August 31, 2006 Issue                                       

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

A double dancing dose of ‘Mt. Airy Amber’ for 76ers
by JENNIFER KATZ

Amber Rawls, 26, of Mt. Airy, is one of the 17 dancers who are part of the Philadelphia 76ers’ entertainment package.

If you visited the Philadelphia 76ers’ Web site last week and looked up entertainment for the coming season, you would already be familiar with Mt. Airy’s Amber Rawls. As one of the Sixers Dancers, Rawls, 26, along with fellow Mt. Airy resident, Amber-Joi Watkins, 21, and 15 other dancers are part of the NBA franchise’s entertainment package. (What are the odds that both Mt. Airy members would be named Amber — a million to one?)

Featured alongside team mascot Hip-Hop; the gymnast group, Hare Raisers; the Broad Street Beefcakes, a super-sized male dance team; and the Junior Dancers (ages 9-12); the Sixers Dancers are more than cheerleaders, as Rawls and Watkins tell it, both on and off the court.

Rawls still lives in the East Mount Airy house she grew up in as the daughter of restaurant manager and single mom, Yvette Rawls-Gypton (now remarried to retired police officer Harold Gypton). She and her son, Cion, 5, often bike around the neighborhood where she and her older sisters, Tammy, 32, and Brandy, 30, spent their youth. Her parents live just three blocks away.

Not a diehard basketball fan by nature, Rawls laughed as she talked about going to her first Sixers game just two years ago.

“It’s funny,” she said. “I had never gone to a game, and I never even knew they had cheerleaders.”

Rawls was already an established dancer, teaching salsa with La Luna Dance Studio in Bensalem and performing with the studio’s dance company, Luna Negra, at Cuba Libre in the Tropicana Casino-Hotel in Atlantic City. She also performs occasionally at Cuba Libre restaurant’s Philadelphia location, 2nd and Market Streets.

After the game in 2004, Rawls checked the team’s Web site and found out they were holding open auditions that summer.

“I auditioned, and I made it,” said Rawls, who was somewhat surprised. “It’s different than what I’m used to. I’m used to performing but never to a crowd of that magnitude.”

Debbie Apalucci, director of the Sixers Dancers, said it is one of the requirements that the girls be “fantastic performers.”

“They have to be good dancers, but they also have to be able to project their personality through the arena,” said Apalucci. “All the way up to the 200 level.”

When she tried out in 2004, Watkins did not have the performing background of Rawls, but she had already demonstrated focus and discipline in academia as a student of Springside School and the University of Pennsylvania. Now entering her senior year, the communications major said she has been dancing since she was nine years old.

In dance studios around the city including Philadanco and Freedom Theater, Watkins studied ballet, jazz, modern and African dance. It was at Freedom Theater that she met another girl named Amber, who at five years her senior was one of the studio aides for her classes.

Rawls, who began dancing “before she can remember,” said it was at the Freedom Theater that she started taking it seriously.

“I was old enough to appreciate it,” said Rawls, who was 13 at the time. “I had just taken ballet and jazz when I was little. At Freedom, I was introduced to other forms of dance - modern, African, tap.”

Rawls decided to continue studying dance when she left Catholic elementary school St. James in Elkins Park. She attended the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Center City and went on to the University of the Arts.

While the girls crossed paths as dance students, they didn’t really know each other until they made the Sixers Dancers. Nowadays, the two spend six hours a week in rehearsals, plus all 42 home games and any pre- and post-season games together doing hip-hop dance routines and cheering on the Sixers.

During a typical game, the dancers perform a two-to-three-minute routine at the opening and between the first and second quarters. Then, the girls, who do their own hair and make up and are required to be at the center and ready an hour before game time, make personal appearances in the VIP suites and boxes as they wait to do the half-time performance. They perform another brief routine during the third quarter and then spend the entire fourth quarter courtside to cheer for the team as the game “heats up,” said Apalucci.

Along with dancing duties, the teammates all make personal appearances on behalf of the Sixers, which makes the part-time job (with fulltime hours) more lucrative, said Apaluccci.

“They are paid hourly at a rate that is not too shabby,” Apalucci explained. “With the personal appearances, they have the opportunity to make a couple of thousand extra a year.”

Despite the quasi-celebrity status, it’s not glamorous at all, Watkins said, and the dancers don’t get to hang out with the players.

“There is not a lot of interaction with the players,” said Watkins. “There are rules against fraternization.”

Watkins said the dancers and players are only together on the court during games. But that’s OK with Amber-Joi because her favorite part of being a Sixers dancer is getting to hang out with the other girls on the team. “They are really great girls,” Watkins insisted.

According to Apalucci, 175 girls aged 18 and older tried out at last June’s open call audition. By the end of the day, the field was narrowed to 30 and included Rawls and Watkins. Team rules require each dancer to audition each year they want to be on the team.

“When you’ve been on the team, the prospect of not making it is horrible,” said Apalucci. “The first time you try out, it’s exciting, but the second time can be nerve-racking.”

Still, said Apalucci, she thinks the experience helps the “veterans” in the end.

“Most of the time the veterans do well because of the experience,” she said. “They know the drill, and they know how to handle themselves.”

Apparently, that was true for Rawls and Watkins, who both won return spots for a second year on the team.

“Amber and Amber both handled their rookie year very well,” said Apalucci. “And I’m really glad to have them back.”