Typically found supporting the Phoenix at all home football and basketball games, the Elon University dance team is buzzing about a unique opportunity in Charlotte tonight. 

The team will perform at the Charlotte Hornets’ season opener against the New Orleans Pelicans just before the start of the game at 7 p.m. 

Senior Lindsey Rothenstein said members of the team were originally just planning to watch their former teammate, Nyla Rivers ’22, who dances for The Honey Bees, the Hornets’ dance team. But Rothenstein said someone in the Hornets organization got in touch with head coach Elly Dirks and asked the team to perform. 

“We are so excited to share this with her because she has always been an outstanding teammate, and it’s so amazing to see her dreams come true because she’s always wanted to be a member of The Honey Bees,” Rothenstein said. 

Rothenstein said when she initially found out about the performance opportunity, she was speechless. 

“It was just so shocking, but exciting that we had this professional opportunity on a different type of stage,” Rothenstein said. “Elon is a smaller school, and I’ve never performed at this high of a level.” 

While Rothenstein said that she does not have plans to dance on a team like The Honey Bees after graduation right now, she said she may feel compelled to down the road. 

“I've talked to Nyla about it, and she's given me and some other girls on the team great guidance about how to dance postgrad,” Rothenstein said. “We'll see in the future.” 

Rothenstein said the opportunity to perform Oct. 21 is rare, as the team is usually tied up with Elon sporting events or preparing for its competitions.  

“It's just very special because it's unique and doesn't really usually work out with the weekends that we do because we're super busy,” Rothenstein said. 

The 2022 national champions in Hip Hop Division 1 are creating a name for themselves, and sophomore Kayla Daignault said she is looking forward to representing Elon on a bigger stage. 

“This is our first opportunity to go pro, and we are so excited,” Daignault said. “This is a great opportunity for us to push into the Charlotte community and represent Elon and our awesome team and what we have to offer, and we're so excited.”

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Mason Willett contributed to the reporting of this story.