Provocative cheerleading moves/dances!

[Franniepoppins]

Wow! Maybe it is no longer possible to "grab the attention of your audience" with great acrobatic moves and perfect synchronization. Are audiences so dumbed-down now that you MUST sexualize the dance/cheer routines in order to "get the crowd going"? It seems like the sexual stuff is kind of a "cheap" way to get a response rather than really wowing the crowd with athletic/artistic skills. At least that's what it seemed like to me when I recently attended a local high school sporting event and the cheerleaders were too busy simulating sex and bending over and showing their behinds to the audience than doing any of the great stunts I used to enjoy watching when I was in high school.

Have you ever been to a Cheer competition? You want to see acrobatics and synchronization? Go to a Cheer competition. If all you see is what you call 'sexual stuff' then you obviously aren't watching very closely. It isn't all dance moves. In fact, very little of it is, when you are dealing with competing. There are lots of specific stunts that teams do.

I laughed when I read simulating sex, to be honest. I have yet to see a cheer team simulate sex in any way, ever, at all. Yes, they dance, and they shake their booty, and they throw kisses to the crowd. But, I don't see anyone pretending to have sex out there, sorry.

back at you.

Francine

 

[DVCLiz]

My DD16 has been a varsity cheerleader for two years now. She practices in season four days a week, two or two and a half hours at a time. Part of that time is working on cheers and stunts, but at least half is plain old working out and conditioning. She's in great shape!!! The squad also has three or four sessions at a cheer gym in our town, where they work on stunts with other coaches.

Her squad does chants and cheers from the bench, and performs two or three stunt-based dances at halftime, etc. I suppose if you were a parent of a younger child who'd had no exposure to real-life teenagers, you might see one or two of their moves as "sexy", but in no way would it be construed as imitating sexual behavior. Their uniforms are short and sleeveless, but no one is exposing chest or midriff, and everyone wears dance pants under the skirt as part of the uniform, so anyone "seeing" something is going to get an eyeful of green nylon ast best.

It always amuses me to hear the "no daughter of mine" folks project into the future. The reality is that when your child is old enough to participate in this kind of activity you'll probably go along with what most of the rest of the group has decided is OK, and if you remember how horrifed you were at the thought of it, you'll probably be a little amused, too.

 

[transparant]

It always amuses me to hear the "no daughter of mine" folks project into the future. The reality is that when your child is old enough to participate in this kind of activity you'll probably go along with what most of the rest of the group has decided is OK, and if you remember how horrifed you were at the thought of it, you'll probably be a little amused, too.

For what its worth...I've got 3 sons and 3 daughters. My sons have played football ever since they've been 4 years old. I used to sit there and watch the cheerleaders and I recall saying on many occasions "no daughter of mine"

Now...fast forward when my 3 child (a girl) decided she wanted to cheer - she was 9 years old at the time and they started working on a Britany Spears routine. My daughter's coach actually verbally told these girls to "act sexy" when they danced. I pulled her out of it. She was actually thankful that I did - she DESPISES Britany Spears and told me "I didn't mind regular cheering - but I am NOT acting like that loser (meaning Britany)" She also is a very modest child. So - in answer to your statement -- I did not and will continue to not go along with what the rest of the group decides. My daughter's are not the half time eye candy. If they want to cheer - or do dance routines to display their talent or athletic ability without looking like they are poll dancing - go for it! They've got my full support. But making these kids and teenagers put a provocative show on for people - no way.

 

[HappyMommy2]

Have you ever been to a Cheer competition? You want to see acrobatics and synchronization? Go to a Cheer competition. If all you see is what you call 'sexual stuff' then you obviously aren't watching very closely. It isn't all dance moves. In fact, very little of it is, when you are dealing with competing. There are lots of specific stunts that teams do.

I laughed when I read simulating sex, to be honest. I have yet to see a cheer team simulate sex in any way, ever, at all. Yes, they dance, and they shake their booty, and they throw kisses to the crowd. But, I don't see anyone pretending to have sex out there, sorry.

back at you.

Francine

Francine, my perspective is probably really limited since we live in an area that isn't exactly a hotbed of competitive cheerleading squads--I guess I don't have an accurate idea of the quality of real competitive cheerleading today. However, when I see our local squads, the jr high age kids from the cheerleading school performing at the mall, etc. it's obvious that the "attention grabbing" sexual-type moves are over the top and greatly overshadow the athletic skills. And yes the high schoolers were simulating sex (suffice it to say the boys were doing pushups over the girls)! And yes it got the crowd going.

I'm definitely glad to hear that things aren't like that everywhere; I stand corrected on that, sorry. If my kids want to be cheerleaders some day in the future I hope we will be living in a place where the sport is maintained at a higher level of athleticism and excellence than it is here in our area.


Janet

 

[leighe]

I laughed when I read simulating sex, to be honest. I have yet to see a cheer team simulate sex in any way, ever, at all. Yes, they dance, and they shake their booty, and they throw kisses to the crowd. But, I don't see anyone pretending to have sex out there, sorry.



