JEFFERSON TWP — Since starting dance classes at the age of 3, Lexi Frye has always enjoyed performing for a crowd.

On New Year's Day, she performed for her largest crowd yet as part of a dance team that entertained at the halftime show at the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla.

“I've always loved performing for big crowds,'' said the Jefferson Township teen.

The All-American Halftime Show featured performers between the ages of 12 and 21 in the areas of dance, cheer, baton and flags.

Lexi, 15, a sophomore at Knoch High School in Saxonburg, joined about 350 other performers from around the country to entertain the Citrus Bowl crowd, which numbered nearly 50,000.

“I told her no pressure,” said her mother, Beth Frye who traveled to Orlando with her daughter.

“She was cool as can be. I was a nervous wreck.”

Lexi said she was surprised at the number of her fellow performers and impressed with how far some had traveled for the honor.

“It was really weird how far some people traveled to perform,” she said, mentioning a girl from Hawaii. “I met a lot of friends.”

Lexi's journey to the Citrus Bowl began in July when she attended an Ohio dance camp with other members of the Knochettes dance squad. The school dance team performs at football games and parades.

While there, Lexi was given the opportunity to audition for the All-American Halftime Show.

Lexi said she had read about the organization online and knew she would have the chance to audition at camp.

But when she found out it was a hip-hop routine, it made both Lexi and her mother nervous.

Although Lexi has been dancing for a dozen years and taken a variety of dance classes, hip-hop was an area she had never studied.

“Oh my gosh, of all the routines to audition to it's hip-hop,” Beth Frye recalled thinking at the time.

When camp closed the day after the audition, Lexi found out she had made the team.

“I was really surprised and really excited, too,” she said.

But Beth Frye said the family, including Lexi's father, Jim, and four siblings, was not surprised.

“She's really come into her own. You can see it clearly when she performs,” said Beth Frye. “We were super excited for her because we knew how hard she worked.”

But the work didn't end with the audition.

Lexi received a DVD in early December with the halftime routine, which she had to master by Dec. 28 when she arrived in Orlando.

Learning that routine was another part of Lexi's jammed December schedule. In addition to preparing a new routine with the Knochettes squad, she was trying out for the school musical.

The teen said she devoted “hours and hours” of practice time to the Citrus Bowl dance.

While in Orlando, the practices continued, but Lexi also had time for trips to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios.

Lexi is no stranger to devoting much of her time to dance. She spends seven to eight hours a week in dance classes and another three practicing with the Knochettes.

And she has no plans to slow down.

The teen wants to make dance her career.

“I want to become a choreographer or professional dancer,” she said.