Once we had arrived, the BOA staff took us to the Hyatt Hotel and we checked in. We got
our room keys and ran off to see who had the best view from their balcony. I didn't win that contest, but I didn't mind-rnaybe next trip. We then all unpacked our suitcases and made sure that no costume pieces were missing. Now its time to go to the ballroom and register with EGA and get our goodies! This was the best part cause we got such awesome things. We got a yellow duffle bag, a T-shirt, a pin, a patch a medal, a water bottle and lots of other goodies.

Then we decided to have a rehearsal on our own just to make sure we were in sync and ready to show our stuff to the BGA choreography staff. As a fifth-year veteran, I know that our Leggz group is going to have to perform the choreography tonight all atone, in front of everyone, but we're ready. We headed back to our rooms to drop off our goodies and freshen up

Our first BOA group meeting was at 7 pm. All the dancers sat quietly. Everyone was nervous because they didn't know what to expect. Then Amy Barnett, the BOA events director introduced our group and had us stand up. She told everyone that this was our fifth year in the FedEx Orange Bowl Bacardi USA Halftime Show and everyone clapped. We were all smiling and so happy! This helped our group relax a bit.

We were off to the ballroom for our first rehearsal, at 7:30 pm. The choreographer, Cynthia Bersch, whom we called CB, gave me a big hug and a big hello. She remembered me from past years. We started rehearsal. CB made some changes and corrections. This year's performers are all pretty good. But then it was time to show cur stuff. We take deep breaths, the music started and we all smiled. We only had to do one out of the three dances, so our show went quickly and pretty well. Rehearsal lasted until 11:30 pm. We all knew that as much as we wanted to stay up and talk, we couldn't because we had to be on the bus at 6:45 the next morning for rehearsal!

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2001
My alarm went off at S am. I was so tired, but looking forward to the day's field rehearsal. So I took a quick shower, threw on my warm-up suit, grabbed a bagel and met the Leggz girls in the lobby. Oh no, it's raining! We ran to the bus and were off to the field, but because of the bad weather, we had to rehearse in the gym. We piled into the gym and CB gave out our placements. We were nervous because our performance the night before determined the field placement. We sat quietly as we got our places. Yippee-row one, right in the front! This meant that we danced well enough to be leaders. We all quietly celebrate.

We proceeded to rehearse and learn spacing. Space was very tight because we were in a gym about half the 'size of the field. There are some collisions, but we managed to make do. I hoped that after lunch the sun 'would come out and we could get out on the field, but the sun never came out.

We only have two more hours to rehearse. Boy, did we work off our lunch! After rehearsal we drove back to the hotel and got ready for the New Year's Eve Party. We had VIP tickets to the Orange Bowl Parade, but because of the rain, we decide to watch it on TV while making ourselves glamorous. It stopped raining by 7:30 pm, right in time for us to head to the Miami Convention Center. We had a reserved table right in the middle of the room. Each group was also presented with a beautiful trophy. We danced the night away and rang in 2002!

TUESDAY JANUARY 1, 2002
Happy New Year! The sun was shining and we headed for our beach party at 9:45 am. We were dying to get tans~ but still use sunscreen. The ocean was way too cold to go in, except for our toes. Instead of swimming, we just hang out on our towels. We checked for tan tines every second. finally we had some! I got a tan, but of course a zillion more freckles, too. That night was dress rehearsal, so we hurried back to the hotel after lunch to shower and pack our costumes, makeup and shoes. Before dress rehearsal we had a regular rehearsal.

At 2:45 pm we went back down to the hotel lobby and ran into CB, the choreographer. She told me that it was raining and we had to rehearse in the gym. This made everyone nervous because we hadn't been on the field yet. The sun finally came out by 4 pm. We finally got a chance to clean up our spacing. We didn't have a lot of time, though, because we had to go to dinner at 5:30 pm.

We were excited for dress rehearsal in anticipation of meeting the big stars-Jagged Edge, Jermaine Dupri, Lit' Bow Wow, Da Brat, Christina Milian and Frankie Negron. We danced right next to Lil' Bow Wow! The Pro Player Stadium looked so huge from the outside, which is where we had to rehearse- they hadn't finished painting the field. Everyone was disappointed. Even though we rehearsed outside the stadium, we still met the stars. LiI' Bowwow was smaller than we imagined. Everyone else looked just as we expected. It was so cool. They were all near us when we danced, so they smiled to us, said "Hi" and even shook our hands! Rehearsal ended around 10:45 and we headed back to the hotel. We were all so excited nobody could sleep, so we called our parents.

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 2, 2002
We woke up at 9 am to go shopping! We couldn't stop talking about last night. While at what has to be the coolest mall, amid shoppingr hanging out, having fun and getting fake tattoos, .1 saw a huge Une of people. It turns out that all these famous boxers like Andre Purlette, Dean Chance, Ricky Quiles and the most famous and the only one that I had heard of, Sugar Ray Leonard, are signing autographs. When I saw the news cameras, I got an idea. I crawled under the tripod of one of the news cameras and one reporter thought it was funny. Another reporter, from the The New York Times, even started talking to me. I told her what I was doing in Miami and pointed to the other Leggz dancers. The reporter asked me to shake Sugar Ray's hand while she took a picture. I thanked her, left the press area and went back to the other Leggz dancers. They thought I was crazy, but were also impressed.

We had rehearsal that day at 2 pm, and then the show. We met Amy, CB and her staff at the hotel. CB told us that we were doing a really good job. I was so happy because CB works with really great dancers from alt over the world, so the compliment meant a lot. we got back on the bus with our great driver, Jerry, and head to the field, but the weather looked funny again. We were shuffled into the gym, but were told that if the clouds passed we could go to the field. We are dying to get on the field because we need to fix our formations for tonight's show. We rehearsed for about an hour before we could hit the field! We were so happy. We got a good hour on the field, during which we ran through the show a couple of times.

We started to get dressed for the show at 5 pm. Before the bus pulled away, we were given a security bracelet to wear so we wouldn't have any problems getting into the stadium. We were all so nervous and excited. It didn't help to enter the stadium and see the massive crowd of 80,000 people whom in a few minutes we would be performing for. But the stadium was beautiful.

We made last-minute costume adjustments, and-show time. I was so excited to perform. Out of the five years that I've performed in the FedEX Orange Bowl Bacardi USA Halftime Show, this one was my favorite because of the three dance styles used-jazz, lyrical and hip hop. The announcement began and we took our on-field positions. When the music began, I was smiling from ear to ear and dancing my hardest. The fans cheered and yelled, and before I knew it the show was over. It was amazing. I danced for 80~O00 people. Actually, millions, because of the television audience Nothing could compare with this experience.

Now, flying with excitement and energy, we had to go back to our seats. The chaperones told us the show looked great. We got to stay for the rest of the game. All we did though, was talk about the performance - not football.

THURSDAY JANUARY 3, 2002
It was time to leave. We slept in and made our way to the airport wearing warm-ups. The airport employees asked us why we were in Miami. We told them, and because they all saw the show on TV, we had VIP clout. They even announced us on the airplane-celebrities for a day. What a great way to end a fabulous experience!