<div style=”width: 360px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; font-size: small;”><img src=”/cms/lib/TX01918331/Centricity/Domain/4/news-feb17-dhsdiamonds.jpg” alt=”Dekaney Diamonds Colonel Chri’ Stevenson lifts her torch high during the Super Bowl Halftime Show” /><br /> Dekaney Diamonds Colonel Chri’ Stevenson lifts her torch high during the Super Bowl Halftime Show.</div>
<p>HOUSTON – Feb. 10, 2017 – Twenty-seven Dekaney High School students – all members of the Dekaney Diamonds dance team – experienced the opportunity of a lifetime at Super Bowl LI when they were invited to perform with Lady GaGa during the halftime show. About 800 area students participated in the show, and the Diamonds were among those chosen to be part of the Torches cast.</p>
<p>“It is not often that they get to experience what professional dancers do – their practice schedule, the need for time management, because they had to go to school the next day,” said Letisha Kelly, Dekaney Diamonds director. “Everybody had to know their part. To see them be able to take what they learn in the classroom and use it in the real world was exciting.”</p>
<p>Kelly said the rehearsal schedule and practices were rigorous, beginning two weeks before Super Bowl weekend and lasting several hours each day leading up to the big event. But it was all worth it when the star of the show made her first appearance. Kelly and the other school directors were in the stands and the students were on the field working on their spacing and choreography when they first saw Lady Gaga. “The girls were really excited. They were exhausted because they had been practicing daily, but seeing her made them step up even more,” Kelly said.</p>
<p>Dekaney Diamond Colonel Chri’ Stevenson remembers that moment well. “They said Lady Gaga is here, and everybody went crazy and ran toward her,” Stevenson said.</p>
<p>The dancers rehearsed four times for several hours with Lady Gaga, perfecting the choreography. All the practice paid off on the big day when the sheer size of the crowd could have been overwhelming for the students who have never performed in front of so many people before.</p>
<p>The students were not allowed to share in advance the news that they would be performing in the half time show. Stevenson said it was really hard to keep it secret for so long, but now she and her teammates enjoy talking about their experience with their classmates.</p>
<p>Now when she wears her super bowl shirt to school and people ask if she went to the Super Bowl, she says, “I performed at the Super Bowl.”</p>
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