With some extra time in Montreal, Ashley and Nina prank fellow RDP member Steph…
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Pranking Steph…
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Double Birthday Prank!!!
Time for another RDP birthday prank, with Rachelle and Colleen getting some belated desert… whether they like it or not!
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Behind The Scenes On Game Day – Part One
Raptors Dance Pak captain Ashley gives you a glimpse behind the scenes with the RDP pre-game at ACC.
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Behind The Scenes On Game Day – Part Two
More from behind the scenes on game day with the Raptors Dance Pak at ACC…
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Monday Fit Fact: Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Clusters
These clusters are delicious and filling. They are also great for those with cravings for chocolate and peanut butter. I eat these as a snack on days when I workout. You could substitute the all-natural peanut butter for a natural smooth almond butter. Enjoy!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Clusters
Ingredients:
2 C oat flour
2 C quick cooking oats
1/2 C all natural peanut butter
1Cc almond milk
6 egg whites or 3/4C liquid egg whites
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla
1 C brown sugar sweetener (xylitol, or splenda)
1 t “No Salt” (salt substitute)
1 t ground cloves
1t cinnamon
4 oz. unsweetened apple sauce
2/3 C unsweetened cocoa
Bake at 350° for 20 minutes
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350°
- Combine dry ingredients and stir until combined
- Add wet ingredients and blend with a fork
- Form balls and place on a greased cookie sheet
- Makes 18-20 servings
- Bake for 20 minutes
Nutritional Information:
Calories- 70
Fat- 4g
Carbs- 13g
Protein- 5g
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Mariah Talks About Coach Amberley
Mariah shares what it’s like to work with RDP Coach Amberley.
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Monday Fit Fact: Pumpkin Spice Protein Muffins
Pumpkin Spice Protein Muffins
Ingredients:
2/3 C almond milk vanilla unsweetened
1t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
4 egg whites or ½ C egg whites
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1t ground cloves
1 ½ C oat flour
1 C pure pumpkin puree
½ c zero calorie sweetener (xylitol, truvia, splenda)
Optional to add chopped walnuts to the top of muffins before baking
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350°
2. Combine dry ingredients and stir until thoroughly mixed
3. Add wet ingredients and mix by hand until all ingredients are combined
4. Grease muffins tins with coconut oil and add ¼ cup of mix to each tin
5. Bake for 22-25 minutes
Bake for 25 min at 350°
Makes 18-20 muffins
Nutritional Information:
Calories: 42
Fat: <1g
Carbs: 6g
Protein: 3g
These muffins are filling and great source of carbs and protein for after a workout. Grab one of these instead of having your post workout protein shake. Enjoy!
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The MGD Guys Night Out Experience…
Check out some of the sights and sounds during an MGD Guys Night Out game. You can be a part of the fun with us during every Friday home game.
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This Week’s Raptors Dance Pak Playlist: GAME DAY EDITION!
By Stephanie
Here is a collection of some of our favourites for this week! The Pak is always listening to music, whether we’re jamming to our iPods on the subway, or starting dance parties in our change room! Check it out!
Janaye and Nina: “Locked Out of Heaven” – Bruno Mars
Kalina: “Right here” – Justin Bieber ft. Drake
Rachelle: “Cheers (Drink to that)” – Rihanna
Megan: “To the World” – Kanye West ft. R. Kelly
Bo: “Ball” – T.I
Jamie: “Just the Way You Are” – Bruno Mars
Ashley: “I knew You Were Trouble (cover)” – Walk off the Earth
Morgan: “Ain’t nobody’s Business” – Rihanna ft. Chris Brown
Aryana: “Jump” – Rihanna
Mariah: “Ai Se Eu Te Pego” – Pitbull ft. Michel Telo
Colleen: “What the Water Gave Me” – Florence and the Machine
Cristina: “Lover of the Light” – Mumford and Sons
Natalie: “Be Still” – The Killers
Stephanie: “Cheated Hearts” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Mahta: “Turn up the Music”- Chris Brown
Lindsay and Amberley: “Ho Hey” – The Lumineers
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RDP Blog: Covering A Lot Of Birthdays
How do you wish several members of the Raptors Dance Pak a Happy Birthday? Silly string helps…
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Make Up For Ever Tip: Chiseling Cheekbones
By Stephanie
The Raptors Dance Pak is so fortunate to work with such a talented, passionate and inspired team of make-up artists. With a pretty packed home game schedule, these ladies keep us looking our best and are an absolute wealth of knowledge when it comes to anything and everything cosmetic! And what’s even better? They love sharing their tips!
