Recent Pahrump Valley High School graduate Natalie Minor is beginning a new chapter in a dance career that has already spanned most of her life after earning a place with the Desert Dogs Vixens, the professional dance team for the Las Vegas Desert Dogs lacrosse organization.
At 18, Natalie is the youngest member of the Vixens. The paid position will give her an opportunity to perform at professional sporting events, participate in community appearances and train alongside dancers with experience on NFL and other professional entertainment teams.
The Las Vegas Desert Dogs are a professional indoor lacrosse team and one of 12 teams in their league. The team plays its home games at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, where the hockey ice used by the Henderson Silver Knights is replaced with turf for lacrosse.
Natalie is scheduled to make her game-day debut when the Desert Dogs begin play Dec. 5. Although she is excited to perform in a professional arena, earning the position represents much more than preparing for one season or one halftime routine. It is the latest step in a dance journey that began when she was 2 years old.
Natalie first began dancing while her family lived in California. After moving to Pahrump, she took a break from dance before returning to classes when she was slightly older at Donna’s Dance Studio.
Her parents later became acquainted with the owners of Nevada Dance Center. When they opened their studio in Pahrump, Natalie began taking classes there at approximately 8 years old. In those early days, she was sometimes the only child taking all the classes offered, giving her a personal introduction to the studio that would eventually become an important part of her life.
She began competing with Nevada Dance Center when she was 9. Being part of the studio’s competition program required her to learn a wide range of dance styles rather than concentrating on only one specialty.
Natalie trained in ballet, tap, acrobatics, jazz, lyrical and contemporary dance. She also participated in conditioning and other supplemental classes designed to improve dancers’ strength, control, flexibility and endurance. Nevada Dance Center later expanded its offerings to include ballroom and pom classes.
That variety helped Natalie develop the versatility she would eventually need when auditioning for professional teams. Ballet provided an important technical foundation, while tap strengthened her timing and musicality. Jazz, lyrical and contemporary dance allowed her to work with different movement styles and forms of expression, while acrobatics and conditioning helped her build the strength and athleticism required for increasingly demanding choreography.
Pom became especially useful as Natalie progressed into high school because it is a prominent part of school and professional sports dance. The style requires dancers to execute sharp, controlled movements while maintaining synchronization, energy and a strong connection with the audience.
When Natalie entered Pahrump Valley High School, she joined the school’s dance team and remained with the program throughout all four years. At the same time, she continued training and competing with Nevada Dance Center.
Balancing the two programs meant learning separate routines, adjusting to different coaching styles and managing practices, competitions and performances throughout the school year. It also allowed Natalie to build experience as both a studio competitor and a member of a school-based team.
The PVHS dance team competed during Natalie’s freshman year before taking a break from competition during her sophomore and junior years. The team returned to competition during her senior year, giving Natalie an opportunity to close her high school dance career by competing alongside her Trojan teammates.
After graduating from PVHS, Natalie began pursuing opportunities in professional sports entertainment. She initially auditioned for the Vegas Golden Knights entertainment team and advanced to the second round.
Although she was not selected for the final Golden Knights roster, the audition gave her valuable experience and showed that she was capable of competing at a professional level. Instead of treating the outcome as a reason to stop, she used the experience as motivation to keep working and look for another opportunity.
Natalie later attended clinics held ahead of auditions for the Desert Dogs Vixens. The clinics gave prospective members an opportunity to learn more about the team, become familiar with its performance style and begin connecting with other dancers before the formal selection process.
During those clinics, Natalie met Alexa, another dancer pursuing a place on the team. The two began talking well before the official audition and continued building a friendship throughout the process. Alexa, who is 20, also earned a place on the Vixens and is the teammate closest to Natalie’s age.
Natalie met more of the dancers during auditions and had an opportunity to speak with them while waiting for the judges to make their decisions. Those early conversations helped ease some of the uncertainty that naturally came with entering a new professional environment.
“I’m just looking forward to meeting all the new girls,” Natalie said. “Obviously, I already met them at auditions, and we were talking. We got to talk for a while while the judges were talking, and I already love all of them. They’re so nice.”
Although the Vixens are a dance team, their game-day responsibilities extend beyond a single choreographed halftime performance. The dancers help create energy throughout Desert Dogs home games by cheering for the team, performing short routines and engaging with spectators.
“We do both,” Natalie said of dancing and cheering. “We are a dance team, but we have pom-poms the whole time. We cheer on our team, and I think we dance in the stands and on the Den. We do little dances, kind of like sidelines, but we are dancers.”
At the beginning of a game, the Vixens may perform or cheer from an area known as “the Den.” They also perform during halftime and may dance from other locations inside the arena throughout the game.
Natalie said the team has several uniforms available for different portions of the game. The Vixens’ primary uniform is red and black, while other options include a pink-and-green top and shorts and a dress.
“We have our main uniform that we wear to most of the games, but during the games we actually change our outfits sometimes,” Natalie said.
The dancers may begin a game in one outfit before changing during a break and preparing for halftime in their primary uniform. They may then change again depending on the routines, activities and presentation planned by the coaches.
