When the Harlem Globetrotters are impressed with your showmanship, you know you’re doing something right.
That was recently the case for Niagara University senior Britini D’Angelo and fellow members of the Legacy Martial Arts demonstration team. Upon viewing an online video of a Legacy Martial Arts demo team performance from the 2018 World Championships, the Globetrotters invited the entire squad to perform at halftime of their “game” on Aug. 12 in Las Vegas.
So D’Angelo – yes, the same communication studies and theatre major who donned a flowing purple gown to sing the national anthem during July’s Miss New York pageant – received an all-expenses-paid trip to demonstrate her tricking/weapons routine.
“At first, when I got the call that our demo team was asked to perform, I didn’t believe it was real,” D’Angelo said. “It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget. Martial arts has tremendously changed my life forever.”
A third-degree black belt, D’Angelo trains regularly at Presti Karate Centers in Niagara Falls, N.Y. She became a world champion in the Chuck Norris System in 2016, at which time she was asked to join the Legacy Martial Arts team.
D’Angelo finished second in the female adult weapons and open kata categories during the 2018 World Championships.