Fabulous Forty
By: Jay Adams
AtlantaFalcons.com
March 24th, 2011
The 2011 Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders team has formed after two grueling days of auditions.
What started off as 237 hopefuls, plus 20 veterans, has now formed into the 40-member team that will represent the Falcons in 2011.
Usually, 32 of the 40 would be gameday performers while eight others would be on what’s called the A-team, or the appearance team, which is a group of cheerleaders that makes public appearances and doesn’t perform on gameday.
That changed Thursday night as cheer coordinator Chato Waters announced that all 40 would be gameday performers — a first for the Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders.
Preliminary auditions were held Sunday at the Georgia World Congress Center as 237 rookie hopefuls came out. The first cut put the group at 126, and then the final 40 rookie candidates were named after another round of cuts.
Those 40 combined with about 20 veterans Thursday night for final auditions as both groups were on even ground. Many of the judges Thursday night weren’t aware of which ladies were veterans and which were rookies.
After about 20 minutes of deliberation, the 2011 team was revealed.
A great turnout of talented dancers from the New Jersey and Philly area turned out last Sunday to audition for a spot as one of the 2011 Jersey Prancers Dancers. The Jersey Prancers are the official dance team for the Jersey Stags Major League Football Team. The tryout was led by Natalie Fredericks (Head Coach) and Christine Sampson (Head Choreographer & Coach) in addition to Arena Dance Pros who choreographed & taught the dance routine to the hopeful finalists. Sixteen dancers were selected for the 2011 season which consists of 9 Veterans and 7 Rookies. They are very excited for the 2011 season to begin. It’s going to be amazing. Congratulations!
By: Jay Adams
AtlantaFalcons.com
March 24th, 2011
The 2011 Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders team will be named tonight, but not before about 60 hopefuls are put through their final audition performances. AtlantaFalcons.com will be streaming live throughout final auditions beginning at 6:30 p.m. today. Join host Niki Noto as we provide interviews, information and all the performances on AtlantaFalcons.com
Preliminary auditions for the 2011 Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders team were Sunday, March 20. More than 230 women tried out before first cuts were made to bring the group to 126. From that group came the 40 finalists.
Those 40 potential rookies will be joined by about 20 AFC veterans as about 60 hopefuls for the 2011 Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders team audition for the final time. Only 40 roster spots are up for grabs.
AtlantaFalcons.com is live streaming the final auditions, hosted by Niki Noto, as all our coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. today. (View the live video player by clicking here).
The former Ravens cheerleader stresses hard work over shortcuts and secrets
|By Laura Vozzella
The Baltimore Sun
March 23, 2011
Molly Shattuck might have hung up her cheerleading pompoms, but she’s still got game.
The oldest cheerleader in NFL history when she made the Ravens’ squad in 2005, Shattuck, now 44, remains in age-defying shape and immersed in venture premised on taut abs and high kicks.
She has just launched a website and video devoted to exercise and other healthful habits, called Molly Shattuck Vibrant Living.
“I want to show the exercises and routines that have worked for me, but it’s so much more than that,” said Shattuck, who also offers advice on healthful eating and drinking at mollyshattuck.com.
The bad news for all who imagine they’re just a $23.99 video away from sculpting their neglected physiques into Barbie bods: Shattuck offers no shortcuts.
“So many people ask me, ‘What is it you do? What’s the secret?'” she said. “There isn’t a secret. It’s not two hours of exercise. It’s move whenever possible, being hydrated with water, being conscientious about what you’re putting into your body.”
Back when Shattuck was cheering for the Ravens — she retired in 2007 but still serves as a part-time coach — she turned down opportunities to do exercise videos tied in with products promising to work magic.
“They wanted me to represent different vitamins and different waters and things I wasn’t really doing,” she said. “I’m not going to do it if it’s not authentic.”
The video, called “The Vibrant Living Workout” and available through the website, was produced independently in Baltimore. A portion of the proceeds will benefit United Way of Central Maryland, which is working with Baltimore City government to try to improve access to healthful foods in underserved neighborhoods. Shattuck has been named the United Way’s “healthy food ambassador.”
Shattuck’s prescription for better health and fitness calls for exercising seven days a week, eating a balanced, healthful diet, and drinking lots and lots of water. She drinks 120 ounces of it every day, downing 32 ounces first thing in the morning and continuing all day long until she is just one cup shy of a gallon.
