MMC Alum Grabs the Spotlight at the 2025 Super Bowl
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Eagles players weren’t the only ones to win big at this year’s Super Bowl. MMC Dance alum Deanna Flanagan ’17 scored her own career victory that day, performing on the field as an Eagles cheerleader.
Flanagan is in her rookie season with the team, though she’s not new to the world of pro sports: she spent three seasons as a cheerleader for the Jets and two years with a National Lacrosse League team, the Philadelphia Wings.
However, 2025’s Super Bowl LIX was the first time she got to see one of the sporting world’s biggest events up close. “It was the most incredible experience, and we were so excited to be there and to support our team,” she said. “We got to see them work so hard this entire season, and to cheer them on to get to this point is just the best feeling.”
The game pulled in 127.7 million viewers—an all-time high—but Flanagan didn’t have any butterflies performing for an audience that size. She said her confidence is a result of her extensive training as well as lessons she learned at MMC, where she felt fortunate to have a Dance program and faculty focused on cultivating multi-faceted performers. “MMC’s Dance Department not only gave us the training and etiquette for auditions and performances but also the skills and the knowledge to create a well-rounded career in dance,” she said.
At MMC, her major included a concentration in teaching dance, and with encouragement from her advisor, Associate Professor of Dance Nancy Lushington, she went on to earn an MA in Dance Education from Hunter College. Today, Flanagan is a dance teacher and choreographer at her alma mater, Rahway High School, in New Jersey. Her students were just as hyped as she was in the lead-up to the Super Bowl, rooting her on after every team win.
“They were on the journey with me, which was fun,” she said. “Especially for this particular group of students because I walked in their shoes … I went to that high school, I grew up in the town. I love that they get to see that you can have a career but also go after other aspirations and continue to perform. I’m really excited that I get to share that with them.”
Published: February 28, 2025
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