Women show off the Valorettes’ uniforms alongside the Valor uniforms. (Photo courtesy of Washington Valor)

Arena football isn’t exactly football, and so the Washington Valor’s forthcoming dance team, the Valorettes, won’t exactly be like National Football League cheerleaders, either.

“The style is in between football and basketball,” explains Valorettes director Derric Whitfield, who also runs the Wizards Girls and the Mystics kids dance teams. “With football, they’re trying to dance for the big field. It’s show. With basketball, you get down and dirty, get gritty and dance, because you can reach out and touch the fans. This is going to be right in the middle.”

The Valor, like the Wizards and the Capitals, which are also owned by Ted Leonsis’ Monumental Entertainment, will play at the Verizon Center. They’re D.C.’s first indoor football team since D.C. Armor played in the American Indoor Football Association in 2009.

And now, the Valorettes are looking for the women who will join their inaugural team. As Monumental did for the arena football team, it’s hosting open tryouts for its 15 to 18 slots.

On February 25, registration for tryouts begins at 3 p.m. at the Verizon Center. The audition will involve two rounds of choreography, and women are asked to wear a two-piece fitted audition outfit that bares their midriff. According to the call, “Candidates will be judged on appearance, style, technique, personality, energy and projection, completion of choreography, personality, and attitude.” Auditioning costs $10.

“We’re looking for talented, well-rounded women,” says Whitfield. “These women are not only going to be dancing, they’ll also be doing appearances in the community. And of course they have to be beautiful. We’re pretty much looking for the entire package.”

The Arena Football League season starts on April 7 and goes through August. The league will have five teams during the 2017 season, two of which Leonsis owns. (In addition to the Valor, he also acquired a Baltimore team.)

To be a Valorette is a season-long commitment, which Whitfield estimates takes about 10 hours of time per week when there are home games: two two-hour practices, plus five to six hours for the game.

“There are only seven games spread across over a four month period, so it’s really manageable,” says Whitfield. Valorettes won’t go on the road with the team.

In the past decades, sports teams have come under scrutiny for labor practices as they relate to cheerleaders, and some cheerleaders have attempted to unionize. Payments of $75 per game, as Washington’s Football Team used to get in 2011 for what could amount to 12 hours of work, did not cover the thousands in costs for maintaining their appearances, buying the necessary clothes, transportation, and other expenses.

Whitfield says that, since he joined Monumental in 2012, dancers have always been paid an hourly rate rather than per-game. “The girls are paid hourly for their time, and paid for their appearances as well,” he says. Wizards Girls make $15 per hour, and he expects Valorettes to net a similar amount.

If women are selected for the Valorettes, there’ll be a style team waiting for them that includes makeup artists, hair stylists, and extension specialists. All of the Valorettes will get a consultation.

“I do those consultations with the girls in mind,” says Whitfield. “I might have an idea for a look for them but it has to be something they’re able to maintain. I believe if I have to make you a blonde, if we go for it, we make sure it’s something you’re comfortable with so you can maintain it.”

For women interested in trying out who might not be experienced dancers, Whitfield recommends taking as many dance classes as possible to ensure that basic skills like kicks, leaps, and turns are on the mark.

He says it’s always sad when candidates “have the look, they have the personality, they have the performance quality but they don’t have the basic skills to get the routine down properly.”

To learn more about the Valorettes audition on Feb. 25, go here.

Updated to reflect that in 2017, the AFL will have five teams. It had eight in 2016.