Profiles now online. Click here to read up on the team.

Profiles and Bio picks now online. Click here!

Congratulations to the 2009-10 Automotion Dancers, and particularly congrats to Christine for winning the fan vote. Click here to watch the video.

Sixers.com: the 2009-10 Sixrs Dancers are at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, shooting their second swimsuit calendar. Check us out on Twitter and Flickr for a behind-the scenes look and take a look at the photo gallery.

Milwaukee Bucks: The first stage of the Energee! audition process is in the books and the finalists have been selected.

Meet the Finalists
Watch: Dancers’ Point of View | Inside Auditions
Photos: Day 1 |Day 2 | Full Audition coverage

Charlotte Bobcats: On Friday, July 31, 2009 at Time Warner Cable Arena, 21 dancers were selected to become members of the 2009-10 Lady Cats. More than just an in-arena feature, the squad makes countless charitable and promotional appearances throughout the year. Here’s your chance to get a closer look at each Lady Cats members.

Vote on 2009 Lady Cats Audition Awards
2009-10 Finals Gallery
2009-10 Auditions Gallery
Follow the Lady Cats on Twitter

Last week, I had a chance to sit in on the first day of auditions for the NHL Los Angeles Kings Ice Crew. Brooklyn Boyars, Manager of Game Day Presentation for the Kings, was nice enough to let me snoop my way in and observe tryouts.

Brooklyn

I’d never been to that kind of audition, so I was pretty excited to go, and learn all that I could. I figured you guys would be interested too, so I took lots of photos. Maybe this is something you’d like to try!

The audition process reminded me a lot of the skating parties I used to go to as a little kid. Everyone looked like they were having such a great time, it was easy to forget that it was an audition. I walked away at the end of the day, wishing I could go back in time to finish those skating lessons and enroll in zamboni school.

Maybe it’s not too late for the zamboni part.

A little background: Last year, the Kings had two different entertainment groups: the off-ice Kings Crew (co-ed) and the on-ice Metal Ice Crew (all girls). This year, the two teams merged into the all new Kings Crew. The Crew is responsible for keeping the ice clear. They shovel the surface during breaks and pick up anything that gets thrown out on the ice.

In addition to that, they are involved in contests, fan-participation games, on-ice activities, give-aways, and just about anything else needed to add fun and excitement to the game day experience. They also represent the Kings at various events throughout the community.

The audition consists of three parts:
1. A series of drills to test the girls’ skating ability/potential
2. A bunch of fun activities simulating typical game day activities
3. An off-ice interview with the judges

The first thing, of course, was registration out front…

Then you had to go inside and pick up your assigned number.

Girls who didn’t have skates of their own could rent them from the facility. (The Toyota Sports Center, in El Segundo, CA) Note: these are hockey skates. None of that Sasha Cohen toe pick stuff here.

The girls gathered in the stands to wait for the audition to start.

Last year’s veterans were back to fight for their spots on the team.

Once the zamboni had cleared the ice, Brooklyn gathered everyone around to explain the audition process.

Then the girls hit the ice to warm up for a few minutes. Some skated like pros. Others weren’t as skilled, but were willing to try. I was impressed. I thought there would be a lot more falling and crashing into the walls. There was some of that. But not much.

Whoops!

FYI: I had no idea it would be this hard to photograph skaters. They never stop moving. You have no idea how many blurry photos I have to show for my efforts.

It looked like fun. Grrr…I wish I hadn’t quit those skating lessons.

Then Brooklyn introduced the judges, and split the women in two groups to run through a series of on-ice drills. There were a lot of them. These are a few of the ones I wrote down. (I apologize for my lack of appropriate skating terminology.)

1. Starting and stopping (As is turns out, the ability to stop is muy importante)
2. Skating backwards
3. Swizzles (Swizzles are the reason I quit skating lessons. I could swizzle out, but I never figured out how to swizzle back in. You kinda have to do both parts, or it’s not a bona fide swizzle.)
4. Skating on one foot. Then on the other foot.
5. Doing squats (like at the gym) while gliding across the ice
6. Gliding across with one knee down in a kneeling position

Then it started to get complicated as they skated around in a series of circles and complicated patterns. Circles to the left. Circles to the right. Circles going forward, circles going backward. Skating forward half way around, then backward the rest of the way around. It had something to do with inside edges, outside edges, and cross overs. To me, it mostly looked like a lot of circles.

There was one exercise where they had to skate halfway across the rink, skid to a stop, turn and skate back to the starting line, then turn and skate all the way across to the other side of the rink. And they had to do it FAST.

Then they had to do this crazy scramble thing, where they all had to skate around randomly in one small area of the ice. It looked kind of crazy, with everyone going in different directions, until the coach yelled STOP! Then they had to come to an immediate stop. Presumably without knocking anyone else over.

I think the purpose was to show the ability to stop without much room, and to maneuver around other moving bodies on the ice. (I’m making that up. I have no idea what it’s for.)

It was kind of like demented musical chairs, but on ice.

And without the chairs.

Next, it was time to give it a shot with the tools of the trade. During games, the Ice Crew has to shovel the surface of the ice. So during auditions they had to heft those shovels around and show that they could do it with ease (and maybe a little finesse.)

Those shovels looked heavy. They were bigger than some of the girls hauling them around!

Next up was the hat drill. Brooklyn and the coaches threw a bunch of ball caps down on the ice. The girls had to take turns skating around and picking up the hats. It was kind of like a relay race.

After picking up a hat, you had to throw it back down again, for the next group to pick up.

It looked pretty easy. But for someone like myself who can barely stand upright on skates, bending over to pick something up looks just about impossible.

