Aubrey Malone
A still from Eat/
Sleep/Cheer/Repeat If you uttered the word ‘Cheer’ to me before I saw Tanya Doyle’s Eat/Sleep/Cheer/Repeat, I’d have thought you were giving me an instruction to support someone. In actual fact it’s shorthand for cheerleading.
For those of you who, like me, thought cheerleading was ‘an American thing’ here’s a corrective to that mindset. Though we’re still in ‘Generation One’ of Team Ireland, the country has been making big strides in the activity in recent years.
In fact, in 2022, during the height of Covid, we participated in the world finals of it in Orlando.
Ferrying cheerleaders to America, I would have thought, would be a bit like bringing coals to Newcastle – or a hurling team from New York to Tipperary.
Think again.
Like all good sports documentaries, this one enables us to get to know the participants (mainly girls) as people. We experience their highs and lows – literally – as they rotate like spinning tops, somersault like eels, backflip until your heart is in your mouth watching them, and coordinate brilliantly in pyramids.
As the title of the documentary suggests, these people live and breathe what they do. In many ways they are like an extended family. If they falter in any way, their zealous trainer (sussing a domino effect from absenteeism or lack of commitment) ships them back into shape sharpish.
What came through most forcibly for me in it was the likeability of the entrants. They love the ‘craic’, radiating an infectious charm while remaining refreshingly unconscious of the camera. This is something their American counterparts didn’t share in any stateside footage of cheerleaders I’ve watched over the years.
One thing that’s missing from the film is footage of the other teams after the Irish one gets to Orlando. This doesn’t lessen its value. In some ways it gives it more focus. But I still found it curious.
The skills on display are sometimes not as polished as those of the Yanks but let’s not forget they have been at it for decades. Also, in many cases they do little more than twirl a baton. The activity has moved on from those days.
Tanya presents us with a gutsy bunch of teenagers bubbling over with energy as they contemplate everything from their sexuality to life after ‘Cheer.’
One of them has refused to be vaccinated. As a result, she isn’t allowed to go to Orlando. Her devastation as she watches her team-mates competing on the TV is heart-wrenching. Covid changed so many of our lives in all sorts of ways.
At the end of the day this is a celebration of dedication. ‘Cheer’ doesn’t get any Government funding. It demands great application, great trust – and of course great skill.
In one sequence we see a girl being flung upwards, then flipping around in the air before landing on the hands of one of the people who flung her – on one foot.
Don’t try this at home.