The Warrior Girls, the dance team of the Golden State Warriors professional baseball team, recently held auditions for their 2010-11 squad.
Held at ClubSport of San Ramon, the audition process took place over several days, beginning with initial tryouts on July 24 and semi-finals on July 25.
Finalists will then participate in rehearsals on Tuesday, July 27, and Thursday, July 29, before the final selection is announced on the team’s website, warriors.com, on Friday, July 30.
The Warrior Girls perform at all of the team’s home games at Oracle Arena, appear at community events, and represent the Warriors and the NBA at local, national and international events throughout the year.
The squad’s dance style is primarily hip-hop and jazz although other styles are often incorporated into their dance routines.
Typical dance routines last around 60 to 90 seconds. Over the course of the season the dance squad will perform at 43 home games including two preseason games.
The Warrior Girls are also sometmes booked for special performances or promotional events at both public and private functions.
Click here to enjoy the slideshow…
Work it, Danielle!
Profiles and uniform photos of the 2010 Texans Cheerleaders are now online. Click here to go there now.
You may notice something has changed since the team was selected. The squad is noticeably larger than it used to be. A couple of cheerleaders are missing, and some familiar faces have been added. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that eight of the women currently on the roster were nowhere to be found on the list of finalists published last spring. I’m talking about Alisha, Ashley Si, Erica, Lindsey, Lynette, Rebecca, Larisa, and Marisa. Six of the eight are returning veterans, so perhaps they are captains and didn’t have to audition? But what of the other two? It remains a mystery.
Oh man, this is going to bug the crap outta me until I find out what’s going on…
Update
Here’s the scoop: Lindsey was the final cheerleader selected to the team via fan vote. Duh! I should’ve known that. The other seven are part of a new Texans Cheerleader appearance squad, which will represent the team at various venues and events in the community. Mystery solved!
By Evan Mohl
The Galveston Daily News
July 25, 2010
TEXAS CITY — Amber Martin sat backstage at The House of Blues on Tuesday. The 2008 Texas City graduate had been at this same spot last year, waiting for her name to be called. Only it didn’t happen.
Mostly nervous and partly preparing for another disappointment, Martin ignored the music and all the fans sitting around the stage. She didn’t even pay attention to the other dancers. She put up a wall.
A first name got called with screams and cheers. Then another. The third name came across the microphone, and Martin raised her head.
Was it hers? She thought so but wasn’t sure. No one was cheering and no other girl ran up to accept a spot as part of the 2010 Houston Rockets Power Dancers.
Finally, coach Susie Boudwin announced “Amber Martin” again. Martin came running out, with a huge smile and received her pompoms.
The 20-year-old did it. She made the Houston Rockets Power Dancers.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Martin said. “Words couldn’t even describe the feeling.”
A Dream
Martin giggles about her dream to become a Rockets Power Dancer. She always has loved to be on stage, performing and dancing since she was a toddler.
But she also has a thing for the Rockets. Throughout her childhood, Martin attended games with her family. She enjoyed watching players like Hakeem Olajuwon and Tracy McGrady.
Yet the dancers caught Martin’s eye. She couldn’t believe how 20 girls could captivate an arena of 20,000 people.
Martin wanted to do that. She figured now, at a young age with minimal responsibilities and nothing to lose, was the best time to try.
“I have lots of goals I’d like to accomplish,” Martin said. “But this is one of my dreams, and if I wait too long, it may never happen.”
A Failure And Lesson
Martin tried out in 2009. She wanted to give the Power Dancers a shot, even though she didn’t know much about it. She had no idea the dancers even got paid.
“I just wanted to check it out,” Martin said. “Just to see if I had a chance and what it was all about.”
Martin got a wake-up call. She realized the skill, technique, work and effort it took to make the team. She had to go through a boot camp, three-hour learning sessions and constant judging.
Despite her unfamiliarity and ignorance, Martin hung in at the tryouts thanks to her dancing experience. She picked up the moves rather quickly and advanced to the final round.
Renewed Focus
After getting cut in the final round, Martin realized she had a chance to fulfill her dream. She was determined not to let it slip away.
Martin returned to College Station, where she attended Texas A&M University, and got to work. Between classes, she went to the gym. She also took multiple dance classes each semester to maintain and improve her skill.
Martin estimated she spent two to three hours four days a week in the gym or at a dance class.
“I gained muscles I didn’t know I had,” she said.
Martin also ate well — mostly fruits and vegetables. It helped that she’s lactose intolerant and doesn’t like fried foods.
A Second Chance
Martin came into this year’s tryouts with a new mindset: determined, focused and ready.
She was not fazed by learning dances in 30 minutes, three-hour auditions, interviewing, running laps, receiving criticism or facing off against 204 dancers for 18 spots.
