Alex Tsambos Takes the Helm of Newcastle Knights’ Cheerleading Team

By Matt TaylorCentral
Coast Gosford Express Advocate

Alex Tsambos is a superhero of sorts. By day she is a mild-mannered accountant. But by night she trades her business suit and calculator for tights and pompoms as she spreads her wings in charge of an NRL cheerleading team.

“Cheerleading lets me get my creative side out after being at a desk and immersed in numbers during the day,” Ms Tsambos said.

nrl

This week the 28-year-old Umina Beach resident realised a dancing dream when she started as director of the Newcastle Knights’ cheerleading team.

“I’ve just had eight years cheerleading for the Manly Sea Eagles, and I’m definitely ready to step up now,” she said.

“I have always wanted to be a director of an NRL cheerleading team, and I can’t wait for the season to start.”

Ms Tsambos, who graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Newcastle’s Ourimbah campus about five years ago, said many cheerleaders in the NRL were degree-qualified­ women.

“We all tend to do cheerleading as a hobby. And this stigma of the girls getting into it to date footballers is rubbish,” she said.

“The girls do it to entertain the children and the families. We all love to perform, and it gives us a chance to be part of the NRL.”
Asked what made a top-notch cheerleader, she said: “You have to train hard and a lot of it comes down to your personality.”

Her new role with the Knights, who finished with the wooden spoon in 2015, will see her work up to 20 hours a week on planning, choreography, uniforms, promotional work and game days.

Ms Tsambos is hoping her good friend Angela Nicotera, of the world-famous ­Dallas Cowboys NFL cheerleading team, will teach her Knights girls some new moves this year.

“Ang and I were cheerleaders together at Manly. The NRL will start introducing more of the American-style tumbling and acrobatics in the future, so she can hopefully help us with that.

“We are always looking to offer more great entertainment for the fans.”

Dolphins Become First NFL Franchise To Host Multiple International Cheerleader Auditions

MiamiDolphins.com
January 21, 2016

International 2016 MDC Auditions

The Miami Dolphins will host cheerleader auditions in Bogota, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Mexico City, Mexico and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Dolphins also will continue to host auditions in South Florida. The team will canvas Latin America in search of adding enthusiastic, charismatic and talented women to represent one of the most prestigious brands in the NFL.

“Miami is the gateway to Latin America and the Miami Dolphins are a global brand. We are excited to combine the beauty we have in South Florida with the ladies we meet in Latin America in hopes of forming a truly international squad,” said Miami Dolphins Senior Director of Entertainment & Brand Impact Dorie Grogan.

One of the most visible entertainment groups in all of professional sports, the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders have traveled to more than 30 countries on five continents over the past decade and continue to be an iconic and international face of NFL Cheerleaders. The cheerleaders are on the sidelines for all home games and are extremely active in the community; visiting schools and hospitals, as well as charity and corporate events.

Ladies at least 18 years old by May 1, 2016 and high school graduates by June 1, 2016 with a valid passport for travel are welcome to register for auditions. The following are the dates and locations for auditions:

March 3 – JW Marriott Copacabana – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
March 6 – Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel y Centro de Convenciones – Buenos Aires, Argentina
March 12 – Universidad la Salle – Mexico City, Mexico
April 2 – Four Points by Sheraton – Bogota, Colombia
April 23 – Doctors Hospital Training Facility – South Florida

A select few ladies will make it to Final Auditions, scheduled for May 1 at Nova Southeastern University.

For further information or to register for auditions, please visit DolphinsCheerleaders.com.

The Crystals: meet English football’s only cheerleading squad

The glitziest match-day experience in English football can be found in an unglamorous corner of south London. Siân Ranscombe paid a visit
Crystals at Selhurst Park

By Siân Ranscombe
The Telegraph
April 21, 2015

Selhurst Park is an unlikely home to the glitziest match-day experience in British football. It is the Premier League’s fourth-smallest stadium, a venerable 91 years old, but its tenants, Crystal Palace, are the only club in the country to have their own cheerleaders.

