Dancefx Athens featured in Super Bowl LIII halftime show with Adam Levine and Big Boi - Red and Black

February 18, 2019 at 09:21PM

While Dancefx Athens, a local dance studio, is known for its workshops and non-profit work, the company isn't afraid to support big-time artists.

The dance company was invited to attend during Super Bowl LIII and rehearsed with Adam Levine of Maroon 5.

Dancefx Athens was featured during the Super Bowl halftime show as a part of the fan crowd standing in front of the M-shaped stage that Levine performed on, along with other musicians like Big Boi and Travis Scott.

Dancefx members appear on television during the halftime show performance of Super Bowl LIII. Courtesy Joshua Truitt

Taking a leap of faith

Meghan Dober, a senior math and cognitive science major and dance minor at the University of Georgia, is a dancer who works with the Concert Dance Company of Dancefx Athens — which performs jazz and contemporary choreography — and talked about how short notice the invite to the huge event was.

Allison Hayn, the executive director of Dancefx, Inc., received an email in early December 2018 from organizers at the Super Bowl and she forwarded it Dober and others.

"... [Hayn] said you have 48 hours to let us know if you can make it," Dober said. "So I looked at the rehearsal dates and immediately said yes." 

Dober said she thinks the fan casters reached out to Dancefx to participate because they needed performers who "understood the rehearsal process and the music vision."

"... We all [understood] that we are part of a whole and this is not our superstar moment." Dober said. 

Worth the wait

Jessica Bortle, a senior public relations major and dance minor at UGA who's danced at Dancefx since she was 4 years old, is now the director of the Sweet Dreams Company at Dancefx — a femme hip-hop performance company — and also got the opportunity to attend Super Bowl LIII.

According to Bortle, the group was in Atlanta about two weeks before the Super Bowl and their rehearsals for the show lasted about six hours a day.

"It was a lot of waiting around, but standing there on the field was just really cool because I've never been in the [Mercedes Benz Stadium] and my first time, I actually got to be on the field," Bortle said. 

The group rehearsed with Levine and Big Boi for the majority of the time. Bortle described the two as "the most humble, genuine people."

"Adam would go through the crowd and say, 'Thank you for doing this and spending the whole day helping me do the halftime show,'" Bortle said.

Dancefx didn't do choreography, however. The dancer's jobs were mainly to jump around and "hype" the performers up said, Bortle.

"We had to [give] 120 percent every time because if we were tired, you [could] tell they were tired," Bortle said. 

Joshua Truitt, a UGA graduate and instructor and front desk worker at Dancefx who's worked full time with the organization since 2014, also gave his insight on taking the field in the Mercedes Benz Stadium.

 "We had one of the largest delegations there since Dancefx Athens brought 40 people and Dancefx Atlanta brought around 12 [members]," Truitt said.

Aside from Dancefx, other groups got the opportunity to participate in the fan cast, such as the Atlanta Falcons alumni cheerleaders, along with cheerleaders and dance teams from other colleges around Atlanta, like the Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University.

Dober said she's never been nervous or overwhelmed by dance performances, but this performance was different or in her words, "exhilarating." 

"Since we didn't have choreography, it was more about taking in how many people were viewing you," Dober said. "I had the choice of 'I might pass out or I need to scream and cheer and dance it out,' so I decided to dance it out."

While Dancefx Athens, a local dance studio, is known for its workshops and non-profit work, the company isn't afraid to support big-time artists.

The dance company was invited to attend during Super Bowl LIII and rehearsed with Adam Levine of Maroon 5.

Dancefx Athens was featured during the Super Bowl halftime show as a part of the fan crowd standing in front of the M-shaped stage that Levine performed on, along with other musicians like Big Boi and Travis Scott.

Dancefx members appear on television during the halftime show performance of Super Bowl LIII. Courtesy Joshua Truitt

Taking a leap of faith

Meghan Dober, a senior math and cognitive science major and dance minor at the University of Georgia, is a dancer who works with the Concert Dance Company of Dancefx Athens — which performs jazz and contemporary choreography — and talked about how short notice the invite to the huge event was.

Allison Hayn, the executive director of Dancefx, Inc., received an email in early December 2018 from organizers at the Super Bowl and she forwarded it Dober and others.

"... [Hayn] said you have 48 hours to let us know if you can make it," Dober said. "So I looked at the rehearsal dates and immediately said yes." 

Dober said she thinks the fan casters reached out to Dancefx to participate because they needed performers who "understood the rehearsal process and the music vision."

"... We all [understood] that we are part of a whole and this is not our superstar moment." Dober said. 

Worth the wait

Jessica Bortle, a senior public relations major and dance minor at UGA who's danced at Dancefx since she was 4 years old, is now the director of the Sweet Dreams Company at Dancefx — a femme hip-hop performance company — and also got the opportunity to attend Super Bowl LIII.

According to Bortle, the group was in Atlanta about two weeks before the Super Bowl and their rehearsals for the show lasted about six hours a day.

"It was a lot of waiting around, but standing there on the field was just really cool because I've never been in the [Mercedes Benz Stadium] and my first time, I actually got to be on the field," Bortle said. 

The group rehearsed with Levine and Big Boi for the majority of the time. Bortle described the two as "the most humble, genuine people."

"Adam would go through the crowd and say, 'Thank you for doing this and spending the whole day helping me do the halftime show,'" Bortle said.

Dancefx didn't do choreography, however. The dancer's jobs were mainly to jump around and "hype" the performers up said, Bortle.

"We had to [give] 120 percent every time because if we were tired, you [could] tell they were tired," Bortle said. 

Joshua Truitt, a UGA graduate and instructor and front desk worker at Dancefx who's worked full time with the organization since 2014, also gave his insight on taking the field in the Mercedes Benz Stadium.

 "We had one of the largest delegations there since Dancefx Athens brought 40 people and Dancefx Atlanta brought around 12 [members]," Truitt said.

Aside from Dancefx, other groups got the opportunity to participate in the fan cast, such as the Atlanta Falcons alumni cheerleaders, along with cheerleaders and dance teams from other colleges around Atlanta, like the Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University.

Dober said she's never been nervous or overwhelmed by dance performances, but this performance was different or in her words, "exhilarating." 

"Since we didn't have choreography, it was more about taking in how many people were viewing you," Dober said. "I had the choice of 'I might pass out or I need to scream and cheer and dance it out,' so I decided to dance it out."

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