"Cheer", behind the scenes of the cheerleaders

NETFLIX – ON REQUEST

To cheer: "Rejoice, encourage, cheer". The cheerleaders, these young ladies who roam, in the collective imagination, the lawns of stadiums in skirts to the sound of a brass band between two heats, are, in English, cheerleaders. Cheer, a six-part documentary series broadcast on Netflix, is like them: cheerful. Directed by Greg Whiteley, it offers a dive into the cheerleading team at Navarro College, a small university located in the equally small town of Corsicana, Texas. Led with an iron fist by the charismatic coach Monica Aldama, the cheerleaders of Navarro (forty girls and boys – contrary to popular belief, the "cheer", whose figures are at the crossroads of the gym, the circus and dance, is a mixed discipline) have some thirteen national titles.

Girls with steel bodies and strong fellows

Girls with steel bodies twirling in the air, caught and raised by strong fellows with swollen biceps, pyramids in motion, diagonal jumps, always smiling … That seems far away, the time when rows of young girls were content to wave their pompoms on the sidelines! Today, the discipline has its own competitive circuit. Cheer follows the course of the team two months before the Championship of Daytona Beach (Florida), the most prestigious of the season. Alongside Gabi, star of the team and social networks, evolve the discreet Morgan, 43 kg shrimp who grew up on a farm in Wyoming; Lexi la marginalale, excellent athlete "Saved" by the cheer of his evil inclinations; the exuberant LaDarius, a former footballer who used to be mocked for his manly manners; Jerry the plump – the fault "At fast food, that was all we could afford" …

If these kids, the majority of whom come from big cities, have settled in Corsicana the provincial, it is thanks to and for Monica Aldama, who spotted them during the selections. But the expectations of the coach are heavy, and each year the level goes up, injuries are more and more numerous and serious. Cheer gives you a glimpse of it during an impressive pyramid training which turns into a carnage… Tender, funny, addictive, Cheer eat popcorn by hand. Not even ashamed.