MAGIC: Dunking Dancers Blog

Dunking Dancers Blog

Dunking Dancers in Indonesia � August 2008
The Orlando Magic Dunking Dancers were invited to perform in the LA Lights Grand Final Streetball Tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia from Tuesday, August 19 through Monday, August 25! Megan and Heather share the inside scoop and take you on their journey from the lengthy travels to the rehearsals and the actual show day!

Tuesday, August 19 and Wednesday, August 20 � Travel Days!
By Megan

Talk about starting the season off quickly, on Tuesday August 19th (only 4 days after audition finals), Deanna, Shana, Rachael, Heather, Trinity, our Game Presentation Director Shelly, and I left the US to dunk at the Annual LA Lights Streetball Tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia. This tournament is basically like Hoop it Up here, but with a full team of players rather than 3 on 3. It was such a big deal that every year the �And 1� players attend, play, and judge different phases of the competition. This year Headache, Special FX, Be Right Back, and The Professor joined in the festivities.

We actually met the guys in New York getting ready to board our 3d flight of the trip (yes, there were 5 flights total just to get there!!!!! That would be 25 hours in the air plus layovers!! And yes we did this on the way home too! Oh my!). Up until this point, everything had gone rather smoothly!

Flights were great and full of food. First time ever eating a Klondike Bar as my Lunch dessert, but I would totally do it again! You know that old commercial�What Would You Do For A Klondike Bar??�.well apparently I would fly 25 hours in coach for a Klondike Bar J

I must admit that we did almost miss 2 flights�one was a last call and the other was a time change which we did not know about until after we had run through the airport trying to catch our flight, oops!

Thursday, August 21 � Arriving in Jakarta!
By Megan

Day 1 in Indonesia was actually Thursday (Wednesday never existed, we literally flew right through itJ). We arrived in Jakarta and were greeted by our contact Rufi. She is the tiniest, most awesome woman ever. She is a basketball player and works with the Men�s and Women�s Basketball Team in Indonesia. This really came in handy the next day, but I�ll tell you more about that later. Anyway, we had some down time and then a Press Conference. That went really well. Heather and I spoke to the media during the Conference and Shana and Rachael spoke during an interview afterwards. It was a great event, but I must admit that with the 11 hour time difference it was all we could do to stay awake :-) I nearly fell out of my stool not once but twice!! Straight from there we went to dinner at the mall�very yummy. All in all, great day! Take a look!

Friday, August 22 � Our first rehearsal day at the Venue!
By Megan

Friday was not my ideal day. I slept in until 8am and then went to breakfast with the girls. Since you cannot drink the water in Indonesia, I went back upstairs to my room to get a water bottle. I had no clue that I would be locked out of my room for an hour! The sensor on the door glitches and no one could open the door. I was asked to wait outside of my room until a manager came. Bad idea, little American girl sitting by herself. So I was pro-active and had someone else help me. Their idea of help was putting me in a perfect stranger�s room until my room was opened! SO of course I asked to be put into Shana and Rachael�s room which was no biggie. Needless to say we were sure to lock up everything we owned in the safe after that incident J

Anyways, we went to the mall to exchange money and then went to the venue. Rehearsal did not go as planned since my ankle decided to rip through the mat after landing from my straddle reverse dunk. Headache and Special FX from �And 1� carried me back to the car and Shelly got me into my room. I iced for a bit and then Headache made an ice bath for my foot. By the time I finished that, The Indonesia basketball Team Doctor arrived (Thank You Rufi) and took a look at my ankle. He popped the joints back in place (not fun) massaged my leg (really, really not fun) and wrapped me up. Did you know that doctors ride motorcycles in Indonesia???? Well, of course they do and that prevents them from bringing crutches to their patients. Basically, my trip kind of ended there since I couldn�t walk. I officially became a spectator, photographer, and videographer for the Orlando Magic Dunking Dancers. And boy did I do a darn good job. Take a look!

Saturday, August 23 � Performance Day!
By Heather

Today is Saturday, August 23rd and it�s up to the Orlando Magic Dunking Dancers to BRING IT! After Megan hurt her ankle, we were all a little nervous about how our last minute re-blocking and show tricks would go. Luckily, all of Megan�s spots in the dances were in the front or on the side, so we were able to make changes quickly. She�s been such a trooper and is rooting us on while videotaping our show.

