the 2011-2012 Silver Dancers.
Spurs fans — and Silver Dancers fans — cheered for their favorites as the dancers moved and grooved to the dance routine learned earlier in the week. After judges carefully evaluated each of the performances, and some brief entertainment from the Spurs Coyote, 15 contestants were presented with roses and offered a position on the dance team.
Megan Moseley
Walton Sun
August 02, 2011
Crowds gathered on the beaches this weekend as the Tennessee Titan cheerleaders posed for their upcoming 2012 calendar in Seaside.
Seaside was chosen as the ideal location for the shoot. Having been to Sandestin and Miramar Beach a few times, it was the ladies’ first visit to 30A.
Around 25 professional cheerleaders made the trip from Nashville, Tenn., to Seaside. They arrived Friday morning and headed home this past Monday.
When they weren’t up at 4 a.m. getting their pictures taken or posing with the sunset, they were out on the town visiting local spots such as Bud & Alley’s, Barefoot BBQ, Great Southern Café, Modica Market and the Shrimp Shack.
Stacie Kinder, director of cheerleaders for the Titans, was running around the beach gathering the cheerleaders together Friday night before taking a break to talk to The Sun.
“My favorite thing about this town is the culture,” she said. “The culture is quaint; it’s authentic and has a genuine feeling of openness and honesty.”
Kinder, who has been working hand in hand with Seaside Cottage Rental Agency, was pleased with the hospitality the squad received.
Jon Ervin, director of public relations and marketing for Seaside Cottage Rental Agency, said it was their pleasure to play host.
“We have a lot of people who come to visit us from Nashville, so it was a great opportunity for us,” he said. “They inquired about the area in May. We were glad to have them here. Nothing was finalized, however, until a few weeks ago, but everything went well. We had three days of spectacular weather and they said that it’s their best footage ever.”
The beautiful beaches were the backdrop for the Titan squad, and many of the cheerleaders were impressed by the allure and beauty of the Emerald Coast.
“It’s like a little hidden piece of heaven,” said Stephanie A., a 19-year-old Titan cheerleader and full-time student. As a matter of policy, the squad doesn’t release the full name of its members, but Anne P. said her family has been coming to Seaside for vacation since she was a kid. When she heard that’s where the shoot was taking place, she was ecstatic.
“I’m honored that we get to showcase the beauty here,” she said.
And showcase they did. Many stood by to watch the bathing beauties pose in the sunlight.
Auditions are over and the San Antonio Spurs have selected their 2011-12 Silver Dancers. Congratulations!
Individual profiles and uniform photos of the Broncos Cheerleaders are now online. Click here to check ’em out!
Heather, Becky, and Lauren G.
By Melissa Montoya
Swampscott Patch
8/3/2011
The NFL lockout lasted 18 weeks and four days, but Michelle Nigro was optimistic that it would come to an end.
It’s a good thing, too, because Nigro has been practicing to make her debut this season as a Patriots cheerleader.
A resident of Swampscott, she was one of the 31 women chosen from 300 hopefuls for this season’s cheerleading squad.
This is Nigro’s second year on the team.
“I’m not a rookie anymore,” Nigro said. “I’m a veteran on the team.”
Not only does the squad have to cheer at home games, but they’re also responsible for promotional appearances throughout the season, including a week-long shoot for a calendar.
“I enjoy all of it,” Nigro said, “I love dancing and I’m excited to do it again.”
Nigro has been dancing since she was three and was part of her high school dance team.
“I’ve always liked to move to the music,” she said.
Patriots cheerleaders practice twice a week, during the summer and football season.
Nigro, a senior at Emerson College in Boston, has been very productive this summer.
She works a part-time job, babysits, interns at WCVB Channel 5 and cheerleads.
At Emerson, Nigro is studying journalism. She hopes to one day work as a reporter or producer for a news channel.
“I’m not a professional dancer so optimally my career path is to go into journalism,” Nigro said. “Cheerleading is a hobby I take seriously.”
For Nigro, the most exciting part is being able to cheer for one of her favorite teams.
“Nothing is better than being on the field when patriots win at home and 70,000 fans go crazy and celebrate,” Nigro said. “It’s a good feeling.”
The Patriots will play against the Jacksonville Jaguars in a preseason game on Aug. 11.
