Dance team to perform at Alamo Bowl tonight

MEEKER | The Meeker Traveling Dance Team left early Monday for San Antonio, Texas, where they will perform during halftime at the Alamo Bowl.
This is the third time the dance team has performed at a college bowl game. In 2010 the group traveled to San Diego, Calif., to perform at the parade and halftime show of the Holiday Bowl. In 2013 another group of dancers went to Tampa, Fla., to perform at the pregame and halftime show of the Outback Bowl.
“Because of the strong work ethic and performance ability of the Meeker dancers in the past two trips, I get asked regularly to bring my students to college bowl games,” wrote dance instructor Kari Ruchti via email.
Fourteen dancers from Meeker will join approximately 300 other dancers and 300 high school band students for the halftime show. Madeline Amack, Kendra Nelson, Delenn Mobley, Shovonah Dade, Shelby Steele, Kallie McCain, Savana May, Mikayla Cardile, Annelise Amack, Jennifer Kincher, Madison Kindler, Brynlee Williams, Rylee Butler and Reese Miller each raised $1,200 for the trip.
“Between fundraising and practicing their routine, they have been working very hard to get to San Antonio,” Ruchti wrote. “It is all worth it when you get to watch them perform live in front of 70,000 fans at the game. It’s such an amazing experience to watch my dancers go through, and I’m so proud to have each and every one of them going with me.”
The teams playing in this year’s Alamo Bowl are the University of Colorado Buffaloes versus the Oklahoma State University Cowboys. Ruchti said she’s hopeful there will be more coverage of the halftime performance on local channels since a Colorado team is playing.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN at 7 p.m. today, and can be live streamed at www.espn.com/ watchespn/. Whether the halftime show is filmed is at the discretion of ESPN. Ruchti said she hopes to live stream the performance on Facebook on the Meeker Traveling Dance Team group page “unless there is a licensing issue.”
The dancers will receive copies of the recorded performance.
“Watch for them in the turquoise and gold dresses,” Ruchti said.