American Festivals Project

It’s 2pm in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin and the AFP is rolling into the Kalahari Conference Center and Indoor water park bleary eyed and exhausted.  Just hours before we were in warm and sunny New Orleans.  But now we found ourselves parked next to a snow embankment 20 hours to the north.  What could possibly have forced us to drive entirely through the night and morning?  None other than…cheerleaders!    But we weren’t showing up at some basketball game to watch pretty girls on the edge of a court.  No, we had come to the Xtreme Spirit Cheerleading and Dance National Championships.  This was the real deal!  The parking lot told us we were in the right place.  Hundreds of vehicles, mostly SUV’s and minivans were parked outside with messages of good luck written on the windows: “We won’t accept 2nd place!” or “Lightning Cheer Academy all the way to the Nationals!”  Obviously, there was a lot of enthusiasm here and we needed it.  As soon as we stepped inside, our exhaustion just disappeared.

From the moment we walked through the front doors it was like we entered an entirely different universe – one defined by sparkles, glitter, new acceptable decibel levels, and reigning laws of aniti-gravity.  We were met with a mind-blowing array of colors, movement, and music that took us from sleepy to full on acid trip. Girls dressed in matching uniforms huddled together in the hallways waiting for their routine to begin while others rushed around making their way to the warm-up areas.  There was every kind of cheer outfit in sight plus the dozens of dance teams (separate from the Cheer competition) dressed in various outfits ranging from tutus to New Kids on the Block-gone-wrong.  The hair bows and eyeliner were equally as colorful and creative.  On the carpet in the hallways there were last-minute makeup applications, wardrobe changes, impromptu routine practices, confrontations with parents, and lots of high-pitched voices.   It wasn’t just the cheerleaders that had their ’spirit’ going on – the parents were equally hyped up.  The parents were usually dressed in the color of their team, and often the dads wore silly hats like giant cheese blocks that lit up with purple lights, or sweatshirts with team mottos written in sparkling glitter.  To top it off, the inside of the conference center was constantly thumping with a medley of ‘mash-up’ music, which combines clips from different songs and mixes them into a catchy, make-you-want-to-dance beats.

Can’t catch the actual event?  Leave it up to Skype to bring you front and center of all the action!

The AFP was quickly taken to this scene.  Photo opportunities popped up left and right as frequently as teenage girls were thrown into the air.  Perhaps the most engaging scene was the main performance stage where the cheer teams showed off their stuff to a panel of judges. Teams of 10-30 members performed 3-4 minute routines that actually involved very little of what we think of as “cheerleading.”  Instead, there was a blur of handsprings, back-flips, and towering human pyramids and other formations too technical to possibly know what they were called.  These were not your average cheerleaders.  No, these were athletes on par with Olympic gymnasts.  When you can pull your leg straight above your head, show off your 6-pack abs, and keep a smile on your face the whole time, then you are something truly special.  Let it suffice to say we were blown away at the athleticism and fearlessness of these competitors.

We sat down with Melissa Ellefson, the owner and coach of Champion Cheer from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  It wasn’t until then that we learned a great deal about the lifestyle around cheering.

Cheer teams actually have a long season that stretches from September into April.  Typically, teams will compete every other weekend throughout that season, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles.  It is a huge time commitment for the cheerleaders and the parents.  Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this sport is that many girls start when they are three years old.  It was certainly a highlight of the weekend to watch the ‘tiny’ division compete on the massive floor in front of a thousand people.  Many children at that age are still learning how to flat-out run, while these kids are doing cartwheels and competing for championships.  We did notice though that there is a “championship” about every weekend during Cheer season, which makes us question the validity of the statement “national champions.”   But surely there are rules and point systems that we don’t know about, and after-all, this isn’t college athletics.

Speaking of the commitment of parents and coaches, the AFP certainly has a greater respect for the individuals who make these events happen.   Being a parent or coach to these cheerleaders must be an exhausting job.  We were equally spent at the end of the two days.  Literally, drop-dead exhausted.  The two days at the championships left us with mash-up songs stuck in our heads and well educated on the phenomenon of modern cheerleading.

Take a moment to see what we captured from the weekend.  We think you’ll be B-L-O, B-L-O-BLOWN-AWAY!