Hey Ravens fans!
This is Leslie again. I hope some of you noticed that this is my month in the Ravens cheerleader calendar. That is pretty exciting for me. To be honest, the one I have at home is always turned to me – haha – but this time everyone has to join me. Some people already noticed me at the Titans game. I did a signing appearance before the game, so that was a lot of fun.
The picture is one I like. They took a ton in two different swimsuits, and I had one of the girls take pictures of me getting my picture taken – got that? – so I have a bunch of them.
Going back to the Browns game at M&T, we danced to a routing that Angel and I choreographed. You might remember because we had to wear the purple camo pants. It was set to "We're Not Gonna Take It," which I thought went well. We worked well together on the dance part, and the stunt team had a routine they did behind us.
Of course, nothing goes as perfectly as you want it. In the game, time was winding down, and I thought we had an extra timeout before we had to go down and change in the tunnel. Well, that didn't happen. It got down to about 45 seconds before we were told to go, so we were literally changing in the tunnel and running out on the field for the dance.
We were definitely out of breath, but the coaches said it went really well. After taking a deep breath, I told everybody we would do a great job, and we did. I thought it was a flawless routine in the end.
I've been choreographing routines for the Ravens cheerleaders since my second year. I came into this because I had worked with [coaches] Tracy [Ricker] and Tina [Galdieri] when I was in college. I understood the style they liked. I've choreographed a lot of the dances we do on the sidelines, and then I get an end-zone routine each year, as well.
The process started out with me literally standing in front of my mirror thinking up dances by myself. That was year 2-4. It would only take me a day or so to do that. The last few years, though, it's come down to me sitting in my car. I'll hear a song and then just think of something in my head before taking it to practice.
For me, it's about putting different elements together that will not only go along with the music, but also visually flow. It's been fun.
So, now that the team is going away for five of the next six weeks, people say, "Oh, you must be off." No way. We still work hard while the guys are away, doing appearances and practicing. Since we've been going full-force since March, we actually have a day off of practice next week.
Tuesday, we're having our social, where we all go out together and have dinner. That's a lot of fun. And then Thursday, we have off completely. Then it's back to work for the rest of the season.
Consider that our bye week. After that, we have practice every Tuesday and Thursday.
Believe me, though, I'm going to be watching the games. I'm the type that has to turn off my phone, put down the Blackberry and lock my door, because I really get into the games. I find myself yelling at the TV sometimes, things like that. I don't like to go out and watch it at a bar or with other people. I typically just watch by myself.
That's all from me this time.
Thanks for reading the blog.
Go Ravens!
~ Leslie
