Staying On Her Toes
Porterville woman a Rams cheerleader in unpredictable times
Isis Peralta made the appropriate assessment as a Los Angeles Rams cheerleader for the NFL team when she said: “We’re just staying on our toes and being ready for anything.”
Peralta, who’s from Porterville, went through the rigorous process over the summer of trying out for the Los Angeles Rams Cheerleading team and she was one of only 32 who were selected to be a cheerleader for the 2020 season and through the spring of 2021 as well.
Peralta is one of nine rookies chosen to be on this year’s team. It was the first year she tried out for the team.
She was one of 32 chosen out of 360 who tried out. “Definitely stiff competition,” she said. To show how stiff the competition was, 28 professional sports dance teams were represented in the tryouts.
Peralta is a 2015 Harmony Magnet Academy graduate. She attended College of the Sequoias and then went on to attend the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
She’s still attending UNLV. While beginning her professional career as a Rams cheerleader, Peralta will also earn her degree in Performance and Choreography from UNLV in 2012.
But she has moved back to Porterville where she will have to “virtually” work with the Rams Cheerleading team and towards her degree from UNLV for the time being.
“I’ve always wanted to be a professional dancer,” Peralta said. Peralta said she has been dancing since she was 3 and grew up dancing with the local Sensations studio.
“It inspired me to work toward a performance career,” said Peralta about her time at Sensations.
She became even more determined to pursue a career performing in college, Peralta said. “It was really with college I just put my head down and worked for a professional career,” she said.
Peralta said she would like to own a studio of her own someday or become a choreographer for an NFL or NBA team. “This is the start of my chosen career,” said Peralta about being a Rams cheerleader.
The tryouts to be a Rams cheerleader had to all be done virtually. The first round of tryouts was in June.
Peralta then advanced to the semifinal round later in June and then to the final round in July. She was informed she was selected for the team last week.
In the beginning and semifinal rounds, Peralta was given videos of routines and then was allocated a certain amount of hours put together a video and send it back of her doing the routines.
In the final round, Peralta performed virtually in front of a
panel of judges and was also interviewed. Among the routines Peralta did was jazz, Latin jazz, hip hop and old school hip hop.
Peralta said the Rams cheerleaders will begin practice in mid-august, but again they will all have to work together virtually while in different locations.
And as far as the upcoming NFL season, it’s all obviously still an unknown. The 20202021 season for Peralta as a Rams cheerleader will last through March, 2021, but again obviously what’s going to happen as far as any potential appearances Peralta would have as a Rams cheerleader during that timespan is unknown.
“I glad I did it,” said Peralta about the virtual tryout process. “I feel like it made me a stronger dancer.”