Shattuck is so gung-ho on plain, old, ordinary tap water that one might assume her husband, Constellation Energy CEO Mayo A Shattuck III, leads a different sort of utility company.
The water helps keep her feeling full and energized, said Shattuck, who sells a curvy, 30-ounce, BPA-free water bottle emblazoned with the word “Molly” along with the video for an extra $8. (It’s sold separately for $11.99.) She doesn’t drink coffee or soft drinks.
“Nothing healthy about them,” she says on her website. “They stain teeth and the caffeine creates a rollercoaster of energy highs and lows throughout the day.”
Shattuck does not lay out a specific diet plan as part of her program.
“I’ve never talked to a single person where dieting actually works,” Shattuck said. “I believe in carbohydrates and starches. You have to have a balance of protein, vegetables and carbohydrates.”
She does offer general guidelines for a healthful diet, which she lists as “10 Eating Essentials.” They include eating at least every four hours to keep the metabolism up, having lots of fruits and vibrantly colored vegetables every day, avoiding processed foods, limiting red meat intake and getting avocados, walnuts and other good fats into the diet.
She believes it’s important to have variety, particularly at breakfast; she might eat bran cereal one day, oatmeal the next, eggs the day after that. There is one constant: She eats spinach every day.
“It fills you up,” she said. “It’s loaded with vitamins and minerals.”
When eating at restaurants, where portion sizes tend to be too big, Shattuck suggests asking for a to-go box to arrive with the food and putting half of the meal inside for the next day’s lunch.
If Shattuck is going to splurge — and she does a little, every day — she’ll do it with a homemade sweet instead of a sugar-free packaged treat that’s full of chemicals and ultimately won’t satisfy her craving.
“I don’t believe in deprivation when it comes to food,” she said. “And so every single day I eat chocolate. I love dark chocolate. Or I’ll have a cookie. I need dessert.”
That philosophy was on display one morning this week in Shattuck’s North Baltimore kitchen. As her children prepared a fruit salad on the kitchen island, two sticks of butter sat out nearby, softening for a baking project later that day.
The children — Spencer, 12; Wyatt,10; and Lillian, 8 — said their mother always makes them eat their vegetables. That is, unless a certain CEO cuts them some slack on the sly.
“Sometimes when I was little, my dad would eat my vegetables,” Lillian said.
“But then I’d bust him, and she’d get more on her tray,” Shattuck said with a laugh.
The exercises on the video are a mix of stretching, cardio and strengthening segments with many, many push-ups. Some of the cardio comes in the form of dance moves straight out of the NFL cheerleader playbook, both bouncy and steamy. Shattuck doesn’t settle for conventional squats, but “sexy squats,” in which one arm slides down a leg while the other moves toward the groin.
“Some of the dances tend to look a little more NFL than the traditional aerobic moves,” Shattuck said.
Shattuck does one segment with the three children. They march, hop, do push-ups and jump invisible ropes. (No sexy squats in this part of the video, thank you very much.)
“We’re a pretty active family,” she said. “I try them [exercise moves] out on them: ‘What do you think of this move?'”
Involving children can make a workout more fun, and make it easier to find time for family and fitness, she said.
2011 Auditions for the Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders started over the weekend, and there are lots of photos online. Click here and here to check out the competition (as well as the ugliest wall-to-wall carpeting I have ever seen outside of a Vegas casino.)
Date
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Time
Registration 12:30pm – 1:00pm
Audition begins at 1:00pm
Location
The Dance Factory School of Performing Arts
28901 South Western Ave, Suite 113
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
(in The Terrace Shopping Center in between a karate studio and Edible Arrangements)
Directions from the North: Take 110 FWY SOUTH, EXIT Pacific Coast Hwy, make a RIGHT off the exit, turn LEFT onto S Western Ave, turn RIGHT into The Terrace Shopping Center, go LEFT towards The Dance Factory
Directions from the South: Take 5 FWY NORTH, to the 405 FWY NORTH, to the 710 FWY SOUTH, continue onto the Vincent Thomas Bridge, take the EXIT LEFT for Gaffrey St/San Pedro, go STRAIGHT/SLIGHT RIGHT off the exit onto W Summerland Pl, turn RIGHT at N Western Ave, make a U-TURN at Caddington Dr, turn RIGHT into The Terrace Shopping Center, go LEFT towards The Dance Factory
What to Expect
When you arrive, proceed to the Registration Area for check-in and receive your audition number. At Registration, you will be required to fill out an application form and sign a release waiver, if you did not pre-register. Please warm-up while you wait for the audition to begin. The choreographer will teach you a short dance combination that you will be required to perform in small groups in front of a panel of judges. After the dance portion, there will be a short interview section. Each dancer is selected based on their dance ability, showmanship, personality, and crowd appeal.
