Spirit Explosion at FedExField really was what it says, a spirit explosion! There were about 300 girls performing the same routine!  They came from studios and school teams from all over the place, and the All Stars performed a technical jazz routine in front. In the end we looked great but a lot of hard work went into it. As All Stars, we had been practicing our routine since the beginning of October, and the other girls learned their routine the day before the game.  I'm sure everyone was just as nervous as I was because we were dancing in front of about 90,000 people and with the official Redskins Cheerleaders. It was so cool and so surreal being surrounded by cheerleaders on all sides and doing the same routine as them.  All of our movements had to be sharp and precise otherwise we would just look like we didn't know what we were doing because the cheerleaders are always perfectly together and all look exactly the same. But our coaches drilled us until the routine was perfect so we all felt prepared.

Like I said the performance was fun, but the day before the performance was quite hectic. We did the dance with the cheerleaders for the first time and the cheerleaders are intense. There's no horsing around in rehearsal with them. Then we had to go out on the pavement and practice with everyone else. It was crazy. As crazy as it was, I learned so much. This experience taught me so much about how things work in the real dance world and how to project yourself to the audience so you get seen. I also learned how to blend in which is the opposite of getting noticed, but very important. When they threw us in with all the cheerleaders it was pretty terrifying because they all knew the routine perfectly and they were exactly together, it was like even their hearts were beating in synchronization. We had to go in there and look exactly like them so we didn't mess it up and make them look bad. But in the end, it was the best opportunity I've ever had and am so thankful that I was invited to be on All Stars. It took a lot of hard work and dedication but I don't regret anything, Spirit Explosion was amazing.

Can't wait to be back next year!

Jessica Hutchins