Almost 90 dancers competed Saturday at US Airways Center to get one step closer to becoming 2009 members of the WNBA Phoenix Mercury Hip-Hop Squad.
The group was pared down to 24 finalists, who will compete in a final round of auditions on April 4 at Tempe Marketplace in front of a live audience.
Dancers will perform their audition pieces and any other special talents they would like to showcase. After the final round, the 14 members of the 2009 Mercury Hip-Hop Squad will be announced.
At Saturday’s audition, the hopefuls began by learning about 1 minute of choreography. They were then split up into groups of four and were given one chance to showcase the routine as well as freestyle.
ASU sophomore Chanel Perez said this was her first time trying out for the squad.
Perez participated in other auditions, but said the Mercury Hip-Hop Squad audition was different, and was “just such a fun experience.”
“Everyone had such high energy and really put it all out of the floor,” Perez said.
ASU junior and current ASU Hip-Hop Coalition member, Spencer Christian, also auditioned for the squad for his first time and said he saw the audition process as more of a learning experience.
Christian has been taking choreography classes for about a year, and said his dancing comes “straight from the streets.” Prior to recent training, he worked on his dancing by going to clubs and participating in dance battles.
“I want to broaden my horizons and the hip-hop squad is a totally different group,” Christian said. “Every choreographer has their own style, and I’m always trying to improve and learn from different people.”
The Mercury Hip-Hop Squad looks for highly energetic dancers and excellent performers.
Those auditioning said it’s about talent, personality and making yourself stand out at the audition.
After the first round of auditions concluded late Saturday afternoon, dancers left the center and had to wait until 8 p.m. to find out the results of their auditions.
At that time, they were able to call a hotline where a list of 24 numbers was read off. A total of 24 finalists’ numbers were announced.
The Phoenix Mercury Hip-Hop Squad will perform at all Mercury home games starting in June.
Reach the reporter at kavila@asu.edu.