The LA Lights Streetball Grand Final is unlike any event the Dunking Dancers have performed at before. The basketball players are trying hard to show off their tricks on the court, and that seems to be more important than actually making the baskets. They were all great basketball players, but we had the pleasure of meeting the stars of the show at the press conference a few days ago including Headache, Special FX, the Professor and a guy we like to call Akon. These boys tore up the court with fancy dunks and foot work the entire time! Before the tournament started, we challenged the boys to a �dunk off� and I have to say we kept up pretty well. Take a look!

The show for us wasn�t exactly what we expected it to be, but it turned out to be a lot better! We had eight minutes to fill for halftime, which is the longest dunk show I have ever done! The emcee, P Dub introduced us onto the court one by one and allowed us to do a trick each. I think the crowd was quite impressed with Trinity�s leg extension and flexibility to say the least! After we were all on the court P Dub asked each of us a question about how we felt to be there and we were ready to start the show! I don�t think the crowd had ever seen a group of pretty dancers dunk off of a trampoline before because they went nuts once we started the show! One little hold up was the camera guy�s cord got in Shana�s path when she was going to dunk, but that didn�t seem to matter because when we were done the crowd wanted more! Take a look! After the show a lot of folks came into our tent for autographs and pictures. The women�s Indonesian basketball team was especially exciting to meet because it was easy to see how much they looked up to us. We also got to meet an Indonesian hip-hop troupe, who made us feel very welcome and were very good. The entertainment for this event was really great!

Sunday, August 24 and Monday, August 25 � Traveling back to the USA!
By Heather

It�s Sunday, August 24th and it�s our very last day in Jakarta, Indonesia. Most of us are still lying around dreading a very long flight home (or should I say 5 long flights home), so we order food to our rooms, watch a movie, and wait for the word to leave for the airport. Our contacts Sofie and Rufi have been absolute sweethearts the entire trip and make sure we get to the airport safely. Finally, we get inside the airport and we have to wait about an hour just to check our luggage in. Somehow all of the luggage (9 bags) gets checked in under my name, including one of my carry-on bags! I was too busy learning how to play Sudoku with the girls to notice something like this. Thanks to Rachael, she got us all addicted to that game!

After scrambling through the airport, a little pressed for time, we board the plane for our first of five flights. The first one is easy and we de-plane to wait for the second flight to Germany. Take a look! This flight is twelve hours and we know it is going to be a long one. All of the sudden on this flight for some reason, something doesn�t feel right. Both Shelly and I start feeling our stomachs getting upset and we play musical chairs for the rest of the flight. Finally, we land and have an hour layover until we board the same plane again to fly to New York. This is when it really starts to hit.

I�m not sure what we ate or what we came across, but Shelly and I are miserable. Both of us look like we�ve gotten run over by a bus and can�t do anything but sleep and deny airplane food. Almost an entire day later, we all arrive at the Orlando International Airport, THANK GOODNESS! Just one small problem, Rachael and Deanna�s bags are missing. Shelly has the stickers and has already left and they are all under my name so I can�t go anywhere either. We call Shana to get her sticker number and she�s already thrown it away! Megan and Rachael get a brilliant idea to look through the trash to find the missing bag tag and get the missing bags back; well I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. Who would have thought this is how we would be welcomed home? Not us! After about thirty minutes, we finally get the signal that we can go home, and man was I glad to get there!

All in all, the trip was amazing, educational, and fun! Once you look past all of the silly mishaps (Megan spraining her ankle, Shelly and I getting sick as dogs, Rachael and Deanna losing their bags, digging through trash, Shana dropping a room service plate on her toe and cutting it open, and Trinity getting locked out of her room a few times), I think we can all say we had a pretty great time! Jakarta was certainly welcoming to us and I got the impression that they want us to come back again! Next time, maybe I�ll just stick to my granola bars and bottled water! Take a look!

And by the way, now that we�re home Megan has seen an Orthopedic Specialist was diagnosed with a Grade 2+ ankle sprain and will be out of commission for a few more weeks. Not to worry though, nothing can stop the ORIGINAL DUNKING DANCERS!!

Special Thanks to Fabrice and the Crazy Dunkers from France for referring us to this tournament organizer, to Mahaka Sports and LA Lights for sponsoring our trip, to the Orlando Magic for coordinating this amazing journey, to Sophie and Rufi for being such gracious hosts, to the Indonesian Team Dr. for taking such great care of Megan, to the �And 1� Team for being such fun, and to all the players and spectators of the LA Lights Streetball Grand Final for making us feel like Rock Stars during our performances!!! We hope to visit again someday soon!