Martin also pulled out all the stops. When Martin introduced herself at The House of Blues in the final round, she said her name and did the moonwalk.
“The crowd went nuts, and I could see the judges smiling,” Martin said. “I just wanted to go for it, and that’s a move that always makes people smile. Ever since high school, I’ve always done it, so I figured why not now?”
It clearly worked.
Back Home
Martin moved back to Texas City to get closer to the Toyota Center so drives to practices and games won’t be too long. She’ll attend the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Martin said she’s looking forward to appearances and being a representative of the Houston basketball organization. She can’t wait for opening night, when she’ll be on the basketball court, helping get the crowd pumped up for a new Rockets season.
Now, all eyes will be fixed on her.
“It’s really a dream come true for me,” Martin said. “I still can’t believe my name got called.”
Scott Cronick’s Blog
Press of Atlantic City
July 22, 2010
A 22-year-old Hammonton resident will not only return to grace the pages of the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders calendar this year, she will be on the cover.
Ivelisse Rivera sports a brown, thong-like bikini made of 100 percent organic material as the eco-friendly calendar focuses on the importance of preserving the world’s oceans. Ten percent of the calendar’s sales will be donated to the Gulf Restoration Network to assist in its cleanup efforts of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rivera, as well as 37 other Eagles cheerleaders, shot the 16-month calendar in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Rivera said getting chosen for the cover was a surprise.
“I was totally shocked when I found out that I was going to be on the cover,” said Rivera, a registered dental assistant for a dental practice in Vineland. “Some of it was luck because it rained for some of the days we were shooting there in May. My morning started cloudy, but it turned into a gorgeous day.”
Rivera is also seen inside the calendar for August 2011 wearing bikini bottoms with “Save the Chagos” imprinted on them. The Chagos Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean, was established as the largest marine protected-area in the world. Rivera hopes she can raise awareness to get even more people involved.
The calendar goes hand-in-hand with environmental projects that the cheerleaders are actively involved with year-round.
“I really like that the calendar is helping the efforts in the Gulf,” said Rivera, the first Hispanic to be on the cover. “We went to the Delaware River, and we cleaned up more than 600 pounds of trash. People throw so much in the river, and a lot of that ends up in our oceans.”
The calendar is available online and at bookstores nationwide. For a link to buy the calendar, click here.
On Friday evening, members of the Cincinnati Be-Gals took to the runway to for swimsuit fashion show. The New York-based couture swimsuit line, Cala Ossidiana provided the attire. Click here to view Cincinnati.com’s photos from the event.
It’s time for the final round of auditions for the Los Angeles Clippers Spirit Dance Team!
I enjoy finals. At this point in the process, everyone is a great dancer. They’ve had time to rehearse, work on their showmanship, and polish their game day hair and makeup. No cuts are made on finals night, so from my perspective, finals are more like a showcase than an audition.
I recognize that I’m the only one who feels that way, but to me, it’s free entertainment.
Okay fine, it’s a showcase…with judges
I wondered how the interviews went. That’s the part of the process that I don’t get to see. (And thank goodness for that.) Still, if someone crashed and burned in the interview, it would be good to know that going into finals. It’s not like I’m going to ask though, since it is so obviously none of my business.
I wonder if they tell the girls how they did. Like, if you have a really crappy interview, would they pull you aside and say “I’m going to be real honest with you. This was a disaster.”
Hmm…I’ll have to ask Audrea and Cheryl about that. (Clippers Director and Asst. Director of Entertainment Groups, respectively)
Finals took place at the Pace All-Stars Dance Studio, a different location than prelims. It took me a bit longer to get there than I expected, so all of the dancers arrived before I did. When I walked in, they were already rehearsing.
From left: Celestine, Kellie, Linette, Andi, and Chelsea
Nicole C.
This was a smaller space, more suitable for finals than the cavernous GMT Studios. It was pretty snazzy, with the exposed brick and all. Being a dance studio, it of course had the requisite wall ‘o mirrors. The dancers would be able to watch themselves. I didn’t know if this was a plus or a minus. On one hand, they’d be able to catch themselves if they did something funky or forgot to smile. On the other hand, the judges table was set up right in front of the mirrors. It’s hard not to look at yourself when faced with a wall of mirrors. Would the dancers be distracted by their own reflections and forget to look at the judges?
Trust me to walk into a room and immediately focus on everything that could possibly go wrong.
(I can’t help it. I’m a pessimist AND a Virgo.)
This was also a chance to eyeball everyone who’d made it through to finals. I recognized most of them, but there were a couple who’d slipped by me at prelims. Not that they blended into the woodwork, or anything, but I tend to focus on one person at a time when I’m taking pictures, and since they audition in groups of three, I don’t always get to see everyone in each group.
