By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

If you’ve seen a Washington Wizards game lately, you may have recognized one of the NBA team’s sideline dancers is 23-year-old South Portland native Meg Cerullo. After performing for nearly to 20 years, Cerullo has learned to use her talent on the dance floor to complement her success in the classroom and the business world.

When Cerullo isn’t dancing courtside or watching ESPN with her roommates, she oversees various amateur and professional athletic contracts with Octagon, a worldwide sports management and marketing agency. Although performing at national athletic events takes practice, Cerullo said her new profession presents more real life challenges.

“Dancing is really fun, but I’m much happier in my new career,” she said. 

Cerullo, who has been dancing since she was 3 years old, graduated from South Portland High School in 2003 and was recruited for her dancing abilities by George Washington University in Washington, D.C. 

“I knew I wanted to go to college out of state,” she said.  “I wanted to be in a big city and have the opportunity to experience new people and places.

While studying sociology and psychology Cerullo performed with 15 other girls on the First Ladies Dance Team. The dancers followed the university basketball team across the country for various NCAA conference games in addition to performing at all home games. 

“Cheerleaders do stunting and tumbling during the games, and we would typically do two dance routines,” she said. “It was my favorite part of college, I got to sit on the court with some huge players who are now in the NBA.”

Aside from excelling on the dance floor, Cerullo was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society for academic achievements in her classes. 

“I think sometimes the psychology courses helped me deal with everything that was going on,” she said. 

Cerullo wasn’t the only member of the First Ladies with academic interests. Other First Ladies dancers came from all of the different schools at George Washington University, including future engineers and scientists. 

Cerullo graduated summa cum laude from the university last year, but continues to work with the First Ladies as an assistant coach. Rather than pursuing a career as a professional dancer after graduating, Cerullo says she looked for a job she could directly relate to her love of sports. 

“I typed in ‘sports jobs’ in a search, saw a listing with Octagon and figured ‘Why not?’” she said. 

Cerullo started her career as an administrative assistant for three different departments at the company’s offices in McLean, Va. a month after receiving her degree.

“The biggest challenge I’ve had as a dancer and in my admin position, and later my position as contracts coordinator, has really been trying to balance everything out,” she said.

Two months after landing her job, Cerullo attended a three-day audition for the NBA Wizards dance group.

“I’d been dancing so long, to not do it just seemed insane,” she said.

Nearly 300 girls participated in the audition, including former Wizard dancers who were required to audition for the upcoming season. Cerullo and 19 other girls made the cut.

“All of the other girls are great,” she said. “Some are still in school, others work as dance coaches. We all have fulltime jobs other than just dancing for the Wizards.”

While dancing for the Wizards can be exciting, Cerullo says professional dancing isn’t all some might imagine it to be.

“We’re not allowed to talk to the players and they really barely pay us,” she said.

In the nine months she has been performing for the Wizards, Cerullo says she has discovered other differences between professional dancing and her undergraduate dance routines.

“Professional dancing is more about waving your pom-poms and looking pretty,” she said. “College dancing is much more technical.”

After working for nearly nine months as an administrative assistant, Cerullo was appointed the new contract coordinator for Octagon, and says she couldn’t be happier working for a corporation committed to promoting athletes.

“I don’t think I’ll ever leave this company,” she said. “I could not imagine a better place to work.”

While you’re not likely to find her dancing at any New England Patriots football games, Cerullo says she will always be a New England sports fan and even went to see the Boston Red Sox during their visit to the White House last month. Cerullo said basketball is her favorite sport.

“How could you not be with the Celtics this year?” she asked. 

Moving from the Washington D.C. area to a more rural setting close by her new office has helped Cerullo reconnect with her roots.

“There’s a little bit more of a community edge out here,” she said. “I don’t get to visit home much, it’s tough.”

Cerullo says she noticed key differences between the urban environment of the university and the typical Maine town during visits home to see her parents, who now live in North Yarmouth.

“[Maine] communities are so much stronger,” she said. “People are just much nicer.”

Cerullo will dance for the Wizards until the playoffs later this year before making the difficult decision whether to continue dancing professionally. 

“I really want to throw myself into my career,” she said.

Finding the balance between coaching, practicing and performing while still meeting the everyday requirements of work can be difficult, she said.

“In a typical day I leave my apartment shortly after 8 a.m. and don’t come home again until 11 p.m., which doesn’t leave me a lot of free time for essentials such as sleep or grocery shopping,” she said. 

Cerullo encourages other would-be professional performers to “have determination and work hard” and use their talent as a tool to become more than another pretty face on the television screen. 

“I’m just happy to be working in such a great field,” she said.