At school pep-rallies, home sports games, and other various events, the Padua dance team always does a fabulous job at putting on entertaining dance routines that the crowd enjoys. On the afternoon of Saturday, April 13th, the dance team got a once in a lifetime opportunity to show what they can do to not just a crowd at a high school sports game, or the Padua students and staff at a pep-rally, but one much bigger. After long months and hours of preparation, they danced before the Indiana Pacers vs. New York Knicks basketball game at Madison Square Garden’s in New York City.
“The night before I couldn’t sleep at all, I was way too excited and anxious,” said one of the dance team’s sophomore Emily Villacis. The day started off in classroom 302 at Padua with hair and makeup, which fell quite early in the morning for some girls. The dancers were put into groups prior to the day according to hair type; girls with the longest and thickest hair arrived at Padua earliest, at 6 AM. A number of friends of the coaches were styling girls hair either straight or curly with a braid on the side. “I’m pretty sure the room still smells like hairspray,” Emily shared. “I was supposed to be there at eight,” she said, “but at seven I got a call from my captain asking if I could come in early to do some people’s makeup because some of the makeup artists weren’t able to make it. So I came in earlier, kind of caught off guard, but happy to help! One of the makeup artists was really nice, super talented and almost coached me through doing some girls’ makeup.” The coach’s friends, along with Emily to help, did a Padua color enthused makeup look of a black and gold smokey eye with dramatic false eyelashes.
After four hours of hair and makeup prep, their bus arrived at 10 am to take off to New York. Friends and family were all outside Padua as the girls got onto the bus, wishing them all luck and saying goodbye. This crowd included the “baby pandas,” some younger students of the coaches that have performed at Padua before. After leaving Padua, the dance team instantaneously started sharing on social media sites Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Vine with pictures and videos of their hair, makeup, and overall excitement. They all then immediately got much appreciated loads of tweets and texts back from other pandas and friends, wishing them all luck and saying they would do great. One of the coaches was standing up on the moving bus still doing some last minute make-up on girls during all of this, so there was no rest, but all of the anticipation for the day made the bus ride go by quite fast for everyone.
Arriving at Madison Square Garden’s, excited would be an understatement for how enthused the team was. “I’m not going to lie, I cried a little when we walked through the door,” said Jen Jordan, another sophomore on the team. After collecting themselves just a bit and getting settled, the team took the court to warm up while the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks were sitting courtside, then again shortly after for their real show. “I will never forget the experience,” said Jen. “It comes once in a lifetime to a very limited number of dancers.” After their exhilarating performance, they had the delight of seeing a few familiar faces from TV sitting right on the courtside. Actor Ben Stiller walked right by the team and gave them a hello, and they also saw singer/songwriter Drake shortly after that. “Once we saw Drake sitting court side, that’s when we all lost it and were ‘fan-girling’ hardcore,” said Emily. “I cannot express in words the gratitude I have towards my coach, team manager, and all parents and hair and makeup team that made everything possible,” shared Jen. “I can honestly say that all of the years I’ve been dancing definitely paid off in those three, simple, unforgettable minutes on the court of the world’s most famous arena.”
