Ibest07, Sept. 22, 2009
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases a video of a 2008 cheerleading cheer that is performed by cheerleaders of Cheyney University in Pennsylvania.
The content of this post is presented for historical and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/11/an-overview-of-foot-stomping-cheers.html for the 2021 pancocojams post entitled "An Overview Of Foot Stomping Cheers From the 1970s To The Early 2000s & How And Where Some Of Those Cheers & Their Movement Art Has Survived In The 2000s". That post presents information about the recreational sub-category of children's cheers that I refer to as "foot stomping cheers". That post also includes text examples of some African American girls' foot stomping cheers that remind me of the cheer that is performed in this embedded video. Some videos of foot stomping cheers are also included in that post.
For a comparable circle cheer that is performed by college cheerleaders (but before a game), watch the video of the cheer "Move It" that is embedded in that pancocojams post along with a transcription of that cheer.
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
This YouTube video got my attention because it reminded me of a few comments about some African American girls' circle games from the 1970s to the early 2000s that happened upon in several social media forums where African American women reminisce about their remembrances of childhood recreational circle games similar to this (such as "Introduce Yourself" which is also known as "Jump In. Jump Out".
I refer to this sub-category of cheerleader cheers as "foot stomping cheers". However, girls I observed playing them either had no category name for them or called them "cheers". I've read online that some girls referred to them as "cheers" or "rhymes", or "ditties". Notice that I'm using past tense as I don't know that these types of recreational cheers have been performed by girls during their informal play since around 2009.
Notice those place names or team names all have two syllables. If girls lived in a place or had an athletic team whose name had only one syllable, they would elongate that syllable. If girls lived in a place or had an athletic team whose name had more than two syllables, they would abbreviate that name.
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HOW THIS CHEER IS PERFORMED
The embedded YouTube video documents this cheer being performed in a circle on the side lines of a football field by Cheney University's cheerleaders during their team's football game.
One randomly selected cheerleader struts and twirls and poses with swagger to the center of the circle and then chants a verse. (There doesn't appear to be any order in which the cheerleaders take their turn as the soloist, for instance, it's not based on where they are standing to form that circle. )
The "soloist" cheerleader chooses a verse that mentions a particular body part and then performs an action corresponding to that body part when she chants that word.
The other cheerleaders respond to each line of the soloist cheer with the words "Oh yeah".
The video doesn't show the other cheerleaders doing the same action as the soloist, but-based on similar foot stomping cheers that I've directly observed and that I observed online, the rest of the cheerleaders could have performed the same motion along with the soloist cheerleader. [That movement response would have been the same as the movement that was/is done in children's singing games in which the soloist in the center of the ring (circle) is asked to "Show me your motion" and the group responds with "We can do your motion". In that sense and others, these circle cheers are direct descendants of children's circle games.]
When the "soloist" cheerleader finishes her cheer, she struts and twirls back to her spot in the circle.
The cheer immediately begins again with a new soloist and (ideally) continued until everyone in the group had one equal length turn as the soloist.
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WORDS - WHAT YA GOT
All the cheerleaders except the soloist:
"What ya got" [clap clap]
"What ya got" [clap clap]
"What ya got" [clap clap] What ya got [clap clap]
First Soloist:
"I got that spirit"
Other cheerleaders –("Oh yeah"!)
Soloist - "That Cheney spirit"
("Oh yeah")
"It’s in my heart*
("Oh yeah")
"I love to jump" [The soloist does the indicated action]
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This pattern continues with the next soloist.
The cheerleader (and other cheerleaders who chanted that verse) may have said "It's in my rump." In the context of this cheer, the word "rump" means "butt"/"behind". The word "rump" was chosen to rhyme with the action word "jump".
At the end of the cheer (in this video when the team mascot takes a soloist turn), all the cheerleaders chant something like "Get down!", "Get down!", "Get down!".
In the context of this cheer "Get down!" means "Show us your best dance moves". Instead of "Get down", the cheer could end with words with the same beat such as "Well, alright, alright", alright".
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Here are the alternative soloist responses that I heard in this YouTube video:
"It’s in my skirt
I love to twerk" [In that video the cheerleader does a hip shaking dance, and not the butt protruding shaking dance called "the twerk". ]
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"It’s in my skirt
I like to work" [The cheerleader does hip shaking moves.]
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"It’s in my legs*
I like to slay" [The cheerleader does a split.]
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*In the context of this rhyme the word "slay" means "to kill", meaning to do something very well". The words "legs" and "slay" don't rhyme and aren't near rhymes. However, that is what I believe I heard in this video and I observed that soloist cheerleader touch her legs when she said that word.
A closer rhyme would be
"It's in my hip"
I do the split"
or
"It's in my hip
I like to split", (although "hips" don't have that much to do with performing a split.)
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Because there aren't many body parts that correspond to dance motions, the verses repeat themselves. However, in some foot stomping cheers that I've directly observed or come across offline, the preferred responses are for soloists to come up with a verse that hasn't been given before. Lines for some soloist parts are also individualized in certain foot stomping cheers because the soloist gives her nickname, her and zodiac sign, or her favorite color, or her boyfriend's name, or names a dance that hasn't been already named etc.
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This "What Ya Got" cheer is a form of the mainstream cheerleader cheer "We've GotThe Spirit". The words to that cheer are:
All cheerleaders: "We've got the spirit.
Yes we do.
{name of school]'s got the spirit.
How 'bout you?
[Repeat cheer multiple times.]
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Cheyney University in Pennsylvania has the distinction of being the United States' first HBCU (historically Black college or university),
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https://cheyney.edu/who-we-are/the-first-hbcu/
On February 25, 1837, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania became the nation’s first Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The University was established through the bequest of Richard Humphreys, a Quaker philanthropist who bequeathed $10,000 — one-tenth of his estate — to design and establish a school to educate people of African descent and prepare them as teachers.
First known as the African Institute, the school was soon renamed the Institute for Colored Youth. In its early years, it provided training in trades and agriculture, which were the predominant skills needed in the general economy.
In 1902, the Institute was relocated to George Cheyney’s farm, a 275-acre property just 25 miles west of Philadelphia. The name “Cheyney” became associated with the school in 1913, though the school’s official name changed several times during the 20th century."...
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Almost all HBCUs are in the Southern region of the United States.
Cheney University and Lincoln University are the only two HBCUs in the state of Pennsylvania.