CHEERLEADING is gaining traction as a serious sport in Orange with its growing popularity in line with global trends, which have resulted in cheer as well as martial art muay thai, being included as provisional Olympic sports.
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While Orange based fighters have trained and competed in muay thai for years, cheerleading is a new entry introduced by Stepping Out Dance Factory this year.
The dance company introduced it as an alternative to competitive dance and is already seeing results with its team qualifying for nationals at the All Star state competition in Homebush.
Director Leesa Chaseling said cheer originated in America in the late 1800s but the movement was now global, which was made evident by its inclusion in the Olympics.
“I can see how most people would be shocked, however once you have experienced a state competition and the thousands upon thousands of competitors and supporters attending, it’s no surprise really and well deserved,” Mrs Chaseling said.
“I would encourage others to take a moment to look at the technical components of cheer and evaluate it objectively on its own merits.”
Mrs Chaseling said there were 40 students in this year’s team and the dance company’s competitive cheer program was the only one this side of the Blue Mountains with regional and state competitions taking place in Sydney.
However, she said while the rise in popularity was slower in regional areas, cheer has been gaining momentum globally and has become more than an American phenomenon.
“A massive amount of market research went into this venture, we found that in metropolitan centres cheer is extremely popular and is the single fastest growing sport in Australia,” Mrs Chaseling said.
“The All Star administrators have registered more than 4000 new competitors this year alone in Australia.
“From a regional perspective the concept of competitive cheer isn’t widely recognised, however after our first year of offering this sport we are inundated with inquiries for the 2017 cheer program.”
Mrs Chaseling said part of the dance company’s decision to introduce cheer was that it gave students something new, something technically challenging and they could demonstrate their ability in front of thousands of people.
“We didn’t intend to qualify for nationals this year but we did,” she said.