Since 1996, the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders have produced a swimsuit calendar and launched its sale with an unveiling party for the ladies' friends and family, and the team's corporate partners. As scantily clad women naturally draw attention, the unveiling event has grown over the years from an intimate dinner to the more than 600-person cocktail party and fashion show held at Casa Casuarina on Friday night.
“I think because of the sexy, high-end way we [present the calendar] with a [swimsuit] fashion show, people get really excited to see it,” said Dolphins cheerleader coordinator and director Emily Newton, adding later that more than 100 additional people attended this year compared to last year. “It’s an invite-only event, but I had fans emailing me asking how they can get a ticket, so I expect to see a lot of people on the street.”
The night began with a media-only press conference in the venue’s side courtyard, where Dolphins owner Stephen Ross made two announcements: Local artist Romero Britto will create works for the entrances to Landshark Stadium, and the team is partnering with Ocean Drive magazine to build the Ocean Drive Club, a 4,200-square-foot members-only club at the stadium for Dolphins and Miami V.I.P.s.
For the main event, Fortrex Structures built a Lucite cover over the courtyard’s pool to support table and chair seating for a V.I.P. lounge for Dolphins’ special guests and serve as home base for rapper T-Pain, who manned the DJ booth for the night. The evening’s main attraction was the cheerleaders' swimsuit fashion show, which incorporated dance routines as well as avant-garde painted, airbrushed, and barely there bikinis. The production took place on a runway that jutted out into the crowd from the back side of the courtyard and culminated with the 22 girls in the calendar posing for photographers as a banner dropped down from above them to reveal the calendar’s cover. During the finale, T-Pain played his remix of the Dolphins’ fight song, which will be incorporated into the game-day soundtrack for the upcoming football season.
Though access to the party had to be limited due to capacity constraints at the mansion, Newton offered fans on the street and at home an inside look at the night’s fashion show via a TV screen set up outside the main gate and a live stream on the team’s Web site.
The party continued after the show until nearly 12:30 a.m.
