[nabs-l] Cheerleading and dance

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Ashley,

I know a girl who did cheerleading in high school and she's blind. She
has RP and still has quite a bit of vision, and during high school, she
did very little with alternative skills, but I read about a totally
blind girl who was a high school cheerleader. I came across it while
researching for a paper years ago.

Based on my experience, I think it would be extremely easy to do
cheerleading without vision. Obviously learning the cheers and chants
wouldn't be a problem, and it wouldn't take much to learn the motions
done at specific moments. And there are cheer moves you learn that are
specific cheer moves, similar to dance, like a bucket fist means you
ball your hand with the thumb side facing up. So once you learn these
moves, you know based on the name what to do.

College and professional cheering is more involved and takes a lot of
physical stamina regardless of sight or not.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 13
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:05:31 -0500
From: "Ashley Bramlett" <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
	<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Cheerleading & dance
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	reply-type=original

Hi Bridgit,

Your description of cheerleading sounds right. The high school team did
more 
basic cheers and some dances where as college teams do more gymnist
moves 
from what I've observed.

You were not blind when cheerleading, right? I'd be curious to know if a

blind person did that? You would have to have a willing coach to be
hands on 
and a guide for running. It could be done though. And as you said, it?s
a 
great thing for a college application

Ashley