- May 18, 2010
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This has been done before, in terms of the image discussion, but I thought I'd share the experience I had this weekend at Return to Atlantis.
This was the FIRST EVER cheerleading competition that my girlfriend has ever attended. She was completely shocked that parents allow their children to walk around the venue, the hood of Baltimore, and the Inner Harbor with their skimpy uniforms on. She said "Do these parents have any idea that their kids look like a piece of meat? Why are they wearing what is essentially a performance costume out in public?" I explained to her that there was a new rule in place for next year about wearing t-shirts if you're not in warm-ups. But she asked me a question that took me a minute to respond to, "Yeah, but once you're done performing, what is the point of having the uniform on at all?" I thought about awards and such, but really she's right.
We're both musicians, which is how we met. When we perform in a church, the robes come off as soon as you're done performing. When you're doing Carnegie Hall, you bring your concert attire in a garment bag on a hanger and change out of it when you're done. If you watch a broadway show, the performers don't leave the venue with their costumes on, right? Her point is, we're a performance sport. When you're on stage, you're getting into character in a way. That's what makes it special in that moment... lights, camera, action, slap on your uniform and transform into a diva. Her thought was that kids would have more respect for the uniform if it were treated as something that only has a purpose on stage.
Outside of that, kids should be in some other kind of gym wear.
So, what would be wrong with kids having a garment bag, arriving to competition in warmups, changing to compete, and then putting their warmups back on and keeping warmups on for awards? My only argument to this was that not every kid can afford warmups and/or an extra bag AND sometimes it gets hot in those arenas so who the heck wants to wear pants and a jacket? or even pants and a t-shirt for that matter? She said "You know what would look awesome?! Boxing robes!" LOL yeah, we'll come back to that...
I was trying to think of something like practice gear for walking around at competition... shorts and a shirt or just lightweight warmups... Thoughts?
This was the FIRST EVER cheerleading competition that my girlfriend has ever attended. She was completely shocked that parents allow their children to walk around the venue, the hood of Baltimore, and the Inner Harbor with their skimpy uniforms on. She said "Do these parents have any idea that their kids look like a piece of meat? Why are they wearing what is essentially a performance costume out in public?" I explained to her that there was a new rule in place for next year about wearing t-shirts if you're not in warm-ups. But she asked me a question that took me a minute to respond to, "Yeah, but once you're done performing, what is the point of having the uniform on at all?" I thought about awards and such, but really she's right.
We're both musicians, which is how we met. When we perform in a church, the robes come off as soon as you're done performing. When you're doing Carnegie Hall, you bring your concert attire in a garment bag on a hanger and change out of it when you're done. If you watch a broadway show, the performers don't leave the venue with their costumes on, right? Her point is, we're a performance sport. When you're on stage, you're getting into character in a way. That's what makes it special in that moment... lights, camera, action, slap on your uniform and transform into a diva. Her thought was that kids would have more respect for the uniform if it were treated as something that only has a purpose on stage.
Outside of that, kids should be in some other kind of gym wear.
So, what would be wrong with kids having a garment bag, arriving to competition in warmups, changing to compete, and then putting their warmups back on and keeping warmups on for awards? My only argument to this was that not every kid can afford warmups and/or an extra bag AND sometimes it gets hot in those arenas so who the heck wants to wear pants and a jacket? or even pants and a t-shirt for that matter? She said "You know what would look awesome?! Boxing robes!" LOL yeah, we'll come back to that...
I was trying to think of something like practice gear for walking around at competition... shorts and a shirt or just lightweight warmups... Thoughts?