When a video of a cheerleading routine has been viewed over 9 million times, it’s clear there’s something special going on.

It appears that Mercer Island High School in Washington state has quite the athletics program. And in the school of 1500 students, it appears cheerleading is one of the most popular sports.

On a squad of around 2 dozen athletes, you might not expect the choreography or skill level to be all that difficult – but in this case, you’d be wrong.

The video in question was posted back in 2012 and shows a very cool moment from that year’s homecoming rally in the school’s gymnasium.

The stands are packed as the squad takes the floor – and this is one group of cheerleaders who don’t belong on the sidelines!

Starting off their routine with military proficiency, the young women march in place and turn to face the stands before dropping to the floor as a whistle counts the beat.

But this is more than clapping and kicking and moving in unison (although that can be quite hard!).

As the music begins with a techno squeal, the cheerleaders look almost robotic as they pop up and down, looking like gears and levers.

Then, they fall back like dominoes.

The audience is impressed as students cheer on the squad and the more-than-occasional “Whoa!” rings out from the crowd.

This isn’t your average pom-pom and “Go Team” effort (not that there’s anything wrong with that) – it’s synchronized dance at its best.

Until you get about 2 minutes in, you might be able to convince yourself that with enough practice, you could pull off these moves.

After all, it’s all about keeping the beat – there’s nothing else that’s terribly complex to execute. The timing is key.

But, eventually, the effortless display of flexibility comes in as they all fall into splits.

In fact, it’s so graceful that you can barely tell they’ve done something that the vast majority of people couldn’t even force their bodies to do.

As the squad executes a particularly impressive floor move at around 2:30, you can even hear a student shout “What is THAT!?” on the audio.

Good question! We don’t know, but it’s awesome and worth watching since a still shot doesn’t do it justice.

By minute 3, we get some familiar music – “Thrift Shop,” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (which we had no idea went all the way back to 2012!).

And while there aren’t competition-level backflips and lifts, this team has synchronized movement down to an art.

The routine was choreographed by Sophia Laurin and while most commenters were impressed, some were happy to criticize the lack of stunts and tumbling.

“honestly it’s really not that good in dance or cheer sense— i’ve been doing both so this kinda disappoints me,” said one cranky naysayer.

Luckily, those who enjoyed it also chimed in.

“I thought ‘jaw-dropping performances’ was an exaggeration and here I am, jaw dropped,” said one viewer.

It’s not as if you can please every YouTube commenter.

As the women finish their routine by returning to the techno-robotic music and movement from the beginning, it’s clear to most that you don’t need backflips and lifts to entertain an audience. A well-choreographed dance will have the same effect.

Be sure to scroll down below to see the unique performance.

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Source: Junior Biazi via YouTube, Mercer Island High School (pdf)