It's 8 p.m. in the Wachovia Center, and the team is putting on quite a show on the court. The funny thing is, it's Monday night, all of the arena's seats are empty, the only light in the building is coming from the work lights and the 76ers' season hasn't even started yet.
So what's going on?
The group putting on the show is the Sixers Dance Team, going over routines that they will perform the next night in front of 20,000 fans for the basketball team's season opener.
This year, the team of 17 includes eight rookies, the largest proportion of newcomers ever. And among those rookies is Amber-Joi Watkins, a communications major in the College. In fact, the organization gets a majority of its dancers from area colleges, a resource it has tapped for some time.
The junior fell into the job almost by chance, deciding it would be fun to try out this summer with one of her girlfriends. Little did she know, she would soon be a member of one of the most famous groups of girls in the city.
"It was nothing I was really planning on doing, it just kind of happened," the Philadelphia native said. "I wasn't going in expecting to make it or anything."
Whether she expected it or not, Watkins now finds herself with a full plate, juggling more commitments than any 20-year-old could ever realistically want.
"Even though they're called the Sixers Dancers, dancing is only maybe 20 percent of what they actually do," team coach Debbie Apalucci said. "Most of their job is public relations and community relations, and a lot of these girls are young, and they've never had the opportunity to represent anyone on a corporate scale. Plus, they've been so busy. They've been doing nothing but appearances, and they do the morning shows which means they have to get up at 4, be there at 5.
"Most of them have school or they have regular jobs where they work 8 to 6, then they come to practice, so it's been a lot of work."
Still, Watkins shrugs off any notion that this is anything she can't handle. If you took her word for it, you'd think this was a piece of cake.
It's "kind of [difficult], but I've always been doing it," she said. "Since middle school, I've always been dancing and going to school, so I'm kind of used to it."
The dedication and enthusiasm that Watkins brings to the team have not gone unnoticed. Her school schedule is full of classes and extracurriculars -- such as work at the Institute of Contemporary Art -- but her teammates laud her commitment to the squad.
"Amber-Joi, in particular, is just a very sweet person, she's a hard worker, she brings the hard work and dedication that the other girls might struggle with at first," said captain Adrienne Della, a 10-year veteran of the team. "She just has that naturally."
And, as a communications major, it seems only fitting that "she has great communication skills, she's very eager to represent us," Apalucci said.
The life of a dancer is no cake walk. Last night, in the season opener, fans only saw the outer veneer of all the squad has done to prepare when the smiling girls took the court on timeouts. But ask them, and they wouldn't have it any other way.
"You don't understand that we live to dance, that this is something we love to do," Apalucci said. "And even though they get paid to do it, most of them would probably do it if they didn't get paid."
It looks like the coach has Watkins, at least, down to a T.
"Dancing in front of thousands of people, it's by far the most fun job I've had in my life," Watkins said. "This isn't like work at all. I'm getting paid to do the same thing I've been doing all my life."
