Isla Teate

I’m Isla (the crazy one on the left) and I’m the cheerleading coach for The Big Dance Company. I’ve been involved in cheerleading since 1998, starting inScotland (the accent gives it away…) and then since I moved to Cornwall in 2005. I absolutely LOVE it! My cheerleading career started when I was eighteen when I auditioned and got into the Scottish Claymores American Football team squad – there were 32 of us and we had the most amazing time. As far as I’m concerned, cheerleading mixes everything you could possibly want – dance, formations, stunts, gymnastics, team-work and above everything, a real sense of belonging to a group. As my experience in the squad grew, I then became a choreographer, line captain and then 5 years later was head-hunted to set up and manage a new squad for the Edinburgh Rocks basketball team. This was new territory for me (it was indoors for a start! Cheering in the snow is not warm!) and there was only 8 of us on the squad, which meant much tighter routines. Anyway, I did my coaches qualification and have been teaching ever since. People get confused when I talk about “my 16 kids” – but they are the little people that inspire me each week. I look forward to seeing them each week and love the feeling that comes when they hit that new stunt, or get that tricky new formation – amazing! It’s an exciting time for the squad as this year, we’ve split into two age-groups – Pee-Wees (age 5-8) and Juniors (9-13) I’m looking forward to creating some exciting new routines and stunts with them. It’s a great time to join in – so if you know of any budding cheerleaders – tell them to come along! Cheers! Isla x