I did a quick count, and we were down to 29 finalists from the 31 selected. Who knows what happened to other two. Freak rodeo accident? Flying monkeys? Too much Seafood Surprise at the Hometown Buffet?
Maybe one of them tried to take the other out, Tonya Harding-style, and now one is in jail and the other is on crutches.
(I suspect the truth is less interesting. Probably they took a look at the schedule and decided to head for zee hills.)
The dancers all seemed very composed, but I was nervous as heck for them. I really wanted them to do well. I persist in the hope that one year Audrea will say “What the heck, we’re putting all of you on the team!” And then she’d pass out some juice boxes and Chex mix and we’d all gather around and talk about our summer vacation plans.
So I went down the line and wished everyone luck individually. More than that, I made them all high-five me. I was probably kind of loud about it. And I might’ve done a little dance.
High five, chica!
Go get ‘em champ!
Show ‘em what you got!
You can do it, I know you can!
You got this, girl!
Woohoo!
Who can’t use an “atta girl” once in a while?
I keep forgetting that photographers are supposed to be unobtrusive. I should write that on my hand.
Meanwhile, there were a couple of aspiring newbies I wanted to pull to the side and say “Listen, you’ve got this sewn up. You are totally on this team – unless you mess up right now. Get out there and don’t screw up!
Not that I would do that. I can’t think of anything that would get me escorted off the premises faster. (Actually, I can think of a few things. One of them involving massive property damage, but that’s not relevant to this discussion…)
The other reason I wouldn’t do it is because my predictions are wrong more often than they are right. (Although really did feel fairly certain about a couple of girls.)
So I kept my opinions to myself. My lips are zipped.
At 6 o’clock, Marianne (Clippers Game Entertainment Manager) gathered the girls together and explained the process for finals: Hip hop first, then jazz, then the solos. I wanted to suggest that afterward we could all sing a rousing rendition of the Clippers Fight Song.
I don’t think the Clippers have a fight song, though. And I doubt everyone knows all the verses to “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.”
The dancers did the hip hop routine in groups of three. I really wanted to see what this would look like, now that everyone had had a couple of days to recover.
Emi and Anasheh
Destiney
Brittany B.
Celestine
Jacy
Justene
The hip hop round was followed by what I refer to as the first “head-trip” of the evening. The judges call the dancers back in groups of 6 or 8 to perform the dance again. Some people are called once. Others several times.
From left: Andi, Lisa, Justene, Chelsea, and Nicole C.
Some of the reasoning behind this is obvious. They start off having the girls that kind of look alike go together. All the blondes. All the short brunettes, all the exotic looking girls, etc. After all, as Marianne says, this is a casting for a diverse team. They can’t have 16 blonde girls – this is the Clippers, not the Swedish Bikini team. So if you know you can only have 4-5 blondes (or however many), you’re going want to see them dance side by side so you can pick the best of the bunch. It is what it is.
After that is when it messes with your head. The groups start to look a little random. Nobody knows why the judges chose certain girls to audition in certain combinations, or why they have certain girls do it once, and others two or three times. It can drive a girl crazy, thinking, why did they call me three times? Why did they put me next to her? Why did they put me in the back row instead of the front? Did I screw up last time?
Or maybe I’m projecting. The dancers are all probably used to it. But that’s what I’d be thinking.
It goes very quickly, though, and hey, if you screwed up one time, you get at least one do-over.
After that, the dancers got a break to pat themselves dry. then it was time for the jazz combination. Marianne stood up and told everyone to go take their pants off. (snicker.)
Katrina
Andi and Teresa
Emi
Chelsea
Ariana and Michelle
Jazz went well. Looking good, ladies!
(I’m happy to report that this time around, nobody ended up facing the wrong way.)
I kept mistaking Bianca for Teresa, which makes no sense because they don’t look alike. Later on, I realized what it was. Check out Bianca from this year and Teresa from last year:
For the record, it does bother me that I can remember obscure stuff like this.
I seem to remember outfits more than faces.
Jazz was followed by the second head trip of the evening, as Marianne once again called the girls in seemingly random combinations to do the dance a few more times. It went quickly and without incident. I noticed a couple of girls losing a little bit of energy. I couldn’t say that I blamed them. It was just as hot, if not hotter than it had been on Saturday. It’s the kind of heat that sucks the life right out of you.
Chelsea, Anasheh, Nicole Z, and Teresa
Linette, Emi, and Bianca
Jacquelyn, Kellie, and Katrina
Many of the girls – especially the vets – were going strong, like the heat was not a factor at all. By contrast, it made some of the others look like they were really dogging it. I had to bite my tongue. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to pull a couple girls aside for a little pep talk.
