Akin to a peacock鈥檚 plumage or a lion鈥檚 threatening roar, the purpose of a cheer bow is to both attract and intimidate. The giant butterfly of stiff ribbon sits on top of the cheerleader鈥檚 head, faces forward, the exclamation point to the hairstyle statement, which include a variety of ponytails ranging from simple to impressive walls of backcombing that would have done any 1960s-era girl group proud.
A team of six-year-old girls in their hot pink-and-black cheerleading uniforms marched down the corridor at the 麻豆传媒映画Convention Centre Saturday afternoon to the warm-up room of the 10th annual Sea to Sky International Cheerleading Championships, held Friday through Sunday. As they passed, arms interlocked with one other, their backpacks glittered with the words 鈥淔ear the Bow鈥� 鈥� parting words for anybody who stepped aside to make room for their mini train.
In the warm-up room, which is essentially the backstage area where athletes hang out and practise their routines before performing on the big stage in the next room over, members of Vancouver鈥檚 Midnight Cheer Athletics team talked about bow power.
鈥淭he competition bows, they鈥檙e made to shine on stage,鈥� said Midnight coach Sarah Betcher Rice. 鈥淵ou see somebody with a bow in a bag or on a bag, you know they probably cheer.鈥�
鈥淎nd,鈥� added Midnight athlete Damla Alper, who is on the Dazzle team, 鈥渢hey do make you hold your head up high.鈥�
Ellie Saplywy from the Kitsilano Blue Demons high school team says she has at least 40 bows collected from her six years of cheerleading, including the white bejeweled version she wore, complete with a silver crown fastened to its centre 鈥� an appropriate choice for the Grade 9 cheerleader as Kits cleaned up at the championships. The Demons won the senior varsity 4.2 division, the Sea to Sky High School championship and an all-expenses paid bid to compete at the High School Worlds to represent the B.C. Cheerleading Association in Florida next February.
The bows also represent camaraderie. While Midnight and Kitsilano, the only two 麻豆传媒映画proper teams (the 麻豆传媒映画All-Stars are based in Port Coquitlam and Tsawwassen) are not officially affiliated with one another, there is overlap of athletes and resources.
Kitsilano thanked Midnight on its Facebook page for its support in opening its gym doors so they had somewhere to practise other than two wrestling mats on the school鈥檚 cafeteria floor. To further prove the point of spirit, most of the practice and competition bows on Kitsilano鈥檚 and Midnight鈥檚 heads are made by Cathy Neumann, a mother of a Midnight cheerleader.
It was camaraderie that Alper, a Lord Byng secondary student, found in cheerleading. The Grade 12 student discovered Midnight Cheer Athletics three years ago, in Grade 9 science class, when a friend offered to take her to the club鈥檚 open house. Alper had gymnastics experience from her early years, but it wasn鈥檛 her sport.
鈥淚 was about seven and I was not enjoying gymnastics,鈥� she said emphatically. 鈥淢y older sister was very talented and everybody thought I would be the same and I was not. When I went into cheerleading, Karen [Fraser, Midnight鈥檚 head coach and owner] told me I had a lot of potential, so that was nice. I felt like I fit in, I love the teamwork aspect of it. It was what I was looking for all those years ago.鈥�
Modern cheerleading does not involve pompoms, and its purpose is not to cheer on the high school football teams from the sidelines as it was known for during the 1950s. It鈥檚 a sport that involves choreography and elements of gymnastics that include tumbling, cartwheels, flips and other stunts 鈥� a collection of skills that bring the sport back to its early days when it involved the same skill set, but mostly performed by men up until the Second World War.
At the weekend championships, teams performed complex routines on stage for two-and-a-half minutes with the goal of 鈥渉itting zero鈥� 鈥� meaning a clean score card. Teams train for hours a week to master the difficult routines, which had many in the audience holding their breath.
鈥淧eople understand what they鈥檙e doing, they鈥檙e trained really well, and they know they鈥檙e responsible for one another,鈥� said Betcher Rice.
鈥淚t would be a much more dangerous sport than what it is if we weren鈥檛 trained as well as we are,鈥� added Alper.
Alper鈥檚 Dazzle team went on to place fourth out of eight teams in the senior level 2 division. Midnight also found success with its senior stunt group with a first-place finish. The Midnight Cheer Athletics club鈥檚 Sophia Gaber won the youth level 2 individual division, and Jasper Schaller and Kristen McKay won the junior level 4 duo division.
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