The UAAP Cheerdance competition is such a hot ticket, especially for a UP student.
The Diliman community has always been supportive of its UP Pep Squad that grabbing a ticket allotted for the school is a tough proposition.
Last year, some chose to stay in the school gym overnight so they could be the first ones to get tickets. The unlucky ones? They took drastic measure, including turning to social media for help.
And that was exactly what Mikee Nazal did.
Dismayed that the tickets were already sold out, she decided to come up with a “meme” that unlucky students, forced to settle for the TV coverage, could all relate to.
“I wasn’t asking for much, I just really wanted to watch the UP Pep Squad live in the CDC. And then I just chose the best nagmamakaawa selfie I had. I even included hashtags to make it look like a campaign!” she said.
Although it was intended to be just for laughs, she meant every word in her post.
After it was shared by her friends and family on Facebook, the post even made it to the social media site’s community page The Diliman Files before her mother received a call offering tickets a night before the event.
She said watching the competition live in a packed Araneta Coliseum makes you see, feel and experience so much more—the crowd reactions, showdown of cheers and your own voice giving out after cheering as loud as you can.
Everyone was astounded with the way UP’s female cheerleaders lifted their male members, among other stunts and moves that communicated their theme of equality.
Aside from that, Nazal said the most memorable moment was the rotation of a rainbow banner, or what she called the “rainbow-ikot,” in the coliseum during the deliberation period. The UP squad and students chanted the other university cheers when the flag reached their segment.
“It was really a beautiful moment because we were able to unite the other schools to take part. They too play a part in the issue [of equality].”
Routines change every year, and the squads are pressured to come up with flawless, trend-setting performances to match the heated anticipation of fans packed with intense school spirit.
“I expect to be blown away,” Nazal said. “And since UP is the host this year, and we have two basketball wins and hopefully more to celebrate, I’m expecting something big!”