“It really depends on what the coaches tell us they want us to be in,” Natalie said.
The Vixens generally do not travel with the lacrosse team, but their home schedule will still require a significant commitment from Natalie. She plans to continue living at home in Pahrump and will commute to the Las Vegas Valley for practices, games, classes and appearances.
Regular team practices last approximately three hours. As a paid member of the Vixens, Natalie will be compensated for the time she spends practicing and working at games.
Her position will also include opportunities to represent the Desert Dogs at events in the Las Vegas Valley. During those appearances, Vixens may assist with community activities, interact with members of the public and participate in interviews. Dancers provide their availability for each event, and team leaders choose which members will attend.
The studio where the Vixens practice will provide another opportunity for Minor to continue developing her skills. Team members are allowed to attend classes there at no cost, including classes taught by the Vixens’ coaches and by other dancers on the team.
The available training includes professional-level dance and pom classes as well as familiar styles such as jazz and lyrical. Many of the classes taught by the coaches focus on pom because it is the Vixens’ primary game-day style.
Although Vixens are not required to attend additional classes outside of team practices, Natalie plans to take advantage of them whenever her schedule permits.
“I still think it’s a good idea to keep taking classes so I can keep up with it,” she said.
Natlie will be surrounded by dancers with a broad range of professional experience. Some are in their 30s, and some have previously performed for NFL organizations or at other advanced levels of sports entertainment.
Being the youngest person on the team has left Natalie feeling both excited and nervous. She wants to demonstrate that she can meet the same professional expectations as her more experienced teammates, both in her dancing and in the way she represents the organization.
“The only reason I’m nervous is because I am the youngest on the team,” Natalie said. “There are 30-plus-year-olds on the team, so I’m like, ‘Wow, I really have to dance like them. I have to act like them. I have to be mature.’”
Natalie does not want her age to become the quality that defines her within the group. She wants her teammates and coaches to recognize that she is prepared to work, learn and conduct herself professionally.
“Since I am the youngest, I don’t want them to be like, ‘Yeah, she’s the youngest on the team, and she’s not mature like everyone else,’” Natalie said.
She is equally determined to demonstrate that her ability belongs alongside dancers with longer professional résumés.
“I just want my dancing ability to be the same as them because some of the other girls on the team have danced for NFL teams,” Natalie said. “They were already at higher levels of dancing, and this will be my first year.”
Training beside those dancers will give Natalie an opportunity to learn directly from teammates who understand the pace and demands of professional sports entertainment. Practices will help her adjust to the Vixens’ choreography and performance standards, while games will teach her how to remain energetic, engaged and prepared throughout an entire event.
Natalie hopes the Desert Dogs will become more than a one-season experience. She would like to remain with the Vixens while continuing to pursue increasingly advanced opportunities in dance.
“I think I want to be with this team for a while, and I think it will be a stepping stone for me because I want to do even higher levels of dancing,” Natalie said. “I just want to keep dancing.”
For now, Natalie plans to devote the coming year to the Vixens before deciding whether she will attend college. Giving herself that time will allow her to experience life as a professional dancer and consider what direction she wants her education and career to take.
As she prepares for the Dec. 5 opener, Natalie will draw upon the instruction and encouragement she has received throughout her life. She credited the staff at Nevada Dance Center, including Miss Kelly, Miss Juliette and Miss Paris, with helping her develop into the dancer she is today.
Miss Paris was particularly influential in encouraging Natalie to pursue a professional team. As a dancer for the Golden Knights, she gave Natalie an example of where years of training could lead.
“Miss Paris really inspired me to be on a professional team because she’s a dancer for the Knights,” Natalie said.
After Natalie was not selected for the final Golden Knights roster, Miss Paris encouraged her to continue auditioning rather than allowing one result to end her pursuit.
“She was really like, ‘You need to try out again next year. Try out for the Desert Dogs. You can make a team,’” Natalie said. “She just kept pushing me until I made a team.”
Natalie also credited her parents with giving her the freedom to pursue dance on her own terms. They encouraged her to audition while making it clear that she did not have to continue if it was not what she wanted.
“They told me, ‘Whatever you want to do, you can do it. Don’t get discouraged when you didn’t make a team. Keep trying,’” Natalie said.
Rather than placing pressure on her to achieve a particular result, her parents encouraged her to view every audition as a worthwhile experience.
“They never pushed me, because I think if they pushed me, I would have been like, ‘No, I’m not doing it,’” Natalie said. “But they were like, ‘Just do it. Just try it. You don’t have to go through with it. Just audition. See if you make it. If you make it, then that’s great. But if you don’t, it’s a good experience.’”
That combination of instruction, encouragement and personal determination helped Natalie move from her first dance classes at age 2 to years of competition, four seasons with the PVHS dance team and professional auditions after graduation.
Now, as the youngest member of the Desert Dogs Vixens, Natalie will carry the support of her family, instructors and hometown with her when she takes the floor at Lee’s Family Forum and begins her first professional season.