This week, the forever fabulous Jasmine Duffey has an amazing step-by-step tutorial on how to achieve that simple, highlighted, and defined cheek that adds a fresh spring glow to any look!
Enjoy!
Chiseling Cheekbones
There isn’t a starlet in tinsel town that doesn’t sport a highly chiseled cheek when walking a red carpet or posing for a photo. To help me demonstrate this how-to I will be using products by Make Up For Ever (who btw are the 2012-2013 Raptors Dance Pak makeup sponsor) and my model will be the gorgeous Steph (Raptors Dance Pak alum).
1) To start, you need to find the hollow of you cheeks to create a contour. You can easily do this by placing your finger on your cheekbone.
… and slowly move your finger down the side of your cheek until you find the natural hollow (found beneath the cheekbone).
2) Using a contour brush and a contour powder (such as Make Up For Ever Sculpting Kit Shade 2 and Sculpting Brush), dip the brush into the contour shade and place in the hollow where your upper and lower jaw connect. NOTE: Where you first place coloured product on the skin will always be the darkest point.
3) Blend the contour powder first towards the hairline and then forward following the natural hollow.
NOTE: Contour should be almost unnoticeable and create a gentle definition to the face. Your contour should never look like a line on the side of your face. Make sure to blend well. Also, be careful not to have the contour line extend too far forward. When facing forward in the mirror, imagine a line vertically from the outer corner of your eye down your face. Your contour should never extend past this line.
4) Apply blush along cheekbones with a blush brush (such as Sculpting Blush in Shade 20 using Sculpting Brush), slightly blending into the contour. This will help to ensure a truly softened contour and can add a beautiful flush to skin.
5) To really enhance the look of cheekbones, adding a highlight will make them more prominent and add lift. You can achieve this by using a highlight powder (such as Iridescent Eye Shadow in 126). I prefer to use a smaller stiffer brush to apply highlight so that I have more control over the product placement. I would suggest using a brush like the .
There you have it, a perfectly enhanced cheekbones!
Jasmine Duffey knew as a young girl that makeup would be a prominent part of her life as she continually, to the dismay of her mother, scoured fashion magazines to find her latest inspiration, re-creating the beauty images within. Starting her cosmetic career in a Research and Development laboratory for MAC cosmetics, Jasmine immersed herself in all things colour, texture and finish, mastering the chemistry behind her favourite creative medium. After spending years in a lab coat, Jasmine found herself looking for a more creative expression which brought her to formal makeup artistry education at The School of Makeup Art. From the moment she lifted that first brush to a clients face, her path was set and there was no turning back. Leaving her career in science and diving head first into the world of freelance makeup, Jasmine has worked professionally in television, commercial, fashion and print. Her work can be seen (but is not limited to): Toronto Raptors Dance Pak, the tv show “Love It or List It” on the W Network and HGTV US, the Dove Real Men commercial campaign feat. Wendel Clark, doing makeup demos on The Steven and Chris Show, etc.
Twitter: @jasmineduffey
Web: www.morecheek.com
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Monday Fit Fact: Guilt-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Guilt-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
2 Cups oat flour
1 tsp “No Salt”
1 1/3 Cup brown sugar formulated sweetener (truvia or xylitol)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
¼ Cup egg whites
2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
¼ cup unsweetened apple sauce
½ cup semi sweet choc chips
Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes
Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350°
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir thoroughly
3. Add wet ingredients and blend until mixed thoroughly
4. Add chocolate chips and stir
5. Grease pan with coconut oil or fat free spray
6. Separate dough into 24 small balls and place on cookie sheets
7. Bake for 15-18 minutes
Note: these cookies do not flatten out during baking because of the lack of fat, so make sure to flatten out your balls a bit before placing them in the oven
I, like most, have a sweet tooth and crave things like cookies. When I indulge my sweet tooth I don’t want to feel guilty or have to put in an extra hour on the treadmill. For this reason I have come up with a delicious cookie recipe you don’t have to feel guilty about eating. You can bring these cookies to a party and no one would ever know they are low calorie low fat because they taste so great!
