November 5, 2002--Opening Night........An Army of ONE

By: Marlene

Opening night is always exciting. I’ve done six of them so far, and they are each as exciting as the first. Last night’s performance had to have been the best that I have ever been apart of. What made it so special is the meaning behind the whole performance which was a celebration of being AMERICAN.

The night started off in the dressing room where our coach placed goodie bags filled with make-up and other gifts to wish us good luck. Along with the gifts was a little poem by Ana reminding us of our team motto, “There is no “I” in TEAM.” We then head out to the floor for practice for about an hour and a half, then back to the dressing room for the big performance.

The half-time performance started off with all of us dancers dressed in special red, black and white fatigues. The fatigues were authentic army gear (pants, jackets and hats) just colored in Blazer colors. With all of our hair up in the hats, you couldn’t tell who was who out there.

We started off with a march to a great beat that caught everyone’s attention. Then the music called us to attention and the rest was history. The routine contained an array of army related songs like “Bomb’s over Baghdad,” and much more. Then to everyone's surprise, we tore off the fatigues (and I mean tore-off) to our infamous red, white and blue American Women outfits.

I could hear the crowd roar when those outfits (the fatigues) came off. For some reason our crowd loves the American Women outfits. Then the American songs started with “Coming to America,” and “Living in America” by James Brown and ending with the song “America” by the artist formally known as PRINCE.

The performance was choreographed by John Peters in California and once again he did a great job. Our very own Kimberly, Donna, and Medora choreographed our last song “America” by the artist formally known as PRINCE. As special thanks goes out to all of them for making us look so good.

Personally this performance was even more special for two reasons. The first reason is because of my recent trip to Fort Hood in Killeen Texas. That experience has changed my life in more ways then one, and wearing the fatigues and celebrating the fact that we were Proud to be American felt great.

The second reason why this performance was special is because it might be my last year as a Blazer Dancer. Wow it’s hard to say that because I love this job. It’s one of my three jobs that I do for myself. Being a teacher and a coach is a selfless job, but dancing I did for myself.

After our half-time performance we all changed into Halloween costumes and sat on the sidelines and performed a dance to, “The monster mash.” We had costumes like an indian, a cat, cowgirl, mermaid, and more. I dressed up as a Portland Trailblazer of the old days with an authentic jersey, size 17-RED spalding shoes, authentic Trail Blazer socks of 1987 (where the word BLAZERS go down the side of the socks), shorts, and lastly and most importantly an afro-wig with a head band. By the reaction of the crowd they liked it. I felt a little funny in it especially when I had to dance with size 17 shoes.

Fortunately the Trail Blazers WON. With all the new faces on our team I’m still trying to figure out who’s who. The team looked great, and I’m ready for a new season! It’s always nice to start off the season with a WIN, but it’s better when that win comes against the L.A. LAKERS!