Francine

ITA. As a cheerleading coach I can promise you that no one is making up sexy dance moves to get crowds to come to games! I think the styles have changed and some people are not used to seeing cheerleaders dance (as opposed to doing very stiff, motion-based routines -cheerleaders and parents will know what I mean).

 

[ncgolfer]

Are you saying that dancing provocatively is okay, its just not what people are used to seeing.

I unfortunately went to a comp. recently for my niece and when the team pulls there skits up and shakes their butts around (called the booty clap I think) thats not dancing or cheerleading. Shouldn't be happening at a cheerleading competition.

These are kids for gosh sakes, not strippers.

 

[KarenC]

I figured it was just a matter of time before provocative dress and motions for cheerleaders and the dance teams were called into question. IMHO, it's high time. I've found the sexualization of our teen girls scary and offensive.

I knew we were turning the corner in our community when I watched a film of our pom squad performing at the national competition in Orlando last month. Instead of tight pants with midriffs showing, they wore fairly modest "flight attendant" costumes while dancing to Frank Sinatra "Come Fly With Me." If our director thinks they can compete dressed that way, there's hope!

 

[Franniepoppins]

I just wanted to add in one more thing. At our high school the cheerleaders have a tradition that they honor every year. Whenever a touchdown is scored at a football game, the cheer squad does pushups to equal the score. It doesn't matter what the weather is, pouring rain, snow, they do their push ups. Suffice to say, our varsity football team rocked last year, and these girls did some serious pushups. I have to say, the crowd was actually cheering on the cheer squad!! I think the highest score of the year was somewhere in the 60's. That is a lot of push ups!!

Now, boys doing push ups over girls...I have never seen that happen. And I have never heard of the booty clap.

I do know that their are rules and regulations about what is, and what isn't allowed. I would guess that there are differences in how things are done from gym to gym.

Francine

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

I have never been much of a fan of cheerleaders, but that goes back to my high school playing days when the cheerleaders did their homework during the girls games and cheered during the boys games..... Anywho..... We won state and got them out of school so they cheered for us then.

That said, I have the utmost respect for the competitive cheerleading that goes on. I have never been around a squad like that, only watched them on TV. I can only speak for our little small town squad. They can hold tryouts (so cheerleading is not a sport, or they would have to take everyone that wanted to participate) and they can wear as little as they like. Oh, did I mention that three girls in the superintendent's family have been involved in cheerleading? LOL!

I am a firm believe that sports would continue to exist without cheerleaders. We traveled all over the state for athletic competition, and saw more provocative dress and dance moves that I care to remember. I thought the idea of cheerleaders was to get the crowd fired up and interested in the GAME.... not interested in other things. Guess I am just getting old.

 

[DVCLiz]

transparant - Yikes! I totally agree - and I'll go further and say that I don't think any of that type of cheering is appropriate for girls younger than middle school. In fact, I'm not very much in favor of any type of cheering outside the school environment. But my daughters never participated in that kind of cheering, so I don't really feel comfortable discussing it.

The kind of cheering I'm referring to, and the subesequent "changing of minds" that might happen over time, is junior high or high school sports cheering only. And I do think that, like many other issues, a parent of a younger child who sees the cheerleaders "wiggle" or shake a hip and thinks "Oooh, never my child!" might theoretically have decided, several years later, that what they remember wasn't so out of line after all, and that their child might in fact participate after all.

Totally out of line for any coach to tell 9 year olds to "act sexy" - under any circumstances.

 

[missypie]

Around here, where I see the super-sexual moves is at dance competions. At the last competion, these lovely high school girls did a dance that was so sexual that I expected guys to come up and tuck 1s and 5s into the girls' costumes! It makes me sick to see 7 year old girls shimmying. During each dance competion, I make our dance school's teachers PROMISE me that our girls won't dance that suggestively. They're totally on board.

 

[luvflorida]

Please don't think ALL cheerleading and dance involves provocative/sexy moves. My DD14 is very involved in dance. She is on her high school's dance team, takes about eight hours of dance weekly at a local dance studio, and is on a hip-hop competitive dance team.

Both places have strict rules about the type of dancing that goes on and the type of clothing that is worn. All music must be approved by teachers/instructors, and if anyone, including parents and students, thinks it is offensive or inappropriate, the music is not allowed. None of the dancers wear skimpy costumes or perform moves that might be considered sexual.

I've also attended quite a few dance competitions and I've never been offended by any of the other dance numbers from other studios. In fact, the judges are always stressing the fact that the competitions are family oriented.

Yes, most dancers wear flashy costumes and make-up, but it CAN be done in a tasteful way.

 

[princesspumpkin]

I don't particularly care for some of the moves that the youngest dancers (like ages 3-10) do sometimes. It's not "cute" to me to see a 3 year old turn her back to me and "shake her booty" in my face. I don't see that much in the high school cheerleading and dance competitions on television, and they're supposed to be the best out there. So why do they need to do it at age three?