Tiger Girls featured in Carrie Underwood music video

Top Row (l to r): Jacie Scott, Michelle Douglas, Devon Sells, Katherine Frederickson,
Second Row (l to r): Taylor Courtney, Ashleigh Hurrelbrink, Jenny Craig, Kristen Davis, Alexis Lawson, Jennifer White, Kelly Breaux
Bottom Row (l to r): Tara Mouton, Haley Taylor, Lauren Hammond, Heidi Hankin, Hayley Kropog, Bethany Hebert, Ande Couvillion, Jasmine Olivier

Three Tiger Girls were chosen to be dancers in the new Carrie Underwood music video for the song “Cowboy Casanova,” which topped Country Music Television’s “Top 20 Countdown” for Oct. 16.

Lauren Hammond, biology senior, Heidi Hankin, kinesiology senior, and Katherine Frederickson, chemical engineering freshman, auditioned for a music video at a casting call in New Orleans but didn’t know the identity of the artist. The only information they were told was the artist was a multi-platinum award-winning female artist.

“My studio dance teacher told me about the auditions, so I sent in a tape,” Frederickson said. Hammond and Hankin participated in the live auditions on a Thursday. They were told nothing until late Sunday night.

“All three of us pretty much spent the entire weekend together just waiting for a response,” Hammond said. “We all received the e-mail Sunday night, and that’s when we found out the music video was going to be for Carrie Underwood.”

Things moved quickly after the e-mail. The three Tiger Girls, along with two other women, rehearsed the dances with the choreographer the following week at a hotel ballroom in New Orleans. Underwood practiced with the women on the second day.

Filming of the video in New Orleans took two days. The women said the days were long, not finishing until the early hours of the morning.

The Tiger Girls said Underwood was shy in person but comfortable in front of the camera.

“She was so tiny and short,” Hammond says. “It was amazing to see such a small person with such an amazingly strong singing voice.”

Hankin said the dancers’ experience helped them deal with the demanding schedule.

“Sometimes during the tapings the choreographer would decide to change part of the dance, show us one time and expect us to be able to do it,” Hankin said. “We have to learn gameday dances fast so our experience with LSU Tiger Girls helped a lot.”

Underwood joked about the Tiger Girls’ dance skills and said they were about a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, while she herself was about a 1.5.

Source: Daily Reveille

Lake Charles native dances in Carrie Underwood music video

LAKE CHARLES, LA (KPLC) - It's every young girl's dream to dance among the stars in a popular music video.

Now Heidi Hankin, a former Barbe Bluebell has finally hit the spotlight in Carrie Underwood's new music video, "Cowboy Casanova."

"I just love to perform," says Hankin. "I love being in a big arena with tons of people around and just getting to smile."

Hankin began dancing when she was 6 years old.

"I did a little bit of everything really," says Hankin. "I took ballet, tap, and Jazz."

These classes prepared her to become a Barbe Bluebonnet, an LSU Tiger Girl, and something a little more than that.

Just one week after starting her senior year at LSU, Hankin auditioned to dance in a country music video being filmed in New Orleans.

"We had about an hour and a half to get to there once we heard about it,"says Hankin.

The choreographer just filmed us doing free style," says Hankin.

Within a matter of days, Hankin was dancing alongside singer Carrie Underwood.

"It's still really exciting," says Hankin. "Whenever I think it's calmed down a little bit, somebody else will write on my facebook wall or call me."

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