2003-04 Junior Dance Team Debuts

During the break between the first and second quarters at the Monday, November 17 game against the Houston Rockets, a crowd of 18,486 was not treated to the normal Sixers Dance Team performance, but that of the Sixers Junior Dance Team. The Junior Dance Team is composed of two teams of 30 kids each, one of which made their debut tonight, dancing to the song "Pass That."

Check out their performance: 56k | 300k Jesse D Garrabrant NBAE/Getty Images

"We had about 350 to 400 kids try out this year, and we had so many good kids try out, we actually made two teams," said Sixers Dance Team Director, Debbie Apalucci. "We have a kid who lives in Brooklyn, NY, we have a kid who lives in Maryland, one in Virginia, and Delaware, they come from all over."

Started during the 2001-02 season, the Sixers Junior Dance Team will perform a 10-game schedule in 2003-04 as part of the Sixers game entertainment package that also includes team mascot Hip-Hop, the Sixers Houseband and the Sixers Dance Team. Try-outs for the dance team are open to anyone within the required age range (eight to 13), and the selection this year was especially competitive, said Apalucci.

"Basically, we teach them routines," said Co-Choreographer and Co-Coordinator AleKsa Chmiel. "We do a little bit of training with them, but mostly just a lot of choreography." Chmiel, along with fellow Co-Choreographer and Co-Coordinator Tori Lynn Closson, designs all of the team's dance routines, and takes an active part in coaching the kids.

While the kids are, for the most part, very focused on getting ready to perform, Chmiel added that "they get really giddy when they see the players."

As a two-year veteran of the Sixers Junior Dance Team, 11-year-old Khadija Sabir of Pennwood East Junior High in Yeadon, PA, has enjoyed getting to see lots of Sixers players, but her favorite part remains the time with her fellow dance team members.

When asked what the best part of being on the team is, Sabir says, "Going out and performing, and being with my friends."

Sabir is one of the veterans looked up to by her younger teammates, including nine-year-old Vikira Pigford of St. Rose of Lima in Philadelphia. Pigford, though in her first year, has seen the team perform many times, as she has a sibling that was on the team before her.

"I watched my sister for two years," said Pigford.

Though the members of the dance team are talented athletes in their own right, their most important trait is their energy.

Said Chmiel, "They can get down. They have attitude and spunk, and that's what we want."