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Cheer • The Cal State Long Beach Cheerleaders
filmed segments for a Japanese variety
show called “One
Night R&R.” Tracey Roman/Daily Forty-Niner
CSULB
cheer team gives Japan pep
By
Jane Park
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
The Cal State Long beach all-girls cheer team went to San Francisco Tuesday
to start filming for a Japanese late night variety show called “One night
R&R.”
The program will air on Fuji Television, a Japanese network
comparable to networks in the United States like FOX, said Katherine Covelone,
one of the cheer captains at CSULB.
The show will not air in America, but will promote CSULB as a California University
for its talents to an international audience. The team will actually be on
a music video segment of the variety show in which the singer is a character
from the show.
“He is a lip-syncing cheerleader that will travel around California’s
most famous landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Universal Studios,
Venice Beach and Rodeo Drive with the team,” said Chance Decker, the cheer
team’s adviser as well as the Beach Pride coordinator who worked to get
the team on the show.
“Involvement in the show is a wonderful fundraising opportunity for the
cheer team,” Decker said. The production company is making a donation to
the team, which will provide future travel expenses to competitions, new uniforms
and other equipment.
They are also providing expenditures for travel and stay in 10 to 15 of California’s
well-known destinations during filming.
Decker, a CSULB alumnus who has been advising the team for more than two years,
said the team landed this television spot through their talent agency in the
Los Angeles area. The agency was scouting college cheer teams to be on the
show.
“We sent in the team’s competition videos, and told them about our
trophies and accomplishments, so our team was chosen to be on the show,” Decker
said.
“
This opportunity is especially unique, because the cheer team can be themselves
to represent CSULB, instead of being extras in a background. The show is also
reaching to an international audience, which is pretty unique.”
Fourty-four girls on the cheer team tried out and 20 to 22 girls were chosen.
Only 13 were chosen to travel to San Francisco.
Covellone, a senior at CSULB, said, “We learned the material the day
we tried out about a month ago and we have been practicing ever since,” she
said.
“ The show producers judged us on freestyling, which was very different
for us. They were actually the ones that chose which girls they wanted for
the shoot.”
Gail Davis, a captain of the All-girl team, said, “The team will do eight
short dances that the choreographer sent from Japan created.
We will be doing
stunts such as tumbling and basket tosses. They are upbeat and fun dance moves,
that are different from what we are normally used to. |
