When many think of cheer or dance, they often think of high school football games with cheerleaders on the sidelines and dance performances at halftime. However, cheer goes much beyond just that and is a professional sport. Cheerleaders at these levels cheer for professional teams such as the NFL(National Football League), NBA (National Basketball Association), NHL(National Hockey League), and WHL (Western Hockey League).
In Portland, we have a few professional cheer and dance teams such as the Blazers Stunt team and the Winterhawks hockey dance team — the Rosebuds. The Rosebuds made their initial debut in 2009 as the first dance team to dance and cheer on ice, setting them apart from other professional cheerleaders, as being on ice adds a certain level of difficulty. The Rosebuds exclusively cheer for the Winterhawks, a team in the WHL. The WHL is one of the three leagues that makes up the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). As of now, the team is made up of 23 dancers with ages varying between 18-37.
Hayley DuLong, one of the team captains for the Rosebuds, has been on the team for 10 years. DuLong has cheered for 34 years, since she was three years old. “I studio-trained at Westside Dance Academy in Tigard in ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop,” shares DuLong. “I made my high school dance team at Lake Oswego High School, and moved onto the competitive collegiate team at the University of Oregon [winning Hip Hop Nationals in 2006].” After she graduated, DuLong made the Portland Lumberjax Dance Team and was one of the original members for the professional men’s box lacrosse team. Sadly, the team and their dancers dispersed after four seasons. After the LumberJaxs, Kristen Bodemen founded the Rosebuds, and they have been going strong ever since. DuLong has been the coach for her old high school team in Lake Oswego for 16 years and led them to winning eight state championships.
There are many misconceptions about professional dance and cheerleading. DuLong shares, “many people think that cheerleading is easy and you’ll only make the team if you’re pretty or skinny, but reality the dance world is very diverse and we love people for who they are. What you are measured on is your talent, your commitment, and dedication, and of course your character.” She continues to highlight the reality of being a Rosebud. One of the most difficult things about professional dance can be always trying to prove yourself to others; dancers have a lot of pressure on them and many times are dismissed as not a “real” sport. “Year after year, we have to prove our ‘worth’ and show that we deserve to be important members of the collective group,” DuLong explains.
While professional dance and cheer can be misunderstood as an “easy sport,” if even a sport at all, that’s very far from the truth. Being a part of the Rosebuds team, or any professional dance team, is a huge commitment. “First tryouts for the team start in August, then once the team is selected we have our bi-annual boot camp where we learn multiple routines in one weekend,” Dulong says. After that, the team practices every Wednesday for four hours, participating in another boot camp in January.
Although the Rosebuds, like many other professional dance teams, train rigorously throughout most of the year, it’s often all for a small period of time when they get to perform.
“We aren’t like any other sport. We work weeks and months for the one minute routines you see from game to game. Perfecting them. Taking them to the next level. And of course, ensuring we can perform them at our best on a very slippery surface!” says DuLong. “The effort and time that goes into our performances are much more than most people think.” The Rosebuds perform many different genres of dance including hip hop, jazz, and pom, and unlike NFL or NBA dance teams, performing on ice requires more practice.
Besides the actual performance and practices, professional dance is very team oriented and everybody relies on each other to be committed to the sport and ready for practice. DuLong says the “best thing about professional dance is the close friendships and being able to do what we love every week together.” The Winterhawks and Rosebuds fans are also very important to the dancers: “during the second year of the team [2010-2011] we performed a fun mash-up of ‘Run the World’ by Beyonce that led into ‘Proud Mary’ by Tina Turner. When we were about five seconds aways from ending the routine, the audience started to stand up and cheer […] we got a standing ovation,” she says. “Coming from a time when the WHL wasn’t quite sure about a dance team for hockey, to come out and get a standing ovation from the crowd was unreal. It was pure magic.” The Rosebuds also attend sponsorships and promotions as well as a youth dance clinic, all while working hard and putting on an amazing show for their fans. To stay up to date on the Rosebuds, you can follow them @rosebudsdanceteam.
