Vanessa Dunston and Edna Titus catch a brief water break after going through their warm-up exercises.
A Diva’s pom-pom is outstreched containing a sequence of cheers from a performance past.
Coach Williams sits atop an exercise ball and watches her cheerleaders like a hawk, quick to correct but always kind and encouraging. Williams stepped up as coach soon after the team formed. “I’ve been a teacher all my life so coaching the team came naturally to me,” Williams said.
Mary Walker takes a moment to rest and observe one of the routines after the team had trouble nailing it.
Frances Cagle gets low during a hip-hop routine. “Embrace your inner-gangster, I want this to be ‘thug-life”, Coach Williams told the team as they went through the cheer.
Captain Gooche’s shirt reads, “What happens with Divas, stays with Divas”.
“Go Divas!”, Coach Williams shouts as the team brings it together in a huddle at the end of their hip-hop routine.
Before beginning their practice, the Durham Divas circle up and hold hands and are led through a small prayer by team member Joni Ridick (not pictured).
Successful woman breaking gender paradigms in North Carolina
In a world where in theory, gender struggle is long gone, since the adoption of the feminine universal suffrage in 1931, in practice, for women today, reaching high positions remains a narrow path. Contact us for the rest of the story.