Requirements
• All women must be at least 18 years of age by the date of the audition.
• Bring an 8×10 headshot photo. Photo will not be returned.
• Wear your hair down, and come in full hair and make-up.
• Dress in form fitting dance attire only. Crop top and briefs with flesh colored tights are preferred.
• Only dance or athletic shoes with non-marking soles are allowed.
• No guests or spectators are allowed at the audition.
• You may attach a resume to your application, but it may not be used as a substitution for the application.
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!
If you have further questions or can’t make the audition date,
please contact the Dance Team Director at deebossert@gmail.com
Last month, we posted some shaky video of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders modeling Richie Sambora’s clothing line White Trash Beautiful. Now we also have a handful of photos from the event. Click each to view full size.
By Tanara McLean
Edmonton Sun
March 20, 2011
There was pom pom shaking and hair flips galore.
And it was all in an effort to score a spot on the Edmonton Energy dance team.
“I’m very nervous, but I’m not going to show it,” says Danielle Hill, 18, right before she took the stage to give her best audition.
Hill, along with five other hopefuls, did their best to impress the judges at auditions Sunday afternoon at West Edmonton Mall.
Over the past weeks, the girls have been learning three dances in various styles leading up to Sunday’s dance troupe tryouts for Alberta’s only semi-professional basketball team.
“Obviously, we want girls that know how to dance and have that kind of skill,” says Randi Kondruk, co-founder of the dance team. “But more so than that, it’s the charisma, the personality. It’s getting the word out there about the Energy, and we want that kind of well, energy from the girls.”
This was Round 1 of tryouts, with Round 2 going April 3.
Two by two, the girls took the stage as a panel of judges, including local media and Edmonton Energy players, picked their favourites.
“I want to see something I’ve never seen before,” says Andrew Parker, a player for the Edmonton Energy. “I want to be impressed so that when the fans come out they can see the same thing that I see and have a reason to want to come back in addition to watching us play basketball.”
Although the dance team is in its early stages, it has a respected and experienced director leading the way. Danielle Alasaad has worked with numerous professional dance teams, including the Edmonton Chill and a local university.
“I believe that anytime you’re anywhere, the more energy you have, the more people you have involved, promotions going on, interactions, it makes the team more personable,” she says.
The dance troupe will perform at all home games and are scheduled to take the road for a few of the away games as well.
By Jonathan Brodie
Toronto Sun
March 20, 2011
Participants were literally doing backflips Sunday to make the cut on to the Toronto Argonauts cheerleading team.
“Every year we’re always looking for the total package — great looks, great physique, and obviously dance moves are very important,” said Jorie Brown, head cheerleader of the squad.
The auditions — held at the Renaissance Hotel at the Rogers Centre — opened Saturday with dancers learning basic choreography and going through a gruelling Argos bootcamp.
The tryouts continued Sunday with personal interviews and dance routines.
“(It was) much harder than any audition I’ve ever been to before,” said new Argo cheerleader Jackie, who also cheered with the now defunct Ottawa Renegades.
“It was hard to keep going but there was no way I was going to stop.”
The auditions started with over 125 dancers, with their ranks cut to 34 heading into Sunday. In the end, 24 cheerleaders were given a blue rose to symbolize that they had made the squad.
“I’m just so happy to be a part of it because I know there were so many other girls that were great, as well; so I’m just honoured that they chose me,” said Jackie, who was cut from the team in her first tryout seven years ago.
Since the size of this year’s squad was reduced to 24 dancers from 34 last season, even Argo cheerleading veterans were worried about making the cut.
“You never know when you’re coming back, who’s going to come out, and everyone brings a lot of different things to the team, so there’s always nerves,” said fourth-year Argo cheerleader Alyssa.
