KANSAS CITY, Mo — The Kansas City Chiefs may have gone home from the Super Bowl with the Lombardi Trophy, but one young woman from North Kansas City took home a memory of a lifetime: performing in Rihanna's halftime show.
"It was such a cool experience to like watch it all come together, even from practicing," said Sofia Cascone, a Staley High School alum.
Cascone has been dancing since she was 2 years old, and now, at the age of 19, she was one of the youngest in the 200 dancer ensemble. She had the opportunity to audition through her dance team at Arizona State University.
"It was, like, 'do I even do it?' Because I didn’t know how many were they going to take. What were they looking for? What was their ideal dancer?" she said.
Cascone found out in mid-January she had made the crew and had about two weeks of over 11 hour rehearsal days every night. Add that to being a full-time college student and practicing for her college squad.
"I remember we heard Rihanna was coming and obviously no one wanted to freak out because we wanted to be cool about it," Cascone recalled. "She walked in in her stuff, normal, like we all forget she’s a normal person. We were like, 'oh my gosh I can’t believe I’m looking at Rihanna right now!'"
While Cascone didn't get to meet Rihanna personally, the advice the GRAMMY winning singer gave to her ensemble stuck.
"She was like, 'we’re all one team, we’re on the same playing field here,'" she said. "[Sometimes] you kinda just, like, zone out and you do like muscle memory, and she was like, 'don’t do that. Stop and like look around. Take advantage of this moment.'"
The icing on the cake of the whole thing were the Chiefs playing and then winning.
"Being in a Super Bowl stadium that the Chiefs are playing in is already crazy, but I remember the first time I saw all the banners and stuff and the Chiefs everywhere, and I was like 'whoa this is crazy," Cascone said.
And of all the moments during the show, she'll always remember looking out into the massive crowd while Rihanna was performing "Diamonds."
"In a normal year, I’d be glued to the TV watching it and then this year I was in it," she said.
She says the experience is truly something she still can't wrap her head around but will never forget.
