If serious basketball withdrawals are starting to get to you, check out My45 this Tuesday night for a Suns doubleheader, starting at 9 p.m.

First up is the “Suns’ Sizzling Summer Special.” Host Tom Leander sits down with team President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Steve Kerr to discuss the “State of the Suns,” including the re-signing of Steve Nash and Grant Hill, the acquisition of free agent Channing Frye, the return of Head Coach Alvin Gentry and the drafting of Earl Clark and Taylor Griffin. Also featured, Eddie Johnson talks to All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire about coming back from a devastating eye injury and returning as the focal point in the Suns offense. Second-year man Goran Dragic walks us through the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. And then, EJ and Tom preview this year’s Suns squad and discuss all of the big changes around the NBA. 

Next up is the “Making of the Suns Dancers” at 9:30 p.m., chronicling the hectic week endured by the dancer hopefuls. It includes a behind-the-scenes look at the two-day dancer auditions, the lengthy selection process and four off-the-court finalist profiles.

If you miss Tuesday’s telecasts (or just love watching repeats), the specials will re-air on Fox Sports Arizona in HD starting this Friday at 5 p.m.

Our experience making the Suns Dancer Verve calendar was so fun, especially since all 16 of us were featured in the calendar.  When plans were first made to have the calendar we immediately thought, “Wait! There are 12 months in a year but there are 16 dancers on the team!?” So we were so excited to know our calendar was a 16-month calendar. (Plus it saves the fans a few months before buying a new one next year! Ha!)  

The first thing we did was set up times for us to individually meet at Everything But Water (our bathing suit sponsors for the calendar). We tried on just about every suit in the store!! With the help of our coach, each of us chose our top three swimsuits and on our shoot date we would be surprised with the one they picked for us to wear. 

We had two shoot days where half of the team shot one day and the other half shot the next day.  I went on the first day and when I got to Barry’s studio downtown, I was so impressed by how cool and spacious his studio was. We had a separate place for makeup and hair where our own dancer Kayla did all of our makeup (she is an awesome makeup artist!!) and Dolce had two of their stylists ready for hair (they didn’t have to do much to my big crazy hair haha!).  

When it was my turn I had my fingers crossed that the zebra print bathing suit was the one I got to wear and sure enough they picked it as my suit!! I was so excited! Kayla did everyone’s makeup opposite of what they usually do – which turned out amazing and gave us a different look!  Those who wore dark eye shadows she gave light eyes, and those who normally wore light eye shadow she gave dark shadow! I was so excited, after I finished, that I stuck around after my shoot so I could see how awesome the other girls’ shots turned out! 

After that we didn’t know if we would get to see the final shots that they picked of us.  But we were in for a little surprise at our holiday party!  We watched a slideshow and finally found out who was the cover girl, Kayla! And we also saw our three calendar shots along with which month each of us got. I loved every single picture and month! At the end of the slide show we found out what our center page was going to be since everything was a surprise. But I was speechless when my picture came up on the screen as the centerfold!! I definitely didn’t expect it at all!  

We are all so proud to be the first set of Suns Dancers to have ever been a part of a calendar.  I still get so excited each time a fan approaches me at a door with a calendar and marker in hand because this is one of the coolest things I have been a part of.  One day when I have kids I will be able to say to them, “Hey look at what your mom did!” Haha!

Known for her moves on the court, Suns Dancer Kayla is also making moves off the court.

The world-famous Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition chose Kayla to be one of the 10 women featured in its section of NBA dancers this year. Although it was a huge honor for the Gilbert, AZ, native, she found the entire ordeal to be a bit overwhelming.

“It’s kind of nerve-racking,” she said. “Because in my interview they asked me how it would feel to have your picture seen by 50 to 150 million people.” (more…)

Ever since I was a little girl I loved being a dancer and had always dreamed of dancing for my profession. However, it wasn’t until this year that my lifelong dream was realized. I was named one of the 16 women to become a Phoenix Suns Dancer! All those years of training had finally paid off and my journey with the Suns had just begun! (more…)

It would be so hard to answer the question, “Which part of being in Spain was the best?” I think all of the girls would agree that the experience was incredibly unforgettable!

One part of the trip that was amazing was the food! Not only was the food delicious, it was an incredible cultural experience at every meal. One of the few differences was the times they usually eat. Breakfast is usually between 9 and 11am, Lunch is between 2 and 5pm, and Dinner usually starts at 9pm. Us girls usually eat at those times when we’re in America anyway, it was just interesting to see that our irregular eating schedule was a norm in Madrid.   (more…)

When six of the Phoenix Suns Dancers and I (we called ourselves the “Lucky 7″)  found out we were going to Madrid, Spain, we knew it was going to be the trip of a lifetime.  The architecture was breath taking, the food was absolutely delicious, the nightlife was full of surprises, but it was the people that the we met during our stay in Spain that truly made the trip unforgettable.  Every person that we met had an impact on us in their own unique way.  It all started on our flight from Phoenix to Atlanta where we met “Captain Dan”.  If you are afraid of flying, do what I did, and sit next to a real life pirate rapper from the Florida Keys in a group called “Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew.”  He let me listen to a couple of his tracks, including a pirate version of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice.”  Needless to say I was entertained, my mind was blown, and I knew this trip was only going to get better.  Captain Dan if you are reading this – I’ll see you on MTV one day!   (more…)

On Saturday, we got the opportunity to take a tour of the Real Madrid Bernabeu Stadium.  Even though we love our basketball, we were pumped to see the soccer stadium.  The basketball event was right next to it so it worked out perfectly.  The stadium was so huge and amazing!   (more…)

Hey Suns fans, this is Taryn from the Phoenix Suns Dancers. I wanted to write to you and tell you a little bit about our amazing trip to Madrid, Spain. 

For the past four years, our dance team has had the wonderful opportunity to travel overseas on behalf of the NBA and the Phoenix Suns. This year, September 2008, I was one of seven dancers who were asked to travel to Spain to represent the Suns and NBA at an event called Adidas 5. (more…)

Madrid, Spain was one of the most memorable experiences that I have had so far.  It was my first time out of the country and I didn’t want to miss out on anything.  The other girls had the same mindset and we knew that with four days in Spain we would have to do our best to see all that we could!  

So it all started when we got there, we met our translators (Rocio and Laura) and after we dropped off our luggage we met back on the main floor of the hotel and had an amazing breakfast! We told our translators that we wanted to see the main attractions that the city had to offer so we set off to the Plaza Mayor.   (more…)

Traveling to Spain was awesome, and exhausting all at the same time. For some of the girls, Brittany B, Octavia, Anna, and Karlyn it was their first international flights so they were really excited. The first leg of our trip was a 3.5 hour flight into Atlanta. We had a really short layover and basically just walked off one plane and right onto another, minus losing Karlyn on the tram between terminals (the first of many times Karlyn got separated from the group). Brittany B. was my “plane buddy” on both flights and we played games and watched a lot of movies together on the video screens we had on each seatback. We all tried to sleep as much as possible on the 8 hour flight into Madrid because we wanted to hit the ground running when we landed at 9am Spain time. We wanted to make sure we did as much sightseeing as possible on our one “free” day. (more…)