Jen Contreras is the Director of the Texas Legends Dancers. Her resume is full of impressive dance team accomplishments, including national titles and dancing for the Dallas Mavericks. In this episode, we learn about the Legends’ Spirit Squad, what they’re made of, and the (typical) process to become a part of the team.

Enjoy this episode and other episodes of Hustle and Pro in our archives.

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Show Notes

[00:25 ] Jen’s background

[06:08 ] Legends Dancers

[09:57 ] Who are the dancers?

[13:22 ] Auditioning for the Legends Dancers

[20:19 ] Why is it so fun?

Resources within this episode: 

• Texas Legends on Lifestyle Frisco | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook


• Next Step Dance: Website | Instagram @nsdpac | Facebook @Next-Step-Dance-Performing-Arts-Center | Twitter


• Kelly Walker: Bio | Instagram @kelly_walkertexas |  Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX

Machine Generated Transcript:

Welcome to Hustle & Pro. I’m your host, Kelly Walker. We’re looking at a piece of the Texas Legends experience that we haven’t looked at on Hustle & Pro before: the spirit squad. And to help us talk about that, we have our guest, Jen Contreras in the studio. And I also have a co-host, Reese Walker in to talk with us, too. So, Jen, we’re going to talk about your role, of course, as leading the way for the dance teams and different companies that you work for. But I want to know your story yourself as a dancer. Like what is your dancing background?

Okay. Um, well thank you for having me. Um, I grew up dancing. I grew up in Duncanville, south of Dallas. Um, and I just grew up in the studio, trained my whole life. Um, and then I went on to be on a dance team outside of my studio and outside of drill team, um, throughout high school. And then I was also on the drill team. So I did both, two teams. Um, I was junior Lieutenant, uh, my drill team. I was captain, I went on to Navarro junior college when we had a dance team before the cheerleaders got, so big

Is what the blew up as cheer for the last several years

Before, before the cheer squad got so big Monica Aldama coached both. So she was my coach as well. Wow. Um, her experience was in cheer, so they kind of got more of the attention. Um, and then they started winning big. And so they dismantled the dancers. Eventually it was strange. It was sad, but, oh, well I think they, I don’t know if they wanted to really hire a second coach and her direction and, you know, that was her main focus with, you know, I can see that they were working for them. Right. Absolutely. Um, so I did that for two years and then I went to Stephen F. Austin. I was on the POM squad there for two years and then I finished there and then I came back home and started working in the Dallas powerhouse. Um, it was off of Inwood down in Dallas. Um, Shella Sattler was the director.

She was the owner of powerhouse and she was the director of the Dallas Mavericks. Um, so I worked there and then tried out and became Dallas Maverick dancer. So did that for a couple of years, um, continued to teach at the studio, um, worked with all the surrounding high schools, different things like that. Um, and then decided, it was time to hang up my dancing shoes as far as performing and decided to assist her. So I assisted her in rehearsals, not necessarily games because I taught in the evenings and on the weekends. Um, so in rehearsals I would help her run.

So you stopped performing. So like what age, what stage or age in your life you don’t have to. 35. Okay. Is when you were kind of done being like onstage. Yeah,

I missed it, but you know, it was time. Yeah. Those girls were hungry or they wanted to stay in shape than I did at the time. It does seem a little bit,

You know, especially when you’re at the level, like dancing for the Mavs, like not cutthroat, but I mean, you have to desire to be that, you know, every day in and out, right.

Oh, absolutely. And after I, after I finished and then I had my son shortly after, I remember eating like two cheeseburgers a day and not feel guilty about it because I hadn’t had a cheeseburger four years.

Yeah. You had to be careful all that time. Right. Um, so then that brings us to now. So the last six or so years, have you been working with the Texas Legends?

I’ve been with them. I can’t even think what’s the first year in existence. 2011.

Well, they’ve been in existence. Yeah. 10. They had their 10 year anniversary. Oh gosh. This 20, 21 everything’s running together. So I think maybe we’re in 11th year now.

So then this is my 10th year. Oh, so you haven’t been there all this time? I was only, I was not there the first year. Okay. So I’ve been there with Malcolm the whole time.

Okay, awesome. See, I was way off then. Okay. So what is, what is your, what is your role? I mean, you don’t just work for the Texas Legends you work at next step also. So, but what is your role then through the Texas Legends? Next step

Is the main sponsor for the dancers, um, or the spirit squad. And they’re kind of like our host home. So we train through next step. They, they come, everything runs through next step for the most part. Um, so I was teaching for next step first, my, my best friend and the owner of next step, Michelle Stafford, we taught together at powerhouse for years. She branched out left and brought next step up here. And so then eventually she just kept asking and asking and asking, and it was, it was time for me to make a move. So I came up here with her and that was my background was Mavs, you know, all of that business training, girls, drill team, like which steps into more of the professional cheerleading, you know, venue. Um, and then when the Legends came to next step, I guess next step was proposed to be the main sponsor that first year as well. And they went with the different studio, they went with a different studio, which, um, I think because I’m not hired through the Legends necessarily, the studio gets to pick who they want as the director. So that’s kind of where my tie falls in. They went a different route the second year, they came back to next step and offered them to have the position again. And luckily I had just come from Dallas. Yeah, it was perfect. It was perfect timing and

It works. So, yeah, so it works and all this time. So

My, my role at next step, I direct the drill team program. So all the drill team, prep classes, um, I have two assistants under me that helped me teach those classes. Um, so I don’t teach all of them. They teach us some of them as well. Uh, but we also run five teams, five mini drill teams, if you will. So for like kindergarten through first grade and then seven to nine year olds, 10 to 12 year olds, 13, 15, and then all the high school kids. So we have, so a lot of our high school kids, they’re on their drill teams and on our studio company drill, that’s a lot that is, um, so we had those teams and then we also teach recreational classes on top of that. And then I had the Legends on top of that. So it is very busy. This year has been amazing. And not that I don’t miss it, not that I don’t miss my, my dancers, but not having to rehearse or stay till midnight Tuesdays and not making Sundays usually are like 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM for me, straight with rehearsals all day long. It’s a grind. It’s been really nice. I got a huge break. So, well, let’s assume we’re

Talking about normal season life with, you know, a full spirit squad and dancers that are rehearsing and working. So like what’s the size of the Texas legend spirit sq