Then they started to get into the super fun part. The had to practice tossing these big floppy Frisbee-things to each other. The kicker was, you had to CATCH it. Throwing is easy. Catching, not so much.

I mentioned that they were on ICE SKATES, right?

I can’t throw a Frisbee on dry land. It always goes waaay off to the right. I tried playing Frisbee with my friend’s dog one time. He watched it go flying, rolled his eyes, turned his back on me, and sat down. Ouch.

But I digress…

I guess you have to have some kind of aim, if you’re going to be throwing t-shirts etc. to the crowd on game day. I don’t know if that’s actually the point of the exercise, but it’s my theory, anyway.

The last part of the on-ice audition was another free skate. They cranked up the music, and gave the girls an opportunity to show off a bit. This was the charisma/crowd appeal portion of the tryout.

I’m not sure how the judges scored this. The girls really got into it. I saw some spinning, some dancing, even some air guitar. Almost everyone got Low with Flo Rida.

And finally, it was over. The girls took off their skates and put on their sweaters. The judges gathered to prepare for group interviews. That’s when I took off. Interviews are always closed. Who needs another person in the room, blinding you with a camera flash, while you’re trying to stay composed and answer questions intelligently? So I don’t mind skipping interviews.

But oh boy, I wish I could’ve gone to the second day of auditions.

They were going to have a fitness evaluation, a game simulation, and even more fun on-ice stuff. I have a feeling I really missed out.

All I can say is, I am definitely going to a Kings game this fall. I don’t know how I’m going to make that happen, but I’m going to make it happen. I want to see how this story ends – who made the team, and how they do their thing on game day.

The next time you go to a Kings game, give a wave to the Ice Crew. Their job is fun, but not nearly as easy as it looks!

Taylor Hooks was a member of the Los Angeles Clippers Spirit Dance Team for four seasons. She was one of the most popular members of the team, and fans were always excited to meet her at the games.

These days, Taylor is doing well and busier than ever. This month, you can find her in Shape Magazine, talking about making time for fitness in her busy schedule.

Go out a buy a copy, while it’s still on the newsstands. It the one with Jada Pinkett-Smith on the front. You’ll find Taylor on inside of back cover.

Hey, if you plan to go to a Clippers home game this fall, you might want to keep an eye out for Taylor. She still goes to the games now and then, and you just might run into her in the stands. She’s got a big smile and a warm heart, so go over and say hello. Tell her you saw her in Shape magazine.

(Unless you’re going to be all weird about it. In that case, leave the poor girl alone.)

Thirty five finalists took to the stage at the Winningstad Theater in Portland’s Center for the Performing Arts for the final round of auditions to determine which 16 ladies would grace the Rose Garden floor as BlazersDancers during the 2009-2010 Trail Blazers season. Hundreds of family members and friends packed the theater to support the dancers and were treated to a fantastic show.

Comcast SportsNet was also on hand again this year to record the auditions for a reality TV show set to air this fall, adding to the excitement for both the dancers and their fans.

The dancers came prepared to perform the two group routines that they had learned the previous weekend along with a solo routine. However, when the dancers arrived they were surprised with an additional dance to perform and only one hour to prepare for it. Luckily, this was a free-style “hot time-out” dance that didn’t require any choreography, but instead was meant to test the dancers’ ability to have fun and play to the crowd.

Once the show was underway, the finalists danced their hearts out for an expert panel of judges and an enthusiastic crowd. Four routines and five hours later, the auditions were over and the dancers could breathe a sigh of relief. But now came the toughest part of the audition process for the dancers, waiting until the following day to find out the results.

The next afternoon, when the dancers arrived at the Rose Garden they were anxious, nervous and excited to find out if they had captured one of the 16 spots on the team. Each dancer was led one by one into the Trail Blazers locker room where they found a locker with their name on it covered by a curtain. Behind the curtain they would find either a BlazerDancer uniform – meaning they made the 2009-2010 BlazerDancers, or an empty locker – meaning their quest to become one of the final 16 was over, at least for this year. For some, the wait was well worth it, for others the day ended in disappointment.

The lucky 16 who found uniforms in their lockers greeted each other with excited screams, hugs and tears. This season’s team has familiar faces with eleven returning dancers and two dancers who were on the team in previous years, as well as three rookies.

The Trail Blazers are happy and proud to introduce you to a group of young women the fans will come to know very well.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE 2009-2010 TEAM

[Click here for photos from the BlazerDancer finals

Hellooooo Orlando Girls!

I know you’ve been sitting around, watching all these other auditions go by, thinking “Gee, when is it going to be my turn?”

It’s now.
Your turn is RIGHT NOW.

Auditions for the 2009-10 Orlando Magic Dancers are scheduled for Saturday, August 15th. That gives you two weeks to take a few dance classes, get your outfit together, and do about a million crunches. In addition, the team is offering audition prep classes on August 5, 6, 7, 12, and 13. They’ll tell you everything you need to know to feel confident going into auditions. (Or, as confident as a person can feel when auditioning alongside a couple hundred other women.)

Click here to find everything you need to know on OrlandoMagic.com.

I don’t think I need to impress upon you what a fantastic opportunity this is. The Magic Dancers dance, of course. But wait – that’s not all. They dunk! They boogie with their daddies! And last year – they went to the NBA finals. (Perhaps you heard?)

And although my favorite Magic Dancer, the supremely cool and talented Miss. Megan Clementi, has retired (moment of silence, please…), the silver lining is that leaves one more pair of empty go-go boots on the squad.

Just think – at next year’s playoffs, YOU could be the one dangling precariously from the ceiling in pointy-toed boots! Personally, I would pay money for that experience.