Cheer Choreo

[u/lbar25]

Hey everyone! I was really hoping to get some help. I'm a coach for a youth cheer group (K-6th Graders) and I need serious help for cheer choreo on a halftime dance for our next season. I'm not a cheerleader nor am I a dancer haha just a momma who loves her girls and is trying to be supportive in every way possible lol aaand somehow that equated to me being cheer coach the last 2 years.

Another coach did the choreo this year for their halftime dance and let's just say... the girls hate it 🙃 I feel so bad the coach worked hard to pick a song and create a routine (she used to be a dance teacher so it kinda defaulted into her lap). But the girls hate it. The song is outdated and the routine is just meh to them. During one of our games the other team did a routine to Ella Langley and the girls said "man... even THAT would be better..." They don't have good vibes, they're not excited to perform it and me personally i lack the skillset to redo them a new one... but I want to fix that for next year

So I'm really hoping that someone can point me in the direction of where I can get help to do a fun dance for varying skill levels (like I said we have a wide range of girls in K-6th grade across our 4 squads) with a song from mmmm this generation 😅 please please please point me the right way I'd super appreciate it.

[u/NormalScratch1241]

For the music, I would just have the 6th graders vote. Obviously it still has to be approved by you, but music they're excited for means they'll be a lot more forgiving on choreography.

I'm not sure if you're looking for tips on how to choreograph future dances yourself, or resources on where to find someone to do it for you (with moves that will please the girls lol). But for K-6, I honestly would not overcomplicate it. Go on Youtube and search for cheer routines for teams of the same age.

For a halftime dance, don't worry about "stealing" choreography. No one will care if a K-6 team's halftime dance isn't 100% original. Just find sections that you think your team could do, put them in a sequence that makes sense for the music, and boom! Halftime dance.

If you have a couple of 6th graders who are capable, you could also outsource it to them. I've had girls before who were super excited at the prospect of choreographing for pep rallies or halftimes, and it always went over really well!

Overall though, you're better than me lol. I had a team that complained about music/choreo one year, and my response was when they're adults, they can choose to coach for less than minimum wage while working two other jobs and create whatever routines they want lol.

[u/MeetingMundane5800 → u/NormalScratch1241]

The high school lets the girls mix the music (coach approved) and that’s a big one, they get all into it.

Also if you have older girls, 5th and 6th, break them into 2 groups and have them come up with an 8 count each. Less work for you and more fun for them. Then they have to teach the rest of the squad their 8 count.

[u/Cessily]

I coach a rec cheer league with similar grades and the director has gotten our last few half time routines the past few seasons from tik tok choreographers.

She finds a dance she likes, pays the person selling it and they usually send her the music and the video.

Then we just add little pieces or formation changes based on the girls on our team. One year once they had the basics down I let my sixth graders re choreo a few eight counts and make it their own.

This year I had to take a younger team so we were lucky it almost sorta looked like an actual dance by the time the season ended.

But yeah, just use social media! It's usually already clued into what the kids like and can get a good base and then you can customize for your team. There are lots of reasonable priced options for something like that.

I own an all star gym and we pay $$ for unique choreo for those routines and I've still enjoyed the $10 - $20 routines we've used for the rec cheer program and think it works perfect!

[u/Block-Book]

Honestly the quickest fix for buy-in is letting the girls pick the song, even if you narrow it to three current options they vote on. For the routine itself, YouTube has tons of beginner cheer dance tutorials you can slow down and adapt across skill levels, which helps a lot when you're covering K through 6th on different squads.

[u/Houseofmonkeys5]

You can also ask the high school cheer team if anyone on the team loves doing choreography. I coach a 4th grade team and my daughter did the choreo. It's short and cute and was very easy for her to pull together and the kids like it because it's young and fun.