Whether you have been to a Jets home game this season or not, chances are you have seen Flight Crew member Gina somewhere — perhaps even in your own living room.
The West Babylon, N.Y., native is a TV commercial spokesperson for Lucille Roberts health clubs for women located throughout the tristate area.
"I brought in some of the girls with me to do the commercial and they made us look like we're doing an aerobics class," she said. "When it airs, you'll see us all in it and they made it look like we're really working out and everything. It's funny and it's really cute."
The commercials with Gina and her Flight Crew representatives are set to begin airing after Christmas. This will be her second spot with the fitness club, with her first coming when she was 18 years old.
Although she admits that seeing herself on the Meadowlands video screens at Jets games is energizing, the first time she saw herself on TV was a moment she'll never forget.
"I was hanging out with my boyfriend and his friends one day and we were just sitting there watching TV and a commercial popped on and everyone got quiet and noticed it was me and they were like, 'Wait a minute. Isn't that you?' I didn't know what to say or do, I just kind of hid my head and laughed," she said. "But it's cool. I would definitely like to make a future of it."
One problem lies ahead for Gina if she pursues an acting career.
"I have memory for dance but I have no memory for saying lines," she admitted. "If I could just talk and say whatever I want, I'd be OK. But I could never just sit there and memorize scripts — I would go nuts."
For now, Gina would love to stick to commercials.
"You can be any type of person," she said. "You don't have to always be proper like a newscaster. You can tell with me, I don't have a perfect speaking voice, my family is all Brooklyn and New York sounding accents and I sound like a typical 'Gina, a hairdresser from New York.' I don't have that typical perfect newscaster accent. But who knows?"
One role that seemed perfect for Gina's scriptless acting career came when she was a member of the New York Dragons Fire Dancers. EA Sports had acquired the rights to make an Arena Football League video game for the PlayStation 2 console and they asked her to be the model for the dancers and cheerleaders.
"They put me in the suit and I was in this big green room and they put all these weird things all over you — it was really cool," said the former three-year captain of the Fire Dancers. "It was basically me just rocking out in a huge room with a bunch of computer people who were just yelling out 'do this' and 'do that,' and the whole time I'm just rockin' out by myself."
The game was released in February 2006 and Gina, who has over 20 years of dance experience, was surprised by what she saw.
"I actually saw the game and they made it look like a bunch of different people – there were different colors and ethnic versions of me," she said, "It wasn't my face but they used my body. They told me they were probably going to use me for their other games so for all I know, I'm in Madden or anything that would use a cheerleader or dancer."
Like Flight Crew choreographer Denise Garvey did, the folks at EA Sports chose a wonderful dancer. Gina couldn't help but take in dancing, as she found herself in her mother's dance studio since she was just 3 years old.
"My mother worked at The Dancing School, where she was a receptionist and she taught the little kids," explained the Nassau College graduate. "It was kind of like babysitting for me because my mom would take me to work with her all the time. I would just stay there and watch the older girls and try to jump in on the other classes. And when she would dance, I'd be in the corner trying to follow along, too.
"It just never stopped from that point. She always wanted me to be in dance and I've stuck with it."
