Cheer Dances
From LoveToKnow Cheerleading
Squads begin working on cheer dances as early as the year before hoping to perfect them in time for next year's competition. Dancing has become such an integral part of cheerleading; squads generally perform during half time, at camp and during competitions.
How Dancing and Cheerleading Became Mixed Together
It's impossible to pinpoint exactly how dancing became a part of cheerleading. There are many factors involved that make these separate elements inseparable in a great routine.
Professional Cheerleading
Professional cheerleaders are really dance squads. In fact, while professional cheerleaders may have the occasional cheer, they predominantly dance to entertain the crowds. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, although not the first cheerleading squad of this nature, definitely set the tone for professional cheerleading squads in terms of the type of role NFL cheerleaders played during a game. Although it's not the only example, it is a predominant example of cheerleading and dancing being integrally mixed and even somewhat synonymous.
Role of Sports Controversy in Cheer Dances
On the high school and college level, the fact that cheerleading squads are not recognized as sports teams also plays a role in how dancing became integrated with cheerleading. Some schools cannot obtain insurance for cheerleading squads that perform risky stunts and consequently, squads were left with dancing to spice up routines. While some schools have created separate squads; a cheer squad that tumbles and cheers and a pom squad that dances, it's probably the lack of "sports status" that prompted the beginning of dancing and cheering.
Competitions
The first competition was shown on national television in the '80s. At this point, dancing played a part in cheering, but it was not as prominent. In fact, the national competition circuit in the '80s was definitively referred to as "cheerleading competitions". Now, you'll notice that the nationally televised ESPN cheerleading competition is technically the World Cheer and Dance Competition. Competition in cheerleading inadvertently launched dance into the cheerleading scene as squads continued to come up with new and interesting choreography.
Choreographing Cheer Dances
There are several elements to choreographing cheer dances. Some squads hire a choreographer, but generally this is reserved for competition squads. Most squad captains and coaches come up with suitable choreography for the squad.
Teaching in Eights
One important aspect of teaching and choreographing cheer dances is to move in eights. All dance moves should be completed in multiples of eight. As you choreograph, you will find that thinking this way makes sense with the music. Likewise, when you begin to teach the routine, you should also teach it in counts of eight.
Layering
One aspect of cheer dancing that is a little different than your regular dance team is that cheer dances are often performed in layers. This can be done in a few ways. One is to have different sections of the squad perform the same move at different times. The effect is a sort of wave. The second option is to have the entire squad perform the same move at the same time. However, there are typically several lines of squad members. For example, you might have a line sitting on the floor, a line kneeling and a line standing.
Tumbling
Competition cheer dances have tumbling incorporated into the routine. Often this is the one element that separates the routine from being just a group precision dance routine. Tumbling is generally implemented in the beginning before cheerleaders are too tired to make sloppy errors that could result in an injury.
Synchronization
Cheer dances are synchronized. Cheerleading if nothing else, is about precision movement. Nothing makes a crowd go wild like thirty cheerleaders doing the same exact movement at the same exact time. This is actually the easiest part of the routine to master as it simply takes a lot of practice.
Dance Step Videos
If you're looking for some choreography, a great place to checkout is YouTube:
- This great clip teaches a dance and more importantly shows you how to break something down to teach to others.
- The Uniontown Cheerleaders slow down one of their routines so you can learn it.
- This video by Enspired shows you how to do hip-hop dance moves for cheerleading.]
Learn More
This page has been accessed 1,780 times. This page was last modified 14:26, 21 April 2009.
© 2006-2009 LoveToKnow Corp.
Print this page
Follow ltk on twitter
Visit us on facebook
