It was probably a bit cringy to be a teen at the Byron P. Steele II High School in Cibolo, Texas in 2015. A group of dancers during a pep rally really got things pumping after the person running the show announced a special guest.
The cheerleaders were out there shaking their pompoms, probably wondering like everyone else who the star of this “surprise performance” was going to be.
Masked dancers
Emerging from the other side of the auditorium, a group walked out calmly wearing white masks. A bit creepy, if you ask us, but the students seemed riled up.
As 11 dancers line up for their routine you can hear – if you listen closely – someone in the audience say “oh my god” in a pre-humiliated tone. Maybe they recognized the hair. It was probably the same hair that reminded them not to forget their lunch that morning.
The music starts slowly, as the dancers glide forward. And since it’s a pep rally, the students are already riled up and start cheering loudly for them.
The tune becomes clear as they start to dance apart…
Watch me whip
The dancers make a faux dunk – probably because they’re about to dunk on quite a few audience members…
The next order of business? Taking off their masks and throwing them aside.
The rest of the routine needs to be done with full knowledge of who is out there.
Especially if that person is your mom.
Yep, your mom.
It takes a minute – the crowd is big, there are just 11 dancers, so it’s not EVERYONE’S mom. Silentó’ “Watch Me (Whip / Nae Nae)” comes on and the students cheer a song they recognize.
And it’s a fairly diverse group of moms out there! Not only are they good dancers, but they’re also entertaining!
Do we cringe or cheer?
Through all the ruckus, it’s unclear when the golden moment of recognition came to at least 11 students in the audience. But we really wouldn’t have liked to watch them go from “this is cool” to “wait, is that…?” to “OMG MOM!”
The San Antonio Express-News reported on the stunt, which was orchestrated by Aprill Williams, the mom of a football player (the pep rally was to gear up for the team’s first playoff matchup of the season).
“The boys are doing really well this year and we wanted to something to show our support for them,” she told the newspaper by phone.
She admitted it took a lot of practice and the help of a student to choreograph the routine. The goal, after all, was to support (and showing they’ve still got it), not humiliate.
And you can’t ignore the fact that these women are good – all of them! And while there might be a few proud kids in there chanting “go, mom; go, mom,” it’s more likely that they’re waiting for the Earth to open up and swallow them.
After all, is anything your mom does when you’re a teen NOT embarrassing? It’s like we’re somehow genetically programmed to find everything about our parents just completely cringe at that point. All they have to do is wake up in the morning and we say “ugh, there she goes again.”
Cool moms
Some of the moms get time in the dance circle busting a move – and it’s all really well done! No one is out there trying to embarrass themselves. It doesn’t look like some horrific version of Jazzercize that will ruin the song forever for their children.
At best, those kids will never go to another pep rally again without wondering “is my mom going to be there?” but that’s the worst of it. In fact, there are probably some kids in that audience wishing their moms were that cool.
Another mom and dancer, Melissa Fields, admitted there was a lot on the line for the group of 11 and that nerves were a factor.
“My legs were shaky and it felt like my knees were going to buckle,” she laughed. “It was cool to come out of our comfort zone and show support for the boys. If I went to a club right now, I wouldn’t know what to do. I went on YouTube and thought ‘oh no,’ there is no way we would be able to pull this off.”
But they pulled it off alright! In fact, it’s been viewed over 4 million times on YouTube since November of 2015!
After their bow, the moms come back to greet their kids who run out on the floor to give them an obligatory hug.
We just wish we could have been at 11 dinners that night to hear the conversation at the table.
Be sure to scroll down below to see the epic performance for yourself.
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