August 14, 2011
Edmonton Eskimos
Kassidy’s Blog – Eskimo Cheer Team
Each summer our cheer team is fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to a dance workshop in preparation for the season. We spend months doing promotions and earning money since each of us is expected to pay our own way to the dance camp. We always travel to the United States because of the professional choreographers who team up to provide professional dance teams with high-energy routines and state of the art dance moves which we can use as part of our performances.
On July 23rd, fifteen of us travelled down to Las Vegas to attend the Pro Action Dance Intensive. We enjoyed a team bonding dinner at a restaurant in Miracle Mile before going back to our hotel and resting before our dance workshop the next day. Although it was my first time in Vegas, there was not much time for typical “holiday activities”. Each day, camp was from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and since everything took place in a ballroom in Planet Hollywood, we did not even have a chance to leave our hotel and feel the Vegas sun, which may have been a good thing considering the July heat!
 |
| Eskimo Dance Team with Tony G Hollywood Choreographer for “Bring it On” movie series as well video choreographer for Beyonce, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul and many more. |
We would start off the day with a thorough warm-up and stretch before dividing into four groups to learn our routines. We ended up learning four complete routines each, as well as numerous sideline dances in only a day and a half! Although the dances were taught at an extremely quick pace, we were still expected to perform them as if we had practised and polished them for weeks. Even though everyone was absolutely exhausted by the afternoon, there was no time to rest. By the end of the day, all we’d feel like doing was grabbing a quick dinner before reviewing the material we had just learned, resting our aching bodies, and going to bed. The afternoon of the second day was spent briefly running through our routines and adding last minute touches to the choreography to make sure each dance truly looked perfect. After that, we performed everything at a showcase in the hotel, which was videotaped for each team to take back.
The choreographers at the dance camp have worked with other pro NBA and NFL teams, and have choreographed for music videos, movies, commercials, etc. They are always coming up with innovative material, and are a part of the elite few who actually influence the NBA and NFL dance styles. It was a great opportunity to learn from the best!
There were about 180 dancers from other pro sports teams around the United States attending Pro Action Dance Intensive. We were the only team from Canada that had the privilege to attend the workshop and all of us were honoured to represent not only the EE, but our country as well!
Overall I had an amazing time! We put so much time and effort into preparing for each CFL season and we are proud to showcase the skills we learned. While we came back with a lot of new material to share with the Eskimo fans, we also got to know the members of our dance team so much better. Sharing my first Vegas trip with my Eskimo family made the whole experience one I will never forget.