Last Friday at noon, the Band officially introduced the new Dollies to the Stanford community through the annual Band tradition of Dollie Splash. This year’s Dollie Splash made waves at the Claw, attracting a sizeable crowd with energetic band music, clear spring sunshine and, of course, lots of Dollie dancing.
Curious spectators began gathering just before noon. Some lounged shirtless on the Bookstore steps, while others made last-minute adjustments to their “I Heart Dollies” posters. As soon as the bell tower struck 12, all were up on their feet.
“Everyone is standing up like the Pope is coming,” an onlooker said.
The Dollies entered the arena at the forefront of the Band, proudly sporting bright red pom-poms, newly monogrammed dresses and springy Stanford hair ribbons. Their Nike sneakers still boasted a clean, white color–but not for long.
The hour-long event passed by quickly as the new Dollies danced their way through 10 songs, ending with the crowd favorite “All Right Now.” Cued by the final drumbeat, four of the new Dollies set down their pom-poms and carefully stepped into the Claw fountain. The fifth kicked and squirmed as Band members carried her in. And then, all five were thoroughly “splashed.”
The new Dollies are Alina Pimentel ’13, CC Chiu ’13, Sarah Chang ’13, Melissa Schwarz ’11 and Alex Nana-Sinkam ’13.
“We call ourselves diversity Dollies because we’re all brunette,” said Pimentel, who lives in Dallas, Texas, but is originally from Mexico City. “None of us are full white. But we can make a white person between us…”
Despite their self-proclaimed diversity, the new Dollies have formed a tight-knit group. They just met during tryouts earlier this year, but they have already become accustomed to finishing each other’s sentences and giggling in unison.
“I just feel really, really lucky to get to be a Dollie with this group of girls, because we blend really well together, and we all get along so well,” said Chiu, the only one of the five who aspires to be a professional dancer. “It’s like it was meant to be.”
The new Dollies exude enthusiasm as they talk about the past few months of training and bonding. One of the best parts of becoming a Dollie, besides getting to know each other, has been immersing themselves in the world of Dollies.
“It’s so funny…you don’t realize the culture behind the scenes until you’re in it,” Nana-Sinkam said.
Schwarz, the only non-freshman, said that they have been learning about Dollie tradition ever since the first day of tryouts, when they met past generations of Dollies.
“Obviously you know all the other Dollies–it’s a community–but you’re the closest to the ones that you were a Dollie with,” Schwarz said. “So the older Dollies were all like, ‘we were the Rosebowl Dollies,’ or ‘we were the Rolling Stone centerfold Dollies’ or ‘we were the Dollies when Stanford won Big Game.’ They each had their own little claim to fame.”
Another aspect of Dollie tradition is that dances are taught by Grandma Dollies–Dollies from two years back–so every other year does the dances a little differently. The new Dollies characterized their Grandma Dollies’ dances as traditional, in comparison to their Mama Dollies’ more “dancy” style.
“It’s a lot harder to get the stylized dances to look uniform because everyone has their own styles,” explained Chang, whom the other girls have nicknamed “doctor Dollie” for her pre-med ambitions.
Even though the new Dollies are still learning dances, they’re already thinking about Big Game.
“Since day one, like during rollouts,” Pimentel laughed.
For each Big Game, the Dollies have to design their own outfits, on one condition: they can never repeat a theme from past years.
“We’ll think of an idea; and they’ll be like, oh, that’s already been done,” Schwarz explained.
“Pirates…no. Policemen…no,” Pimentel jumped in.
Beyond the excitement of costumes and new dresses, the Dollies are looking forward to spending time with the Band and returning to campus early next fall to prepare for football season.
But in the meantime, the Dollies will continue to rehearse two hours per day, enjoying the bonding process of becoming part of an exclusive Dollie tradition.
“I was very nervous at first, because you’re spending a whole year with a group of five girls,” Sinkam said. “But so far, it’s been awesome. I definitely look forward to it every day.”