Go Ask Alton To Bring It On

[Lisa Welsh]

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By Lisa D. Welsh

www.CHEERMaD.com

What Cheerleaders Can Learn from Bring It On: The Musical

By Alton Skinner, CHEERMaD strength, fitness, and nutrition contributor


Jessica Colombo, cheer recruiter/coordinator and Andy Blankenbuehler, director/choreographer of Bring It opening night. Andy Blankenbuehler won the 2008 Tony Award for In the Heights.
I recently had the chance to speak with Jessica Colombo, the cheer consultant and recruiter for “Bring It On: The Musical” which premiered on Broadway last week at the St. James Theatre for a limited 12-week engagement through Sunday, Oct. 7.
During our conversation, Jessica told me how the members of the cast prepare, practice and perform the rigorous dancing, cheering and singing required for this immensely entertaining show. We also covered her very impressive cheer background, what’s next for her and how this can help you perform better the next time you or your squad hit the mat. So let me, “Bring It On.”
Jessica is the real deal when it comes to competing, coaching, judging and especially, recognizing what it takes to excel as a cheer performer:

• She has been a cheerleader since the age of four.
• She cheered at Hofstra University where her team won two UCA Division One Small Coed National Championships and laid the foundation for that power house program (which just completed a 4-Peat winning the 2009-2012 UCA championships).
• She worked for UCA/Varsity Brands for eight years and crossed the country training cheerleaders and coaches. Jessica has also judged multiple National Championships and World Championships and traveled to 11 different countries through the sport of cheerleading.
• But most importantly, Jessica has a keen eye for talent and excellent teaching skills which make her a perfect fit in her current role as cheer consultant and recruiter for Bring It On.

In case you aren’t familiar with Bring It On: The Musical, when it premiered, February 2012, in Atlanta for the start of its national tour, the Alliance Theatre billed the show as: “Two squads. Two schools. One mission: claim the title at the National Cheerleading Championships. The high-stakes world of competitive cheerleading meets the cutthroat rivalries of high school politics and romance in this bold and explosive new musical comedy. How do you learn to be true to your team and to yourself? Sometimes it’s got to get ugly before it gets pretty. Game on.”
According to Jessica, the athletes in Bring It On perform for two-hours in eight shows per week. Each performance has multiple dance and stunt sections which must be executed with all-out effort, perfectly every time while simultaneously conveying the emotion of the scene.
To prepare for last year’s national tour, an intensive training program was conducted from August to November. The cast currently features nine experienced cheerleaders: college national championship caliber athletes that perform the more difficult stunts. The rest of cast of actors and dancers learned stunting from the ground up, eventually able to build 2 ½ high pyramids, full downs and lots of seriously high basket tosses. Jessica says, “We do A LOT of baskets in the show that incorporate the entire cast.”
But as is the case with all good cheerleaders they continue to train and improve which brings us to the first point:
CANI. Constant and Never Ending Improvement. Jessica says there is no downtime.

“We are always trying to improve the show. We always try to get better; we want to hit the stunts consistently and safely. Safety is always our main concern for the performers.”​

Always Perform, All the Time, Every Time. These performers travel a lot. From city to city, state to state, country to country. Colombo says,

“They are tired from training, tired from travel, and in some cases hurting from the constant performances. But at night when the lights go on, the music starts, and the curtain goes up they perform. Energy, effort and emotion every time. They remember that though they have done the same thing hundreds if not thousands of times, this will be the only time many people will ever see them perform. They work to make an impression that will entertain, and that will last.”​

The show depends on it and so does your program. Always perform every competition, every practice, and every section. In the world of competitive cheerleading where the talent and tumbling is close, “performance” can make the difference between making the podium or not. Presences and charisma matter on the stage and on the mat.
Health and Safety. In Bring It On, safety is always the most important consideration says Colombo:

“Whatever we do we always want to be safe. Also with as many performances we have injuries can and do occur. To prevent injuries and to help those injured recover faster, a physical therapist travels with the cast and crew keeping the athletes on the stage and ready to perform.”​

All Stars can learn from this attention to detail. Do your stretches, make sure you get your rest, make sure you get your conditioning in outside of practice. Your squad can’t perform up to its standards if all its athletes are not at their best. For a team to succeed it needs all its parts performing at 100 percent and the team’s success rest on making sure every athlete is doing what it takes to stay on the mat. But sometimes that’s impossible and you need to have a backup plan.
Have a backup plan. Also as the recruiter for Bring It On, Jessica is always looking to find more athletes for the future of the show.

“For a production to be successful in the long run, there needs to be a steady supply of performers as the production grows or as performers move on to other roles. As with most plays, there are several understudies for the major roles to step in for the main perform in cases when they aren’t available or capable of performing. Also there is usually a performer that is capable of performing multiple roles just in case; remember in show biz the show must go on. In Bring it On the leads learned to cheer and cheerleaders learned to dance.”​

Coaches does your program have a backup plan? What would happen if you lost an athlete through injury or attrition? Does your program have a steady supply of young talent to step in as your older athletes move on? Are you cross training all your athletes to be capable to step in should someone not be able to perform during a practice or performance so that the show can go on?
Cheerleaders I ask you this, are you taking the time at practice or away from practice to become capable of stepping in to almost any role that your team may need filled? Are you willing to step into a different role, if that what it takes to make your performance a success.
The athletes in Bring It On work constantly on core strength as an injury preventer and performance enhancer. One of the best drills for this is the medicine ball twist in a lunge stance. Perform this drill a couple of times per week, increase the weight every 3 workouts as you will have show-stopping cheer abs.
Check on this link to learn how to perform this drill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InVwUx0EmXI
Bring It On is wonderful show. I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you adopt some of the concepts they use to produce the best performance possible every time they step on the stage, it can help make you a better cheerleader.

Alton Skinner is the author of “Winning Workouts for Competitive Cheerleaders” book series. Alton is a strength coach and athletic performance nutritionist specializing in competitive cheerleading and dance teams. He has spent near two decades helping athletes across a wide variety of sports to achieve their athletic goals.
Visit www.Altonskinner.com or twitter.com/altonskinner for regular tips to help you stunt bigger, fly higher and reduce injuries fast.