Nutritional Information (Approximately): based on batch of 24 servings
45 cals.
1 g fat
7 g carbs
3 g protein
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Raptors Dance Pak Playlist: Old School Edition
By Stephanie
I must say, hearing everyone’s rendition of their favorite old school jams was absolutely hilarious (Raptors Dance Pak Trivia: Janaye might know all the words to “Rappers Delight.” shhhhh.).
The debate that ensued about what constitutes as bona fide, authentic “Old School” may have gotten a little bit heated, but there is no denying that there are some gems on the playlist this week!
Hope you love it!
S.
Megan: “Under My Thumb”- The Rolling Stones
Kalina: “Wish You Were Here” – Pink Floyd
Colleen: “Dance Mix ’96″ (“But which track?” “….the entire thing.”)
Amberley: “Ghetto Superstar” – Mya
Janaye: “Rapper’s Delight” – The Sugarhill Gang
Nina: “Rock yo Hips” – Crime Mob
Aryana: “I Believe I Can Fly” – R. Kelly
Mahta: “Fill Me In” – Craig David
Morgan: “Because I Love You” – Lenny Williams
Cristina: “Push It” – Salt-n-pepa
Mariah: “Love Like This Before” – Faith Evan (Remix)
Rachelle: “Jesse James”- Cher
Ashley: “California Love” – Tupac
Jamie: “Dr. Jones” – Aqua
Stephanie: “Oh Yoko” – John Lennon
Nicole: “My Angel” – Shaggy
Lindsay: “Barbie girl” – Aqua
Bo: “Boyz II Men…anything!”
Natalie: “Believe” – Cher
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A Little Training With Make Up For Ever
We are so excited for our new make up sponsorship with Make Up For Ever!
We had a blast today in our first training seminar working directly with their artists as they develop make up concepts for our performances and appearances. Today we focused on application techniques in order to enhance and elevate our current make up skills. With the the combination of hot lights and high energy performances it is essential to use products that are long lasting, waterproof and highly pigmented.
Luckily, Make Up For Ever has the perfect combination for any professional dancer!
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The RDP Jumbotron Viewing Party
So every season around this time I squeeze the entire Dance Pak into my downtown condo for a jumbotron viewing party. This has been a tradition since, well.. Before I was even on the team. Let’s not start adding up the years; just know it’s a lengthy tradition.
The evening starts as a potluck, finally giving us some time to share stories, catch up on each other’s lives outside of the team and, of course, the vets always end up sharing some hilarious experiences and memories through out the years. Shout out to our very own ‘Susie Homemaker’ Colleen for all her amazing desserts! She certainly never disappoints.
RELATED: MORE PICS FROM THE VIEWING PARTY
This is followed by all of us huddling around my television and watching their performances. There are always some nervous faces at the beginning but I always remind them that this is a fun, educational experience that will only better their performance abilities. There are bursts of laughter when we watch our dances with our special guest star — The Raptor. My personal favourite is watching the girls as they catch an awkward facial expression or even the infamous caught in the act lip-synching while dancing. Mostly, I love it when I hear the girls complimenting each other on their close-up/performance.
All in all, it is a truly incredible bonding time for all of us! People are always asking us if there is drama on the Dance Pak… Let’s face it, you put that many girls together for the amount of games and rehearsals we have and you just assume. Luckily, I am so grateful to have such a wonderful group of ladies on this team.
We are a true family! #RDP4Life
Coach Amberley
@amberleywaddell
@raptorsdancepak
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Ask The Pak: Part One
Hey everyone, Ashley here!
Now that the official 2012-2013 Raptors Dance Pak page is up and running, I’ve learned many things about my teammates that I didn’t know before. For instance, did you know that Kalina has a pet chameleon? Or that Stephanie can sing every single Disney Princess song on request? I love learning new things about the ladies, so I decided to bring my camera behind the scenes to ask them a few questions to get to know them even better!
In the spirit of Friday’s Fan Night, I decided to ask our Twitter followers to send us some questions they’d like answered by the Pak. We had some great laughs answering these questions and getting to know our teammates, so keep the questions coming! You can tweet your questions to @RaptorsDancePak or myself (@AshleyConstance) and we’ll be sure to get them all answered! So without further ado, here is part 1 of “Ask The Pak”!
