P1000651.JPGHere at Pink World we LOVE the movie Bring It On, we LOVE the idea of being a sweet-as-sugar cheerleader with pink legwarmers and matching pom-poms, which is why we had to introduce you to the ah-mazingly fabulous Pink Lady - Miss Nina!

Not only is she an uber cool Pink Lady - check her out working her me-inspired look - love the pink shades, Nina! Not only does she heart HSM and Hairspray as much as us, she’s a super-cool cheerleader in her native New Zealand - this is our cheerleader chant to Nina -

“…Nina, Nina you’re so cool
You’re so cool, you rock n’ rule!…”

Describe Nina in five words…
loud, fashionable, friendly, fun, OTT!

We hear you’re a cheerleader - COOL! Tell us all about it…
It’s really fun! There’s many different things in it, dancing, gymnastics ,tumbling, conditioning, shouting…heaps! It’s soooooo much hard work and effort put into it though…always wear lots of deodorant becuz it can get really stinky at the end!!! You need to be quite flexible to be a cheerleader though!

Who are you a cheerleader for?
Well, in New Zealand there aren’t many schools that have cheer teams, so instead we are more popular in the training schools and competing. So my dance school is where I do most cheering. (check out the website: www.danceetc.co.nz)

How long have you been doing it?
Since the beginning of this year, 2007!

How did you get involved?
I’ve been dancing since I was 3, so I’m really serious about it (i do sooooooo many classes a week!) Anywayz, me and my two friends watched the film Bring It On and decided that we wanted to try it out…and started planning a school team for fun!
But then one of my friends moved to the other side of the country so it never worked out. Then my other friend found a dance school that offered cheerleading, but she couldn’t join becuz she has horse riding lessons instead!

How often do you practice?
We have classes once a week, but we practice at home wheneva we can!

Do you have to be really fit to be a cheerleader?
There is ‘conditioning’ which is a really painful type of streching and exercising so you might want to do extra fitness to get a bit fit!

Do you perform? If so how often?
Since we don’t have many people in our squad, we don’t do many, though we plan to! We have performed at school galas and nationals - though not this year :(

Do you compete? Tell us all about it…
Well, since we can’t go to the nationals this year I have neva been to a cheerleading competition, but I specialize in competition in modern dance so here goes!:
We go to theatres and perform a three minute or less dance. Usually you compete with exactly the same people and there will always be the competitive snobs, the not so good people, and the people who only just get a placing or not! We have a prizegiving after the next group (e.g-tap, song and dance, jazz solo etc…) of dance styles and some people win trophies, medals, badges, depending on what dance school is hosting it!

What’s the most complicated move you do and how long did it take you to learn?
We have to do these jumps were you have to try and do the splits in midair, so that’s always really hard to do when you’re sooooooo tired after doing a hard 50 mins of conditioning!

Do you do chants too? What’s your favourite?
Not many, but we do it every so often. We have our own team cheers like :
“beginners, elite
best by far
champions to beat
boom, boom…
we are!!!”

We also have moves to go with them! I quite like this one that goes:
“our team is, what?
dynamite,
our team is, what?
dynamite,
our team is, tick, tick ,tick, tick,
tick x8
boom, dynamite!!!”

It’s actually really catchy and the moves are really cute!

Why does being a cheerleader rock?
Becuz I love dancing and screaming! I really like stunting, especially being the flyer, becuz it’s so active!

What advice do you give to would-be cheerleaders?
If you’re going to be a cheerleader, you should definitely take interest in a gymnastics tumbling class becuz you have to do quite a lot of flips, round-offs, backhandspings, etc…
Don’t believe in the whole preppy, blonde, typical, popular cheerleading images, it’s a lot of hard work but not as sick as it looks in movies like Bring It On!
If you want to be a flyer, you need to be really brave, and if you want to be the captain you need lots of facials and a really loud voice!