When bases stand strong and back spots aim right, flyers flip through the air smooth, high and tight.
If you can’t forgive that rhyme, that’s fine, but you have to respect how the Lewiston High School Bengal Cheer Team makes true poetry out of the chaotic choreography of near-miss somersaults and acrobatic routines.
On Feb. 19-21, the 34-member team will perform for a national audience at the United Spirit Association competition in Anaheim, Calif.
The group has practiced together so much they’ve developed nonverbal communication. When one cheerleader is tense, the others know it.
“If I am feeling off, everyone will feel off, and everyone is feeling it,” said Hunter Harrell, 17, a senior who is a base for one of the team’s six stunt groups.
A stunt group is a four-person team: two bases, one back spot and one flyer. Bases lift and throw flyers. Back spots aim flyers up and into spins, flips and poses. Flyers, whose bodies balance between tension and flexibility, perform acrobatic feats that put their fates, literally, in the hands of their teammates — an aerial testament to how much one person can trust another.
Izzy Titus, 16, a junior flyer, said trust is essential, as is the ability to free her mind of distraction.
“It’s hard to do a perfect stunt,” Titus said. “You can’t go out there with a bad mindset.”