The Crystals pose in the Selhurst Park dugout Photo: Dan Burn-Forti
The Crystals pose in the Selhurst Park dugout Photo: Dan Burn-Forti

Stacey Greenhead, 23, is the Crystals’ head coach. South London born and bred, she joined the squad in 2013 after graduating from university with a degree in dance. “It’s great to have some pre-match and half-time entertainment,” Greenhead says. “I love the fact that we’re the only team with cheerleaders and we get a great response. That’s one thing we can pride ourselves on, that we definitely have the best fans in the Premier League.” (League One’s Leyton Orient once had the wonderfully-named Cheery-Os but the squad has since disbanded.)

[Click here to visit the Crystals on Facebook]

Although cheerleading is seen as a traditionally female activity, the first organised cheerleaders in America were men – Ivy League students who whipped up the crowd before college games at universities such as Princeton in the 1870s. Women were not allowed to participate until the 1920s, and began to dominate cheerleading only during the Second World War.

The Crystals' head coach, Stacey Greenhead. PHOTO: Dan Burn-Forti
The Crystals’ head coach, Stacey Greenhead. PHOTO: Dan Burn-Forti

It is technically a global sport in its own right now – the International Cheer Union has 104 member nations, including Great Britain – but while cheerleading is a regular feature of professional sporting events across the United States, it has never really caught on in British arenas. There was a half-hearted attempt to introduce it to football matches in the early 1990s. The Sky Strikers, who performed during broadcasts of Sky Sports’s Monday Night Football, lasted the 1992-1993 season before the idea – and squad – hit premature retirement.

The Crystals’ 21-woman team was formed nearly two decades later, in 2010. Some are professional dancers but others, such as 24-year-old Jay Slaughter, fell into it by chance. Slaughter, a midwife, had been a Crystal Palace season ticket holder for three years when she was invited along to audition for the Crystals last year. “I tweeted a picture of my dad and me in the crowd one day and the Crystal girls’ Twitter account followed me shortly after, sending me a message asking if I would be interested in auditioning,” she recalls.

Jay Slaughter is also a season ticket holder at Selhurst Park. PHOTO: Dan Burn-Forti
Jay Slaughter is also a season ticket holder at Selhurst Park. PHOTO: Dan Burn-Forti

She had taken lessons in ballet, tap and modern dance as a child but had given up dance once she got to college and began studying midwifery at Plymouth University. “It’s funny actually because normally at half-time we’d go inside and have a drink or a burger, so I hadn’t actually watched the Crystals much,” Slaughter says. “I assumed they’d all be professional dancers. Being part of the team for my first match was a surreal blur because it was so weird to be on the pitch watching the crowd rather than the other way around.”

As well as providing pre- and mid-match entertainment, the Crystals also venture out around the ground collecting for the club’s chosen charities.

The Crystals pictured before Palace's match against Everton in January. PHOTO: Dan Burn-Forti
The Crystals pictured before Palace’s match against Everton in January. PHOTO: Dan Burn-Forti

“A lot of the dads want the kids to have a picture with us – then maybe get one themselves, too,” Georgia Krelle, a Crystal since 2012 says. “It’s lovely when the girls pay attention to us. We appreciate that even more.”

Krelle, 23, credits joining the Crystals with more than just adding to her fitness regime. “I had no confidence, growing up,” she says. “I was bullied at school and left with no GCSEs as a result. Being in the Crystals and being a part of this group has built up my confidence so much; I’m like a different person.” Now she also dances professionally.

Georgia Krelle, a member of the squad since 2012. PHOTO: Dan Burn-Forti
Georgia Krelle, a member of the squad since 2012. PHOTO: Dan Burn-Forti

The squad meets up to choreograph its routines on the Sunday before a home fixture (they are not allowed to perform at away games and when Palace reached the Championship play-off final with Watford in 2013, they were denied the chance to perform before the match at Wembley). The match-day ritual is always the same. “I get the girls in two to three hours before the game,” Greenhead says. “We get changed, get glam, and then go out around the ground interacting with the fans. After our group warm up, we get ready to go on to the pitch.”

