Patrick Opran made history by becoming the first male dancer to join the Celtics Dancers, the Boston Celtics of Philly’s NBA team.
Opran gave up her dreams of becoming a lawyer to commit to dancing, and although she feared anti-gay sentiment in the group, she’s been encouraged to lean into her swagger in her performances, she recently told Outsports.
While Opran isn’t an entertainer per se, she does get the crowd pumped up. His career path was also partially paved by early male cheerleaders joining the sport’s other pro league: the NFL. The NFL and NBA began diversifying their cheerleading squads around 2018, something that coincided with the #MeToo movement.
In any case, here are several animators who have made history by working in the traditionally female field.
James LeGette
Before becoming a cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles, LeGette worked as a 5th grade teacher, taught gymnastics and dance and volunteered for six years with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. On the same subject : The opening of the NFL’s “National Anthem” is getting…weird..
“The real world can be tough and the easiest way to get through it is to follow your dreams and pursue the things you want to do while still mastering your craft,” he said. “Now, I also have the opportunity to break boundaries, to show the world that you can be anything you want to be and that you can be a role model.”
Jesse Hernandez
In 2018, Hernandez made history by becoming the first boy to perform for the New Orleans Saints’ Saintsations dance team. See the article : Super Bowl cheerleaders 2017: The New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons are gearing up for battle, and so are the ….
Although the group is known as the Saints Cheer Krewe (a nod to the krewes of the city’s Mardi Gras parades), Hernandez was only the first of two male dancers in the group. The other was Dylon Hoffpauir, who has since been the dance and cheer coach at Loyola University in New Orleans.
Quinton Peron and Napolean Jinnies
Peron and Jinnies became the first men to serve on a pro-football cheer team when they became cheerleaders for the LA Rams in 2018. This may interest you : Gaylord Cheerleader Homecoming Queen Fayth Sanom signs LOI for Alma College.
“I want to prove that boys can dance too,” Peron said shortly after joining the team in 2018. “I’m an artist, I’m a creative person…and we can do it, we can hang with the girls!”
She remains a member of the Jinnies cheerleading team while Peron retired from the team last April.
Driss Dallahi and Steven Sonntag
Dallahi and Sonntag were both in their early thirties when they tried out for the New England Patriots. Both said they were inspired to listen after watching Quinton Peron and Napolean Jinnies perform as the NFL’s first male cheerleaders at the 2019 Super Bowl.
Sontagg told NBC Boston, “We didn’t know the criteria for auditioning male cheerleaders for the New England Patriots, so we came up with it together by texting back and forth… Having a bi-gender team is a big step for any team. The NFL, not as well as what people are used to seeing on the sidelines, so I encourage him to advance even further in the NFL table”.
Anthony Niccolo, Grayson Tummings, Jessie Castillo, and Randolph Rivera Marte
While some NFL teams hire one or two male dancers for their cheerleading squads, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers currently have four.
Some of the men have other jobs: Tummings works in marketing and Marte in customer service. However, cheerleaders are not only on the field. They also commit to long rehearsals with their band and are often asked to serve as public band ambassadors, greeting fans and cheering at community events.
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