Jill Hardway | Courtesy
Senior Anna Kucharski, senior Sophia Coyne-Kosnak, and junior Corianna Baier stand together at the Aloha Stadium before performing at the Pro Bowl halftime show.
While Hillsdale students meandered back to classes amid snow and rain, three arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, for a week of sun, palm trees, and the intense rehearsing required of dancers in the halftime show of the 2016 NFL Pro Bowl.
Junior Corianna Baier, senior Anna Kucharski, and senior Sophia Coyne-Kosnak, sisters in the Chi Omega sorority as well as experienced dancers, traveled to Hawaii Jan. 23 to Feb. 1 to perform alongside singer Rachel Platten, known for the hit song “Fight Song,” in the halftime show of the Pro Bowl, the NFL’s annual all-star game traditionally held in Hawaii.
“I’ve always done things that are in a dance group and haven’t had to coordinate with a large performer,” Baier said. “You don’t know what will happen in a bigger performance like this, which makes it exciting.”
The girls were able to dance in the Pro Bowl through Jill Hardway, owner of the Hillsdale Gymnastic Dance and Cheer Center, who has taken groups of dancers to the game for the past three years Honolulu has hosted it.
“I’ve always taken young dancers, but this year the production company asked for three older girls who could lead the younger dancers in learning and performing the choreography,” Hardway said.
E2K, the production company in charge of arranging the halftime show at the Pro Bowl, needed women who were more experienced to help out during the rehearsals as well as dance in the show. Hardway, an alumna of Chi Omega, said she thought of Baier, Kucharski, and Coyne-Kosnak right away.
“I knew they were leaders in Chi Omega and within their dance teams, so I knew they would be perfect for the position,” Hardway said. “When there was a change in the choreography, the girls helped them understand. It was easy to get lost in the long rehearsal sessions, and they were very helpful.”
The 250 dancers who took part in the halftime show rehearsed the choreography three times in five-hour sessions. The final session on Saturday, the day before the game, was a dress rehearsal including a marching band, drill team, hula dancers, and the headline performer.
“It was extremely interesting to see just how much work goes into a three-minute performance,” Coyne-Kosnak said. “There were so many elements besides the dancers, and as a dancer, it was satisfying to see all the choreography come together into one piece where each group complimented the others.”
The women’s leadership qualities came into play in a big way on Saturday when the crew filming and watching the dress rehearsal decided to change the choreography, a change Hardway described as “not well-received.”
“There was something they didn’t like with Rachel, and the girls had to learn a new dance and teach the younger kids the new choreography. The girls had practiced the original dance for 10 hours and then had only one to learn the new part,” Hardway said. “The girls handled it well though; Sophia did a nice job with her group on that.”
Although the girls arrived together, they were split up into separate groups when rehearsal began: Kucharski and Baier with the ‘Blue’ group and Coyne-Kosnak with the ‘Orange.’ The groups referred both to the color of their uniforms and where they danced on the field.
The first day of rehearsals, the two main choreographers met with the women and discussed their expectations and how they could maximize the women’s talents.
“It’s really tough with the younger kids to wait between directions, which happens often in a major production like this one,” Hardway said. “What you do in a studio is different from when you have 250 girls on a field. You add in band members, hula girls, and other stuff, and it becomes difficult, but the girls were supportive of the younger kids and worked with them when they needed help.”
Kucharski and Baier agreed that the rehearsals were tough, especially considering the temperature. Aloha Stadium, which primarily serves to host the Pro Bowl but also hosts high school championship games and concerts, is an open-air stadium, allowing the turf and everything on-field to become extremely hot.
“The first day we learned the choreography with all the dancers, then they put us in our placements, and we ran it the second day, then with everyone, including the singer, on the third,” Kucharski said. “They were intense, five-hour long rehearsals, and it was hot.”
All three girls have been dancing since they were young — Kucharski since age five and Baier since age two — and participate in dance crews on campus. Kucharski and Coyne-Kosnak are members of Studio 55 School of Dance in downtown Hillsdale, and Kucharski and Baier are members of Tower Dancers.
Although they worked hard, the girls found time to have fun during their time in Hawaii.
“One morning, we hiked up the ‘Stairs of Doom,’ which offered a great view of the island,” Kucharski said. “I just wish we had known that they were called the ‘Stairs of Doom’ before we hiked them.”
They also drove to North Shore Beach, where Baier said they saw huge waves on the Pacific Ocean. Although the girls never heard a definite measurement of the height of the waves, Baier said the surfers appeared as dots against the massive walls of water.
The week-long trip was largely paid for by Hillsdale College and Chi Omega, according to Baier, who said an alumna donated a large chunk of the trip’s cost.
“It really was a unique experience,” Baier said.
Hardway said she will invite the three girls again if they are interested and E2K has a need for them. She said she usually hears from the production company in November about who they need for the halftime show and has details finalized by December.
Although the NFL has held the Pro Bowl in Hawaii every year since 1979, with the exception of 2014 and 2009, officials have been considering a change, especially considering how difficult it is for fans to attend the game.
Hardway said she had the opportunity to speak with members of the Detroit Lions’ defensive line, who attended to support fellow Lion Ezekiel Ansah, on their shared flight to and from Honolulu about their opinion on the location of the Pro Bowl in future years.
“I asked them what they thought, if the NFL would move the game or keep it in Hawaii. Some said that it would stay because a perk of going to the Pro Bowl is getting to take your family on a vacation to Hawaii, but some others believed it would change each year,” Hardway said.
Wherever the game is next year, the women and Hardway said they enjoyed their time in Hawaii, both for the weather and the opportunity of dancing during an NFL halftime show.
“It was a great experience, especially being involved in such a large production and being on national TV,” Kucharski said.
