Checking In On Jaret Hughes, the NBA's First Male Dancer

Some people still mourn the loss of the Seattle SuperSonics. I mourn the loss of the NBA's first male dancer.

I remember when my dad used to take me to Sonics games. I was 12 and totally uninterested in basketball (or any team sport for that matter). Instead, I was interested in the performing arts, so whenever dad and I went a game, I would look forward to two
things: the pizza and the halftime show.

While most sports dance teams (Seattle's included) had a bunch of high-kicking women, the Sonics had Jaret Hughes, the first male dancer in the NBA. Beginning in 1998, when he showed up to a Sonics tryout just for the hell of it, Hughes delivered lightening fast hip hop moves and a fresh, less-cheesy-more-fierce attitude.

I thought he was awesome, and so did everyone else watching -- Hughes always got a big reaction from the crowd when he'd wiggle and pop in the middle of his performance.

The Sonics are, of course, long gone now. But Hughes is still around.

I know because I'm performing in his upcoming show, "Live in the Drum 3: A Night of
Twisted Elegance," on Jan. 6 at Bellevue College's Carlson Theatre. Realizing that I was connected to a quirky little gem of Seattle sports history (and because he'd make for a perfect subject for a class assignment), I made a video profile of him, which you can see below.

In the Dancing Shoes of Jaret Hughes from Aaron Gordon on Vimeo.