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Ask The Pak: Part Two
Check out part two of “Ask The Pak”, where members of the RDP answer your questions submitted via Twitter to @RaptorsDancePak …
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MAKE UP FOR EVER Tip: Statement Lip
By Stephanie
As all members of the Raptors Dance Pak know, a red lip on game day is an absolute given! And what’s more? The iconic look of a stark, beautiful lip seems to never go out of style! In this edition of Make Up For Ever Tips, Jasmine recreates a flawless red lip and shares all her tips on how to achieve the RDP statement lipstick look on your own.
“The instant she saw the letter she squinted her eyes and bent her lips in a tough tiny smile that advanced her age immeasurably. “Darling,” she instructed me, “would you reach in the drawer there and give me my purse. A girl doesn’t read this sort of thing without her lipstick.”
-Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Enjoy!
Question: What do Marilyn Monroe, Gwen Stefani and Nikki Minaj all have in common?
Answer: All of their “looks” hinge on a statement lip.
For the 2012-2013 Toronto Raptors season, a statement lip brings a fresh, youthful, unifying quality to all the lovely ladies and their individual skin tones. With the help of RDP veteran Nina and the amazing products from MAKE UP FOR EVER, here’s how we achieve the RDP Statement Lip:
1) Powder around the edges of the lips using a sponge. A great product to use is MAKE UP FOR EVER Pro Finish Multi-Use Powder Foundation. This will help to minimize any uneven skin tone and will make your lip colour longer wearing.
2) Using a sharpened liner, line the peaks of your upper lip (we love MAKE UP FOR EVER Aqua Lip Waterproof Lipliner Pencil in 8C). Starting in the centre, moving upward and outward. Then, starting from the outer edge of the lip, work your liner inwards meeting the peak.
This means not attempting to line lips in one fluid motion. It is far easy to use short strokes to slowly make your way around the lip line, correcting symmetry as needed.
3) Starting in the centre of the lower lip, line the edges moving outward. Switch direction and, starting at the outer corner, line moving inwards.
TIP: I like to make lips look fuller so, in general, I always tip my liner slightly outward along the edge. This means that, although the liner still follows the natural lip line, it appears slightly above the natural lip line.
4) Using a lip brush, apply lipstick (like MAKE UP FOR EVER Lip Brush 3N and MAKE UP FOR EVER Rouge Artist Intense in 21) from the outer edge of the lips working your way in.
Lipstick application with a lip brush has two benefits: 1) it makes lipstick last longer because you do not over apply and have product sliding all over and 2) it helps to create a professional finish because you can create crisp lines.
5) At this point, you can go back along your edge with your lip liner to further correct and create a perfectly symmetrical mouth. A great tip for creating a truly professional lip is to clean up along the edges of your lip with a liquid concealer and flat brush (MAKE UP FOR EVER Full Cover Concealer and MAKE UP FOR EVER Eye Shadow Brush 5N).
6) Finally, nothing makes your pout perfected like a little bit of highlight. Using a flat brush and a shimmer shadow a shade lighter than skin tone (like MAKE UP FOR EVER Star Powder in Iridescent Pale Peach 947 (pale skin) or Iridescent Beige 926 (darker skin) and MAKE UP FOR EVER Eye Shadow Brush 5N), add a highlight along the cupids bow (aka the peak) of the lips.
There you have it, a perfect pout in a statement colour. Thanks Nina!
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Rehearsing For A Big Halftime Peformance
The Raptors Dance Pak will have a big halftime performance on Apr. 12th vs. the Bulls. Check out footage from a rehearsal of their routine.
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Photos From The RDP’s Visit To China
The Foot Locker Raptors Dance Pak helped kick off the NBA Nation Tour in Guangzhou China this past weekend!
Ashley, Nina, Kalina, Stephanie, Janaye and Mariah are having a blast representing the Raptors at these fun-filled outdoor events. Thousands of people came out to test their skills, play 3-on-3 and get a glimpse into the NBA experience.
Check out all of the photos of our trip so far HERE or by clicking on the image below. We are now in Beijing and will be heading to Changsha this weekend for the second stop on the tour.
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