Milwaukee Bucks Grand Dancer Annette Jackson: Grandmother of 12 Brings Joy to Fiserv Forum

Annette Jackson is a member of the Milwaukee Bucks’ Grand Dancers, the popular dance team that performs during basketball games at Fiserv Forum. 

The city of Milwaukee employee and grandmother of 12 has been dancing with the dance team for four years. 

Jackson was one of the guests on “Milwaukee “Made.” The following Q&A is from her chat with show host David Caruso. 

Q: So how did you first get involved in the Grand Dancers? 

Jackson: “Well, I love to dance and one of my girlfriends, Sharon, she called me and she said, ‘Hey, the Bucks are doing an audition for Grand Dancers’. And I was like, ‘What?’ I was at work and she was like, ‘you should go try out.’ I worked downtown, so I was really close by. I decided that I would try out, I think I was number 878 the day that I tried out and it was very intense. I mean there was a lot of people. I was like, ‘oh my God,.’ It was amazing.  

“There was a lot of people and I thought I was a great dancer, but maybe I'm better than I thought I was because I was looking at other people and I'm like, ‘whoa, they getting down.’ And I got a call back about a month later that said I made it and I was so excited and it’s been four years and I'm still excited.” 

Q: For you, your friends, your family and your coworkers, when you went back and said, I am a grand dancer, what was it like? Are people just so excited for you and is it fun to see your friends and family react when you're dancing? 

Jackson: “Yes, it's a lot of fun. I have 12 grandchildren and when I first told my grandchildren they're like, ‘oh yeah, my nana dances for the Bucks.’ So they were all excited. My son, he was very excited and so was my daughter. The reaction that I got from everybody was they wasn't surprised. They was like, we knew you were going to do it. We knew you were going to make it because you love to dance. So they had more confidence in me than I did. Like I said, I saw all the other dancers and they were really, really good. To know that I was one of the 22 that was picked was an honor.” 

Q: It's the coolest thing for I'm sure your grandkids, which is so much fun for them to see. And that will be a lifelong memory, which for you must be really cool that your family through you has now what will always be a memory of a lifetime. Is that fun for you? 

Jackson: Yes, it is. Every year we get a different jersey and I hang my jerseys up in my Bucks closet. Just seeing the different jerseys that I have, it just makes me think I'm going to leave a legacy for my grandchildren to always remember me. They know I love to dance. Now they know that I was a Grand Dancer. It's very rewarding for me.” 

Q: Describe the energy when there are 18,000 fans in Fiserv Forum and you take the court, what is that like? 

Jackson: “I still get butterflies because the fans love us because I think that what they see in us is their mother or their grandmother doing some of the moves. And when the older fans see us, they see themselves in us out here doing our moves. But the cheering that we get, it's overwhelming when we finish a routine just hearing them yell and screaming and standing at the side of the court wanting to give us high fives, I just told one of my dancers, I said, ‘how come I'm so nervous? I've done this many times before.’ But every time we get out here in the middle of this floor and the lights go down, you get nervous, but you’ve got to perform. This is what the fans come to see.” 

Q: Knowing that fans respond to your moves and your smile and your aura, what is that like for you?  

Jackson: “I'm dancing at the top of the escalator and a lady came up to me and she says, ‘oh my God, you're here. I just wanted to see you.’ I'll remember that for the rest of my life. It was so touching and I just hugged her. It took me about a week to get over that. I was like, ‘wow, the fans really see us.’ And that made me work harder because I thought I was just a natural dancer and I didn't have to work as hard in the beginning.”