How to Look Like a Utah Jazz Dancer
March 12th, 2009
Learn their top hair, workout and dieting secrets plus tanning tips
by Leo Dirr with video by Richard Markosian
The Utah Jazz dancers routinely perform in front of thousands of fans. That's gotta put a ton of pressure on these young ladies to look their best. But they never fail to impress.
How in the world do they do it? What's their secret?
Maybe it really is Maybelline. Or maybe it's something else.
Utah Stories interviewed three Jazz dancers about their workout routines, eating habits and some other random junk. You can read their answers below. Or you can just watch the video. It includes some really cool footage of one of their rehearsals.
How many hours a week do you practice dancing?
Crystal: We rehearse twice a week, and our practices are about 4 hours each rehearsal. So that's 8 hours. And before each game we rehearse also.
Besides dancing, what is your weekly workout routine?
Deeann: We actually just got a brand-new trainer this year. His name is Neil Anderson. And he is tough. He is a really, really tough CrossFit trainer. His workouts are usually about 20 to 40 minutes long. He comes to every practice and we run through one of those workouts. And he's got a gym here in Bountiful that we go to every once in a while. So, he's pretty much responsible for having us in shape. And his workouts are pretty killer, so they've made a big difference.
Crystal: They're a lot of fun, too.
What's involved in a typical workout?
Jocelyn: His workouts change. He likes to do a lot of variations of stuff, so we don't really ever do the same workouts, over and over again. Sometimes he'll do repeats, but not really. He likes to do a ton of squats, and like lots of abs and stuff. It's good.
Crystal: We get our heart rate up really quickly. So his workouts are very short. So they're 20 to 30 minutes and you're done, which is great.
Deeann: But your heart rate is up super high the entire time. So, in those 30 minutes you're packing so much of a workout into every single minute. So, it's pretty intense.
Do you girls have "real jobs"?
Crystal: Well, my "real job," is I'm a stay-at-home mom. I get to play mom all day and then I get to come and be with my friends in the evening. I really do have the best of both worlds.
Jocelyn: I go to school full time. I'm at school from 8 in the morning until 6. And then I come to practice. If there's a game, I leave school around 3, because we have to be at the arena at 3:30. I go to Salt Lake Community College. I graduate in April. Yea!
Deeann: I have a full-time job. I work for a contractor in Farmington. So, that's 8 hours a day, unless, of course, we have a game and I'm fortunate enough to get to leave early. I work 8 hours a day, every day. And then I come here. So, some days I leave home at 8:30 in the morning and come home at 10 at night. But this doesn't always feel like a job. It's a lot of fun. I mean, who else gets to sit on the floor at Jazz games? And really you're just hanging out with your best friends doing something that you love to do. So, it's awesome.
Do you follow any special diet?
Crystal: I'm a bad one to be asked this question. I'm the drive-through master. We're so busy. We're on the road a lot. I'm very guilty of doing that. But I think we all know it's calories in, calories out. So, just try to be smart with it. Jocelyn eats really well. She should tell you her eating secrets.
Jocelyn: I don't eat well. I just like cottage cheese. I think it's really good. And everyone makes fun of me 'cause I eat it and it's healthy. But I just think it's really good.
What foods do you splurge on?
Crystal: Burgers and fries. People make fun of me. I really like McDonald's hamburgers. No pickles, no onions, with cheese.
Deeann: I think we try to eat healthy. I like to eat all throughout the day, do that thing where you eat little meals kind of consistently every few hours. That's worked really well for me. But I think it's important to splurge a little bit. Because if you don't allow yourself that little bit of something that's maybe not so good for you, then you're probably not going to make it. You're probably not going to stay on that healthy diet. You're just going to splurge all at once, and it's going to be a really negative thing. So, for me, I always plan somewhere in my daily food intake to have something that's maybe not so good for me, so that I can stay on track.
So, you wouldn't recommend dieting to women who want to look like Jazz dancers?
Deeann: No, you definitely need to eat healthy. It's important to watch what you eat. But if you're never allowing yourself a little bit of chocolate or a little bit of something that isn't perfectly healthy for you, then one day, you're just going to see that plate of cookies and go crazy. I know for me personally, I can only go and eat healthy for so long. And then, "Oh, I can't do it anymore." But if I plan it into my diet, and every day I plan something where I can splurge a little bit, then I'm more likely to stay on track.
Is there a ton of pressure to look thin?
Deeann: We are mostly encouraged to be healthy. We don't want anybody to be too skinny or to be anorexic or to develop any kind of eating disorders. But considering what we wear in front of the crowd, we put pressure on ourselves that we want to look good. Yeah, there's a little bit of pressure. But mostly, we're encouraged to be healthy and to have an athletic physique.
Are you married?
Crystal: Deeann's married. Jocelyn's not married. There are quite a few who are married.
How do you keep your hair looking great?
Crystal: We have a sponsor, The Garden Day Spa. They do our hair. They cut, color, everything. They do it every 6 weeks. They also come to the games. They do our hair at the games and they do our makeup as well.
How many hours do you spend at a tanning salon in a typical week?
Jocelyn: For me, zero. I don't have time. But I try every three weeks to get a spray tan.
Crystal: Yeah, we're all fans of the spray tan. It's an instant tan. It's safe, it's healthy, and it looks great.
Anything you'd like to say to all the Utah Jazz fans?
Deeann: Keep cheering on the team. Now's the time when we're really pushing for the playoffs. Keep pushing. The fans obviously make the biggest difference. All over the NBA they talk about how our arena is the loudest. We have the loudest fans. And honestly you hear the players talk about all the time how much it affects them. And you can see that by looking at their record. They have one of the best home records in the league.
Crystal: And when the Jazz dancers are performing, you should cheer really loud for us.
To learn more about the Utah Jazz dancers, you can visit: http://www.nba.com/jazz/dance/2008-09_nuskin_jazzdancers.html
