This post was submitted to Manual RedEye by Georgia Napier (10, J&C).

The cheer squad wanted to recreate Beyoncé’s “Diva” Coachella performance, with the Dreamers, Manual’s step team and decided to practice and perform the routine together for the Male/Manual pep rally on Oct. 19 during Red/White Week.

“We wanted to recreate that and originally the Dazzlers were supposed to do it too, but they had a competition so they couldn’t do it with us so it was just cheer and step,” Edison Pleasants (12, VA) said.

This collaboration hasn’t happened for a while at Manual, but it turns out it was a success in not only performance but friendships made.

“I thought it was a really fun idea, and it was great that we could come together as one big group and team and just have fun and learn, and it was a really fun experience,” Gedalyn Miles (11, YPAS) said.

“Out of that, I got to try different things, even if you’re like not comfortable with it, because some of the cheerleaders weren’t comfortable with that dance style but we had to do it, and it was just like we got a different feel, a different culture,” Kennadi Colbert (9, HSU) said.

The students in the stands were enjoying the performance as well.

“I thought it was really cool because all of them are really talented and we know they all work really hard and we see it at the pep rally, and it really shows,” Natalie Milliken (10, HSU) said.

According to Ellie Hummel (11, MST), seeing both the Dreamers and the cheerleading squad performing a routine together really highlighted school spirit.

“I thought it was awesome. I thought it was something different because we normally just cheer and we never get an opportunity to dance in front of other people so I thought it was dope. I enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure my team enjoyed it as well,” Pleasants said.

Featured image by Payton Carns (10, J&C).