Male dance troops in sports are nothing new. The Bulls have the Matadors, the Mavericks the ManiAACs, the Pistons the Spare Tires and on, and on.
But those groups are all about being campy. They're overweight, out of shape. But the Prancing Elites are something else entirely.
The all-male cheerleading team from Mobile, Ala., has been around since 2004, performing at football, basketball games and other local events. But they're now getting national attention thanks to an assist from Shaquille O'Neal, who recently tweeted "SHAQTIN A FOOL PRESENTS. THESE DUDES B JAMMIN," linking to a YouTube video in which the Prancing Elites perform in orange booty shorts, midriff shirts and delivering the kind of moves that are generally reserved for the women on the NBA sidelines.
"That was . . . loss for words," said team captain Kentrell Collins, 25.
He woke up last Friday morning and received a text message about the Shaq tweet. Not believing it was real, he searched out O'Neal's verified account page, then went to his YouTube channel. After generating 1,200 views in its first week, Shaq had helped push it to over 200,000 views, coming from users all over the world.
"This wasn't something that we ever dreamed about being on a public platform, where it is now where social media is concerned," Collins said. "It's just something that we've been doing for so long despite what people say, we just continue doing what we love to do."
The troop was founded by Elite Hayward, and originally dubbed "Them" by a radio host, but when Hayward died in 2006, Collins changed the team's name to honor Hayward. He added Prancing to the moniker in 2011.
Over the years the group has had between 20-30 members, Collins estimates. But he said this last year was the roughest in the group's history as they opened their season in December with 10 members, but now they're down to five.
Now, the Prancing Elites have been approached about the clip of their performance appearing on the MTV2 show 'Ain't That America With Lil Duval.'
"A lot of people stereotype us, saying 'Well, they shouldn't do this. God doesn't like this. God doesn't like that,' " Collins said. "Well, my thing is God would have not blessed me with such talent if he didn't like it. You may not understand it, but we love it."