“Listen up sister, I know it’s hot. Look at me, the whole back of my shirt is wet and it’s totally gross. But I really need you to perk up okay? Just for the next five minutes, and then you can collapse. I know you can do this. COME ON. MAN UP!”
I didn’t say it. But I was thinking it in their direction. Hard.
There was a short break and then we moved on to the final portion of the auditions: the individual performances. The solos are fun. It’s cool to see what everyone can do when they don’t have to remember specific choreography.
There was lots of tumbling, spinning, leaping, and other assorted displays of musicality, flexibility, showmanship, and things of that nature.
Andi
Emi
Jacquelyn
Jacy
Jocelyn
Kellie
Linette
Nicole L.
Nicole Z.
Maki did this thing, which I always see during the audition episodes of So You Think You Can Dance. I don’t know what this leap is called. It kind of looks like you jumped into an invisible washing machine during the spin cycle.
Maki
I think one girl completely forgot whatever she had planned for her solo. Honestly, I’m surprised that doesn’t happen more often. I was a little worried for her, but I thought she probably did enough to get by.
No. I’m not going to say who it was!
And then it was over. There was a big round of applause and many heartfelt sighs of relief.
Nicole Z., Lisa, and Brittney B.
Emi, Jocelyn, Brittney B., Anasheh, Linette, and Liz
Nicole C., Rhea, Brittany W., and Justene
Marianne and Audrea thanked everyone for coming, said the team would be announced the next morning, and advised everyone to go grab a burger and get some rest. Then the judges disappeared somewhere to make the tough decisions about who to put on the team.
Those who made the team would have to hit the ground running: finals on Wednesday, the announcement on Thursday, and mini camp starting Friday afternoon. The first home game isn’t until October, but they don’t get to sit around shooting the bull until then. This really is a year-round job and there’s a lot to be accomplished before the NBA season begins.
Since this was over a week ago, the team has of course been announced. You probably already took a peek. But if you didn’t, here’s the scoop: all of the veterans made it back, plus nine newbies: Andi, Kellie, Justene, Bianca, Chelsea, Anasheh (former USC Song Girl), Jocelyn (former Utah Jazz Dancer), and ChivaGirls Liz and Mandi.
Without further ado, here are the 2010-11 Los Angeles Clippers Spirit Dancers.
Congratulations, ladies! I’m wicked-proud of you.
[Click here for more photos from finals]
Anasheh
(1st year)
Andi
(1st year)
Bianca
(1st year)
Brittany W.
(4th year)
Chelsea
(1st year)
Jacquelyn
(2nd year)
Jocelyn
(1st year)
Justene
(1st year)
Katrina
(2nd year)
Kellie
(1st year)
Liz
(1st year)
Mandi
(1st year)
Nicole
(4th year)
Recee
(3rd year)
Rhea
(2nd year)
Teresa
(3rd year)
22 Dancers have been chosen for the 2010 New Orleans Hornets Dance Team, and they’ve already got uniform shots up on the website. Click here to check out the new Honeybees and view video and photos from this year’s auditions!
by Wayne Crenshaw
78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Robins Air Force Base, GA
7/9/2010
Fans of the Atlanta Hawks will see a Team Robins member at games in the upcoming season.
Andrea “Andi” Phillips, a full-time lifeguard with Outdoor Recreation, was among over 200 women to try out recently for the A-Town Dancers, the Hawks dance team, and she made the squad.
The dancers perform before games and during timeouts at Philips Arena. Phillips, 21, was involved in cheerleading and dancing from the time she was in middle school but it was her first time trying out for the A-Town Dancers.
“I was so shocked,” she said of her reaction when she got the call that she had made the team. “It was killing me to find out. I was so excited.”
She is the daughter of Master Sgt. Kris McMahan, a training manager in the 116th Air Control Wing.
She lives in Warner Robins and will have to make the drive to Atlanta for practices, games and other public appearances. But the dancers rotate, so she won’t be at every game, and she gets paid both for her appearances and her travel expenses.
She was inspired to try out after her boyfriend took her to a Hawks playoff game against the Orlando Magic earlier this year. It was her first game. Her boyfriend suggested she try out for the squad, and when she got home she looked into it.
The tryout extended over three days, including two prep clinics, an interview with judges, and even a written test to find out what the girls knew about the Hawks team.
“I didn’t do so well on that,” she said.
She has a twin sister, Michelle, who had always danced with her.
“It was my first time doing it without her,” she said. “I was so nervous.”
KENS5.com: Always a fan favorite – The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders fired up the crowd inside The Alamodome in downtown San Antonio. Friday, July 23, 2010. (Photo Credit: Jeff Anastasio / KENS 5)
