- These are spirit fingers. - These are spirit fingers.
- Hey, my name's Lizzie Mason, and I am a LA NBA Dancer.
And, today we're gonna be reviewing a few iconic
cheer scenes, and seeing how accurate they are.
'Cause, you know, movies.
(laughing) These arms.
- I'm sexy, I'm cute, I'm popular to boot.
- I don't think high schoolers can say sexy, but.
- I swear I'm not a whore.
- Okay, that's inappropriate for children.
I wish there were actually that many guys
participating in cheer in high school.
Like, that would be awesome.
There actually are some male cheerleaders and dancers
that have joined the NFL and the NBA this year.
It's very good, and it's very progressive.
We hope to see more.
Torrance's hair needs to be in a ponytail.
- We're so terrific, we must be Toros.
(cheering)
- I feel like if anybody saw that
they would be a little bored.
It would just be more of a performance
versus like hi, look at us, we have arrived.
We're here, we're ready.
Cheer's all about school spirit,
so like it's not about the individual,
it's about the school, it's about everyone.
- So, then we'd be doing them a favor.
So, then they could feel good about sending
Raggedy Ann up here to jack us for our cheers.
- What are you talking about?
- Brr, it's cold in here, I said there must be
some Toros in the atmosphere.
I know you didn't think a white girl
made that (bleeping) up.
Our free cheer service is over as of this moment.
- Is stealing cheers a thing?
It's hard, I feel like it is a thing in high school,
but also that there are so many cheers
that sometimes it's hard to really decipher
where it came from originally anyway.
There's been so many cheers throughout generations,
like sometimes it's really hard to just like
pinpoint like whose it was first.
I've never personally witnessed someone
stealing something like very unique like that
and trying to put it on their team.
But, I mean, I'm sure it's possible.
I'm sure people do it.
- With the spirit stick.
Here.
- I don't want it now.
- No, it's okay, spirit stick doesn't lose anything.
The person who drops it however,
goes to Hades.
- I mean, like, I don't know about all that,
but there are actual spirit sticks that
teams can earn like during summer camp.
They basically just represent the spirit of your team.
So, the folklore of don't drop the spirit stick
is basically like, you don't wanna let your team down,
so you don't let your team's spirit hit the ground.
- Spirit fingers.
(upbeat dance music)
And, spirit fingers.
These are not spirit fingers.
- These are spirit fingers. - These are spirit fingers.
And, these are gold.
- The purpose of a coach is to help with
the younger generation, to guide them,
to be a positive role model.
You know, to point them in the right direction.
Not to just tear them down, and like to just be evil.
Like, that's just mean.
I've never really came across an instance
where spirit fingers were a thing.
Only time spirit fingers have been a thing
is in reference to this movie, and as like a joke,
you know, to be like, spirit fingers.
This is actually pretty cool.
(upbeat electronic music)
Yes.
Work.
Let's go.
(clapping)
Ending stunt, let's go.
Like, they're super clean, but like
the Clovers just had so much more going on.
I never realized they were from,
they're from San Diego, like they drove all the way
up to Compton to steal their cheers.
I don't know if it would be like legal to do that.
I'm not really surprised that the Clovers won.
I remember watching this and I was like,
I really hope they win because I feel like
the Clovers routine, just like a lot more going on.
You know, they were using the mat a lot more
versus the Toros, like they were very stationary a lot.
In one formation, you know,
like the stunt happening in the back.
They weren't using their space as much.
That's just in my opinion.
- Pacific Vista has never had a fat cheerleader.
Hey Brianna, Brittney has something she wants to tell you.
- No Whitney, not in front of everyone.
- Hey, what's up?
- Mm hm, I was like she looks exactly the same as,
they look exactly the same.
- I weigh just a couple pounds more than last year.
- And, that was pushing it.
- I didn't realize.
- Well look, just lay off the snacks and with
the extra workouts the weight should come right off.
- What if it doesn't?
- Put it this way, Pacific Vista's
never had a fat cheerleader.
- The culture from my experience is not like that.
It's definitely more uplifting
and, honestly, like it's not up to your peers
to tell you how you look.
It's not any one person's job to pinpoint out somebody
and tell them, like that they need to lose weight.
Like, that's not appropriate whatsoever.
Cheerleaders come in all different sizes.
And, it doesn't matter what you look like.
All that matters is that you want to spread school spirit,
and you wanna be there for your community,
and you wanna be there for your squad.
They're just like clapping every eight count.
(laughing)
Every time I like watch like cheer or dance movies
I wish there weren't so many like edits,
that you can't like fully see
the full picture, what's going on.
You know, like 'cause everything is just
edited together so you can never really tell
like what's actually happening.
So, they're just like throwing stunts,
like just randomly.
And, this clapping every eight count is like killing me.
Sometimes a clap happens on a six , and it's, weird.
Yeah, they were like doing cheer stunts
and cheer movements, I mean, they were clapping
every four to six counts, which was weird.
Them incorporating crump and street movement
put them over the edge.
There are never really any two teams
on a mat at the same time,
you know, like doing things,
'cause that's just very, very unsafe.
'Cause you never know like who's gonna go
flying across the room.
- Hm, ladies, where's the heat?
Where's the sizzle?
- Well, you haven't seen our big finish yet.
Don't freak out, just trust me.
(dramatic music)
- Check your sell-by date ladies,
faux lesbian kissing hasn't been taboo since 1994.
- I feel like there would be like a guideline
to how the audition's going to run.
Like, there'll be a specific cheer, a specific dance,
a specific thing that you are told to do.
So, like, the people who are judging
can see that you can do that specific thing.
It wouldn't just be like, show us what you can do.
Well, then you might as well just take everybody
because like everyone can do something.
♪ Everybody in the whole cellblock ♪
♪ Is dancing to the Jailhouse Rock ♪
♪ Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone ♪
♪ Little Joe was blowing on the slide trombone ♪
♪ The drummer boy-- ♪
they like walked away and started playing
a football game like while they were performing?
Like, I would be so mad, like I would be like,
don't walk away, like I'm still dancing.
Wait til after I'm done performing
and then we'll watch you play.
See how that goes, like it's a give and take.
♪ To the Jailhouse Rock ♪
Cute, that was super cute.
So, I feel like Riverdale goes more towards like the dance,
like the song pom sorts of type of movement,
instead of like traditional cheer movement.
These movies are great, and I'm always entertained
with these, and I enjoy them so much.
But, the relationships between the peers,
and the fact that there's no adults anywhere,
that's pretty unrealistic.
All the cheerleaders and dancers that I've come across of
are actually really nice people and actually care about
the sport and the art that we participate in.
That's our purpose of being there, is to spread positivity,
and to be there for our community,
and to be positive role models
for the ones coming up behind us.
(upbeat music)