This winter, the CPHS Celebrities dance team will go to the 2010 Cotton Bowl in Dallas. They will be performing at halftime with thousands of other high school band and drill team members from across the country and the famous Kilgore College Rangerettes. The Celebrities sent in a video montage of themselves and were selected to perform by Encore Creative Productions, the director of the AT&T Cotton Bowl pageantry. In addition to performing at halftime for an audience of over 70,000 football fans in the new Cowboys stadium, the team will also participate in the Cotton Bowl pre-game show, attend a New Year’s party with the Westwood Sun Dancers and perform at the New Year’s Parade, which takes place during Cotton Bowl week.

     Along with the Rangerettes, Sun Dancers and Celebrities, 13 other dance and cheer teams from across Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas will attend.  The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and the Dallas Opera will be among the performers as well. The parade includes not only performances by these groups, but also equestrian teams, bands, vehicles and large floats.

     “We’re learning the routine off a video, and we’ll work on that for a few weeks. It’ll be neat to see the other schools, and the environment will be cool.” Stacy Danielson, Celebrities director, said.

     It was announced that the team was chosen to participate last spring, which many team members were thrilled about.

     “I was really excited because I was going to get to have a once in a lifetime experience with some of my best friends and dance [with] the famous Kilgore Rangerettes, which is every high school drill team member’s dream.” Madeline Strickland, junior, said. “I like knowing that any difficulty or obstacle we overcome during practice makes our team better, our sisterhood stronger and our performance more precise and enjoyable. I know the harder we push ourselves, the better we will represent Cedar Park during half time.”

     For many Celebrities, football season is the most exciting part of the year, and along with dancing at the playoff game in November, they view attending the bowl and performing at the parade as an extended season.

     “I love football season and this is a really exciting opportunity to be able to experience it at a whole new level. I’m really looking forward to hanging out and bonding with the team and getting to perform in front of such a large audience.” Katy Burris, junior, said.

     Attending the game affects the team’s competition season, which is usually in early spring. Normally the Celebrities would attend multiple contests, some of which requiring travel, but this year they will instead participate in a local competition at Rouse High School.

     “It’s hard transitioning from one season to another, but it’s all very exciting.” Samantha Cockerham, Celebrities director, said.

     The Celebrities will travel to Dallas on December 30, and the Cotton Bowl will be broadcast live January 2 on Fox-TV.