Bring It On All or Nothing Cheers

When the Bring It On All or Nothing cheers first show up on the big screen, it seems very much like the original script of Bring It On. However, there are some key differences in the movies and the cheers.

The beginning of the movie starts with a "dream sequence" cheer – not at a game, but actually at a homecoming dance. Hayden Panettiere (of the hit TV show Heroes) is revealed as the star and the team captain, with all the insecurities that entails. Performance pressure, body insecurities, and the fatigue of being a cheerleader captain are all portrayed in the opening cheer, a roll-call that introduces the various members of the Pacific Vista Squad:

"Hey (Cheerleader Name)", "Hey what?", "Introduce yourself!" "No way!" "Introduce yourself!" "OK!"

. . .and then each member comes up with a particular rhyme to go with their name, usually just something along the lines of saying "Hi!" to the crowd with spirit.

This roll call cheer is used in stark contrast to the Crestview Heights cheer squad, whose roll call is filled with "Sha boo ya, sha sha sha boo ya!" rhythms and much more individual introductions. One cheerleader integrates Spanish into her intro, reveling in her Hispanic heritage, and another cheerleader who is more voluptuously built than the others revels that ". . .when I shake it, it’s like an earthquake."

Later in the movie Britney (Hayden Panetierre’s character) joins the Crestview squad and develops her own cheer as well. The whole movie is a lesson in the way that cheerleading should be more than just the traditional stunts, routines, and safe moves that have come from years and years of cheerleading. There is also room in cheerleading for new moves, new choreography, which are the things that set squads apart from the rest.

If you’re looking for actual cheers, there aren’t many in the movie – while there are occasional scenes at the games, the emphasis is much more on the dancing than the words to the cheers. However, it is easy to find what words there are on the Internet Movie Database (be warned, this is a collection of quotes as well as cheers, and there is some content that is intended for mature audiences including sexual references and profanity).

The real place where the movie shines is in the way it shows the Crestview Heights squad work together to create winning routines. Being a captain of a cheer squad is a delicate balance between running a "cheerocracy" or a "cheertatorship" – and Camille, the character played by Solange Knowles-Smith, shows the burden of leadership as she tries to maintain her own vision as well as listen to the needs and suggestions of her squad.

They end up integrating a form of hip-hop dancing called "crumping" into their routines, a strategy that ends up setting their squad apart from the others as they compete for a TV spot with pop star Rihanna. The variations of the flying stunts that are a part of most high-school squads are shown, along with a lot of gymnastic floor work, but you need to remember these are Hollywood actors and stuntmen doing the routines.

In fact, the Pacific Vista squad shows how not to do difficult stunts – blatantly disregarding the rules against both lewd moves and dangerous stunts such as the Helicopter toss. They also portray some of the dangers of over-dieting and the ways gossip and talking behind people’s back can hurt a squad.

The movie has a very predictable ending, and if anything, it suffers from trying too hard to be a story about racism and stereotypes and not being enough about actual cheerleading. By the end of the movie, any resemblance to actual cheerleading is gone in favor of "dance battles" and attitudes.

While there may not be much about the Bring It On: All or Nothing cheers to bring into your own squad, it is an entertaining movie that celebrates the true spirit of cheer.

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• Cheerleading Quiz

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