Cheerleading - My Art

Cheerleading - My Art

Stunting in the Calgary Stampede Parade

All Pictures are mine and are of my cheerleading team - the Pythons. The stereotype of cheerleaders has been around forever! Dumb girls in short skirts yelling "GO TEAM GO". That is so far from the real SPORT called cheerleading. I am so excited to blog about this because it is so close to my heart. I have been cheerleading for eight years and will go as far as I can with it. Cheerleading to me is my own art. It is a huge part of who I am and I can express myself through many aspects in cheerleading. Strength, passion, heart, teamwork, stamina, and drive are only a few factors that go into this sport. Never in my life have I been pushed so hard to succeed then in my cheer team. We are a family and I hope you enjoy what I have to share with you.

My cheer attire.

 Power Cheer Calgary (the Pythons) is the biggest cheerleading gym in Calgary. All teams are competitive and compete all around North America. There are many different teams such as mini (ages 5 - 7) to my team, all-girl level 5 ( ages 15 and up). Now this all may be confusing to you but there are different levels in the cheerleading world. Six is the highest and they can do harder stunts and harder tumbling, whereas the lowest level (level one) can only have thigh level stunts and limited tumbling. 

Being on a cheerleading team requires that you work for months on a three minute routine that you perform once and have judges decide your fate. Was your routine clean, organized and performed with energy? Did your routine follow technique properly? So much goes into cheer competitions. Not only do you have to look like a team, but you have to perform hard skills in unison and with no error. Think that is easy - try lifting girls above your head or throwing them as high as you can. Cheerleading is honestly the hardest thing I have ever done but I would never give it up for anything. It combines dance with gymnastics and stunting. We are required to push ourselves every practice to achieve harder stunts and tumbles. This may all be starting to sound hard, but the hardest thing is the fact that you are on a team. Not only do you have to push yourself but you have to push your team to do well. 

Two person stunt

  

 Now to the fun stuff! We travel everywhere in hope of showing off our skills and (hopefully) winning a medal/trophy. I have been to competitions in Seattle, Vancouver, Regina, Edmonton, Red Deer, etc. This year I hope to go to Disney Land, Florida for worlds. This is where teams across the WORLD compete. Teams from China all the way to the USA, and hopefully us. In order to go we must qualify in Sea to Sky ( a competition in Vancouver). This is all to exciting to me! Cheerleading has led me to travel all around and see skills within teams I have never seen before in my life. Cheerleading is an art that I cannot even begin to fully explain. It is one of my main focuses in life and I hope that this little glimpse I gave you into the cheer world removes those stereotypes. I love being a cheerleader more then anything and maybe I inspired a few 'future' cheerleaders. I will leave this blog with our inspirational chant: Pythons, All-stars, spirit of the west - blue gold and white fill the hearts of the best, PYTHONS !!!!!

My team after winning first place in Edmonton, Alberta