Aussie dancer Kati Manning was determined to dance in the NBA and fulfil her dreams and nothing was going to stand in her way! We chat to Kati about auditioning for the NBA Denver Nuggets dance team and hitting the court at the famous Pepsi Centre for the 20/21 season.
Kati, talk us through the audition process because I know this was huge:
The audition process for the NBA is like nothing I have ever done before. It was intense, intimidating, hard and long, yet at the same time, so exciting, enjoyable and very rewarding.
In total the audition went for 2 weeks however, the preparation for the auditions starts way before this.
The first day of auditions was a Saturday and went for about 6-7 hours. Once checked in at 10am, you receive your number and warm up yourself. You are taught and taken through 3 across the floor sections including kicks, leaps and turns.
From here we learn a 30 second routine combination and are then broken up into our numerical order in groups of 5 and perform the short routine. There were about 200-300 ladies at the audition.
The judges then made a cut from here. After this we learnt the final part of the choreography combination and had a short interview with all the judges in groups of 4.
We then move into a freestyle section across the floor and from here the judges then made another cut to announce the semi-finalists which was about 30-34 lucky ladies.
What were the next steps once you were successful as a semi-finalist:
After being selected as a semi-finalist, we go into an intense week of training camp where we rehearse 3 nights a week for 3.5 hours.
One on one interviews are conducted, photoshoots, rehearsals and run throughs of your solo, plus extra practice whenever you can fit it in.
The final day of auditions are very similar to day 1 and it lasts for about 5 hours.
10am check in, you get a new audition number and warm yourself up. Solo pieces are performed first, then the across the floor combinations take place. We are then placed in groups of 4 and perform the day 1 choreography, technical jazz and hip-hop pieces.
The Nuggets announce the final dance team at the end of the day.
Walk us through pre-season training:
Pre-season training is intense but totally awesome all in one. It was quite stressful and overwhelming for me personally as I wasn’t able to be overseas in the studio at the time the girls started pre-season training as my Visa had not been received (approved but not received). So, I had to learn 15 routines via videos of the girls at practice. Some videos were filmed from the back and some from the front which made it challenging to learn and they were learning about 3-4 routines a week. Once I was able to be in the US, I had to keep learning more routines at practices plus clean and refine the ones the girls had already cleaned.
How many dancers are on the court each game?
There are 14-16 girls who perform at each game.
How many sets of costumes and shoes did you have for the season?
I had 3 pairs of shoes for the season that I performed in plus 2 pairs of training shoes and 1 pair of promo heeled boots.
I had about 24 costumes for the season and had about 4 costume changes within 1 game day.
What does a game day look like?
Game days are something else. They are long and full on but so special.
I would tan the night before, wash my hair the day of, ensure I had a very nutritional breakfast after first going for a morning walk to get my mind and head focused for the day ahead.
I would do an hour of routine and sideline practice before doing my hair and makeup which would take about an hour and a half.
You arrive to the stadium 3-4 hours before tipoff for our on court rehearsal where we rehearse all game day routines plus our run out, our sidelines and our HOTS (hot timeouts)
After court practice we would have a meal, get dressed and are ready for doors where we are at for an hour before tipoff to meet and greet fans take photos and signatures.
We travel straight back to the change room to have a full game time brief of every minute of the game. Sometimes this would also be our first costume change.
We then run out to set for the game.
Game time includes on court for the starting 5’s, carpets (side court behind the basket) for tip off, hype up and we don’t sit down until the Nuggets scored their first basket. We would sit in the grand stand for the game to hype the crowd.
Before a timeout routine, we preset in tunnel 1 or the Pepsi Centre and sometimes have to run to do a costume change before or straight after a routine performance. We would perform 2 timeout routines per game and then hot timeouts in the 4th quarter.
Win or lose we always stood on the court at the end of the game and waved and hyped the crowd.
Do you have any favourite make up products that you like to use for performance make up that are your go to?
Two of my favourite products that I like to use on game days would definitely be my eye shadow palette by Tarte (In Bloom and Toasted) and my makeup setting spray by Urban Decay (All Nighter).
What was the weather like during your NBA season in Denver?
I was in Denver during Fall and Winter so the weather was definitely cold during my time there however the sun was always shining. Because Colorado is so high in altitude and they have 350 days of sunshine, even though it was snowing it was beautiful in the sun. I loved the snow days, they were just magical.
What are 3 words you could describe about your first game?
Ecstatic, nervous, great-ful
What were some of the absolute highlights during your time with the Nuggets dancers?
‘My highlights with the Nuggets Dancers would definitely have to be how intense and full on my weekly schedule was with training and game days. It was just like a fulltime job with practices 3 nights a week and 2-3 games a week in between. I loved being so busy and full on. Pushing myself out of my limits to learn so many routines in a week and challenging myself.
The friendships I made with my team mates and my coaches, they are relationships that I will forever treasure and also relationships that I believe I will have for a lifetime.
DANICNG ON AN NBA COURT. A dream that I had achieved through hard work, determination, patience, persistence, time, effort, mental and emotional strength, courage, hope and never giving up. I actually cried standing on the court during my first game and telling myself “You’ve done it Kati, you’ve actually made it, this is the NBA!”
What is your advice to any dancers wanting to head in this direction and to one day audition and hopefully perform in the NBA?
Stay true to yourself and believe in yourself. Take a leap and a chance as you never want to look back on your life and say “WHAT IF” or “COULD I?” at least that’s not how I wanted to look back on my life. Do your research, don’t just go into it with no plan or idea in front of you. Study and research the team you want to audition for, the city that team is in, train and put yourself in the best possible shape and position for the audition and attend every prep class that you can.
Editor: Jacqueline Elliott is the Founder and Creative Director of JLD.Entertainment & productions in Australia. About Jacqueline-Lee Elliott
@jacquelineleeelliott @jldentertainment