MACKINAC ISLAND, MI - Summer vacation memories take all kinds of forms on Mackinac Island. Michigan State University senior McKenna Dooley came home from a recent trip there with pictures of an especially fun moment - a Grand Hotel photographer snapped some photos of her performing standing back tucks on the hotel’s iconic front porch. She stuck the landings, all while wearing a black cocktail dress, no less.
“It was totally spur-of-the-moment,” said Dooley, a pre-med student who is heading into her fourth year on the college’s co-ed Cheer Team.
Dooley and her younger sister, Kate, were staying at the hotel recently with their mother, celebrating her sister’s high school graduation from Notre Dame Prep School in Pontiac. It’s tradition for hotel guests to get their photograph professionally taken on the front porch - the world’s longest. Dooley was wearing her MSU Cheer shirt when she and her family went to look at photos they’d had taken the previous night. Michael Samsky, the hotel’s photography manager, noticed her shirt and asked if she wanted him to get any action shots of her tumbling.
Dooley, 20, said Cheer Team members, who perform on the sidelines for MSU’s football, basketball and volleyball games, frequently get photos of their gymnastics moves while on vacation and of their tumbling stunts when they are together. It’s fun for them and for others to see - a little goodwill community engagement - she explained.
So that night, when she dressed for dinner, she brought along a pair of dark green tennis shoes. “I figured I’d probably snap the heels if I did it in stilettos,” she laughed.
McKenna Dooley, 20, performs a standing back tuck on the front porch of Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel. Photo provided by Michael Samsky and Grand Hotel.
She found a spot on the porch that was away from people - “I didn’t want to whack anyone” - and did a few standing back tucks. It’s a move athletes have to be able to perform if you want to make the MSU Cheer Team. Around her, she was aware of people taking notice, and little kids watching her moves.
“It was super fun,” she said, adding she’d also been a gymnast for 10 years and a cheerleader in high school.
Samsky’s series of three photos show her in mid-air. Her mother, Laurie Dooley, posted those photos and videos of the moment to the Addicted to Mackinac Facebook page, a spot where island lovers and travelers share their favorite moments and tips. It got hundreds of likes.
“Not everyone can rock a back tuck in a cocktail dress on The Grand porch, dust themselves off and then head into dinner,” she said in the post. You can see the post and videos here.
McKenna Dooley, 20, performs a standing back tuck on the front porch of Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel. Photo provided by Michael Samsky and Grand Hotel.
Samsky, who has worked at Grand Hotel for eight seasons and takes thousands of pictures of guests each year, said this was a new kind of shot for him.
“This was the very first time I’ve photographed a backflip on the porch!,” Samsky said.
It actually was not McKenna Dooley’s first time practicing her moves there. A few years ago, when she was a high school cheerleader, she did some similar ones. But she was decked out in leggings and a T-shirt then. And nobody was around to take a picture.
Top photos show the standing back tuck performed by McKenna Dooley on the front porch of Grand Hotel. Photos provided by Michael Samsky and Grand Hotel. Bottom photo of McKenna Dooley provided by Laurie Dooley.
Headed to Mackinac Island? Here are some fun things to check out:
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10 gorgeous trails that show off Mackinac Island’s inner beauty
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9 new things on Mackinac Island to check out in 2021
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August 05, 2021 at 06:48PM
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This MSU cheerleader rocked a back tuck on front porch of Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel - MLive.com
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