The Crystals are free to go home once they have completed their half-time cameo. Slaughter, however, has a season ticket to make use of, even if it only gets used for half a game at a time. “If we’ve not got anything else on, I’ll jump back into my seat so I can watch the second half,” she says. Most of her seat neighbours don’t blink an eye, except to wonder why she always arrives so late. “We do wear quite heavy make-up and big hair though,” she says. “So I do get a few people looking at me going, ‘Well, she’s made a bit of an effort for the football.’”

Galactic Dancers Reloading 2.0 – European Basketball Championship 2014 & New Uniforms

I have seen a lot of changes at my friend and Galactic Dancers Coach Jasmin Felsenheim. The biggest change of all was Jasmin quit her job, in order to focus full-time on the Galactic Dancers. She is really brave, I thought. She has big plans in the future and her old office job didn’t fulfill her expectations. More about her plans next time.

Another change was the squad’s new uniforms. They made their debut at the European Basketball games in Leipzig and on the Supercup in Bamberg.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

[Galactic-Dancers.com]

[Galactic Dancers Gallery]

Casting for the Galactic Dancers Begins May 3

Just recently the Galactic Dancers returned from shooting the movie“All is Love” along with other German VIPs Hoku Ho, Heike Makatsch and Tom Beck. This romantic comedy is coming ato theaters in December 2014. Now it’s time for the audition…

Audition Galactic Dancers on 3rd May 2014 in Frankfurt at Main (Germany)

The Frankfurt Cheer Dance Team Galactic Dancers is starting  casting for new talent on Saturday, the 3rd May 2014. Dance Team Director Jasmin Felsenheim is looking for  the best and prettiest dancers for  the upcoming summer basketball internationals. The Galactic Dancers are  for the second time the official cheerleaders of the DBB ( German Basketball Federation ).

Candidates

The target group are candidates who are looking for a new challenge in their young years. What we need are young women 18 years and older, who love to dance in front of the audience and like unique performances nationwide on high-profile events. Dancers and candidates of the Frankfurt team come from all surrounding regions, also non-domestic and English-speaking dancers are welcome. Whether corporate and sport events, trade fairs or other entertainment operations: to provide top performance in all events and to inspire viewers, the dance team will be about 30 young women train hard. And the old team has to prove themselves at audition every year.

[Galactic Dancers Website]

[Galactic Dancers on Twitter]

Brisbane Broncos Cheerleaders Fighting Fit

By Brittany Vonow
The Australian

Queensland cheer hasn’t run out of puff just yet.

The passionate cheerleaders for the Broncos rugby league football club are gearing up for another season of pompoms and high kicks with auditions set for next week in the face of cuts by teams in other states.

Cheer managing director Hollie Bloch said cheer in Queensland was still strong.

“We’re still out there, definitely,” she said. “It’s a part of the club and they have been around for a really long time … it contributes to the game and the atmosphere and it’s great performance opportunity for the girls.”

She said the commitment and ability as professional dancers helped the Brisbane squad members, who perform at every home game, rise above other states.

“From what I’ve seen in Queensland, cheer is definitely alive, really popular and upcoming.”

Next Sunday’s auditions are in the face of cuts in other state teams with Canterbury demoting their cheerleaders while the Canberra Raiders are reviewing the entertainment all together.

“What we’re looking for is a joy while they perform.”

Cheerleader Marina Shah said she started cheerleading last year after a background in dance and loved performing to the crowd.

“It has been really fun, everyone is so supportive,” she said.

“I think we have a really strong team and this year will be one of the best.”

Cheerleader Angela De Righetti was in last season’s squad and said she loved the bond between the squad members.

Auditions for the new Bronco’s squad will be held on Sunday morning at the Mad Dance Studios on Adelaide St.

[Brisbane Broncos Cheer Squad]

NFL All-Star Cheerleaders in London

The ROAR of Jacksonville and the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders aren’t the only NFL Cheerleaders visiting the UK. A couple of weeks ago the NFL All-Star Cheerleaders took London by storm.

Sasha of course immediately recognized these ladies as former San Diego Charger Girls. So perhaps this is an e2k production.

The ROAR in London

Jacksonville.com: Jaguars game in London has local business executives preparing for different kind of victory. Local leaders see Jaguars’ trip as a great chance to sell Jacksonville.

Click here for the article and a few photos of the cheerleaders in London.