Angel's First Basket
18th July 2007
This weekend a few of us City Stars were doing some ‘off the books’ training up in Egham, home of the University co-ed Squad, RH TomCats. Jon, Jess, Elena, Angel, Sarah and Jane were all practising for a cheerleading routine we are doing for Jess’ company Red Snapper. For this routine we are collaborating with the London Rockets, Liverpool Foxes and RH TomCats. The routine seemed like a perfect opportunity to try something new, and City Stars flyer Angel decided that she was going to learn to learn to fly a basket toss.
For those of you who don’t know much about cheerleading, a basket toss is a stunt where the flyer loads in much like she would in any stunt. The bases have their arms ready in a special basket grip which forms a platform for her to be tossed from. The bases then propel her high into the air and (fingers crossed!) catch her on the descent. The flyer might do a shape in the air, such as a toe touch. There are lots of different techniques for basket tossing, sometimes the flyer loads in a foot at a time, sometimes the bases do a double bounce before the toss. The desired effect is always the same: a clean, high toss that will impress any audience.
Angel loads in and her bases bend down low at their knees. In cheerleading it looks like your arms are doing most of the work, but actually good technique uses power from the legs just as much.
The bases throw her upwards together. Angel stays tight and straightens her body.
The bases all extend their arms up fully. Angel snaps her hips forwards. Angel has reached the height of her toss and now is preparing to cradle.
The boys keep their arms extended ready to catch her.......
Remember, if you're not stunting with a qualified coach, then don't stunt at all kids!
Farewells and New Beginnings
1st April 2007
Good evening to Stars and friends of Stars alike!
Anyone familiar to our site may have noticed a few changes to it this weekend. We’re having a bit of a redesign at the moment, and it should look and shiny and beautiful by next week. The newest addition is this, the News and Views page. This is a fancy way of saying that we now have a blog. If any stars want to contribute an article just send it over to me and I’ll post it on here for you, after I’ve had my editorial way with it. The blog will also be a place for news relating to all things cheer, so watch this space.
The last couple of practices have been the start of something new (High School Musical reference intentional); our Nationals routine. Unfortunately we’ve also had to say goodbye to Rick and Jayme, our favourite super stunting, tumbling, web designing cheer couple (pictured below).
They’ve gone off to travel
Luckily our coaches have put together what looks like it’s going to be an amazing routine. It rocks. It rocks very hard. All we have to do now is learn it….
At least our baskets are looking better. We should have Jack hitting the YMCA ceiling by Future Cheer Internationals......
London City Stars - MTV Debut
The Longest Music Video Ever! - 31st July 2006
The video was shot by 10 selected amature film makers, edited by MTV and accomapnied by the lyrics and vocals of Mike Skinner from The Streets.
All 10 film makers were given the same brief - to work with the idea of myths and legends, and two of the film makers chosen were the London City Stars head coach Joey Gamper and former squad member Bella Keegan.
Below, Joey explains how the London City Stars came to be involved in the film:
"When Bella first joined the London City Stars I remember her telling me how amazed she was by all the different types of people who chose to become cheerleaders and that there really is no stereotype. We thought it might be fun to play with this notion of cheerleaders not being this "mythical" blonde, perfect, model looking american high-school student and demonstrate in our film that the 'ordinary looking' girl or guy at the office desk next to you could well be a cheerleader too!
The idea was pretty simple: we filmed sections from a competition routine, but had the squad perform them in their office work clothes. We shot alot more than they used and the editing and final concept for the footage was MTV's idea, but we were extremely proud of the London City Stars part in this 20 min production and were excited to not only be featured in an MTV music video, but also to be making music television history!"
You can find more information about the London City Stars and The Streets new music video for MTV by checking out:
http://www.mtv.co.uk/channel/mtvuk/shows/the_world_s_longest_video
http://www.spin.com/features/news/2006/07/060724_streets
http://www.nme.com/news/streets/23698
Below are a few screen shots from the video:
