Tanya Doyle told David Hennessy about her documentary on the sport of cheerleading in Ireland.
When she embarked on her documentary Eat Sleep Cheer Repeat, Tanya Doyle thought she was going to spend a year making a documentary profile of the little known cheerleading scene in Ireland.
What it ended up being was a five year journey that followed Cheer Ireland all the way to the world championships in 2022 while the finished product also provided a snapshot of an alternative Irish youth culture and a coming of age tale.
The film, having had a cinema release in Ireland, comes to Irish Film Festival London this week.
Director Tanya Doyle, who did some of her documentary training at London’s Goldsmith’s College, told The Irish World: “We’re really excited to get to bring it to London.
“The idea of the film itself is a little bit unusual: The idea that there are cheerleaders in the west of Ireland.
“It is an American sport, and this group of people are doing it.
“People do travel from all over the country to go and they still do.
“It took us about five years to make this film.
“We started pre-COVID and we eventually got to the World Championships in 2022.”
What first gave you the idea?
“We were looking to produce a documentary about women in sport.
“A lot of girls leave sport between the ages of 14 and 16 where men continue to play sports during this period of their life.
“We were looking at the question of, ‘Why are women leaving sport?’
“Predominantly it’s because, as my mother would say, ‘They’re starting to smell themselves’. They’re getting into their appearance, they’re introduced to boys…
“So we thought, ‘Let’s see if there’s a sport that encompasses both, where you can be strong but you can explore makeup and your physical appearance and you can continue in a sport.
“That’s really where it came from.
“We went to a lot of different competitions.
“The first competition we went to was in Belfast.
“Picture this: The noise in the place is unbelievable.
“It’s in these massive sports halls, loads of kids screaming and shouting. Intense music with a serious beat in there and it’s just these two minute bursts of energy.
“It’s just really, really loud. It’s crazy. It’s great but crazy.
“I had no experience of this world at this point.
“We’re watching this competition.
“Then the girls and guys on the floor stop and one of them moves off to the edge and vomits all over the floor.
“We were like, ‘Okay, this is intense. There’s definitely something here’.
“She’s vomited but then she stands up and does the final pose, so she was determined regardless.
“We were like, ‘Okay, this is a lot’.
“Then at that same competition, we met Hilton.”
Hilton is the coach of Cheer Ireland who features in the film.
“Hilton was standing outside and he was with his girls getting them ready to go onto the floor and they had plaits in their hair.
“He was like, ‘We didn’t agree on plaits, lads’. Because if you get a smack of a plant in the face, that’s going to hurt somebody, so he was like, ‘We need to put them up in ponytails and back comb them’.
“He goes, ‘The higher your hair is, the closer you are to God’.
“The second I heard that I was like, ‘This lad is good craic’.
“We spent a lot of time together.
“The plan was to make a film over one year: ‘A year in the life’ kind of thing.
“But COVID had other plans for us, so it took us five years.
“There’s the Irish federation of Cheer Sport Ireland and then there’s the different teams but they were just genuinely so lovely to us because they just let us keep going for this whole period of time.
“I suppose COVID, for us, was a really, really good thing in so far as there was no more ‘one year in the life of’, we really got to know people and I think that is one of the lovely things you can see in the film.
“People talk about the profilmic performance where people don’t see the camera, but they didn’t.
“They just had totally forgotten about us.
“Initially they were a bit apprehensive in front of the camera.
“But by the time we started filming in the fifth year, they had totally forgot about it.
“Eleanor Bowman is the cinematographer.
“At one point myself and Eleanor were in training with them and literally underneath the pyramids and I just remember them saying, ‘Tanya, if you get a kick in the head, it’s your own fault’.
“They totally had moved on.
“They really just let us in.
“We were really lucky, privileged to be able to do that.”
You clearly needed to have their trust though. You say they forgot you were there but you had a responsibility to them as they are so young.
“There’s no question about that and there is stuff that did not make it into the film because it just wouldn’t have been right.
“There was one point- And I have never, ever done this before- Where I was talking to one of the characters and I think that they forgot.
“Of course they were aware (of the cameras) but I just don’t think they had an appreciation that they’re not just talking to me, they’re talking to everybody.
“They were sharing a story with me but I said, ‘You have to think about who you’re talking to here’.
“You just get a feeling and you’re like, ‘Listen, are you sure you want to tell me this story’?
“These women are physically at the prime of their life and they’re beautiful women but the world has changed since I was that age and I would not have been as confident as they were.
“Part of me was like, ‘It’s amazing and I really do applaud the confidence that you have in yourselves’.
“We’d be in the training and they’d walk into Tesco’s next door to get bottles of water in the middle of training, not even thinking about what they were wearing because they’re in this little bubble where that’s totally fine, then they walk outside and people are responding in a different way.
“I suppose my duty of care to them is to reflect the essence of what they’re saying. Give a true reflection of who they are and just think about them longer term.
“They’re at this moment in their life now but in 20 years’ time, where will they be?
“And I’m really, really conscious of this because I made a film about my family around 2009 so I know what it was like to be on screen.
“We’re 20 years later now since I shot that film and that stuff still comes up so I have personally experienced it.
“You have to be cognizant of the impact that it has on people.”
You spoke there about going to that competition in Belfast and seeing that girl vomit and then realise this was serious.
It struck me watching it when one girl puts an ice pack to her head and did someone also say that Taylor had lost a tooth?
Cheerleaders can get hurt..
“It’s a really dangerous sport.
“They train so hard but they constantly get bangs and bruises and knocks and kicks.
“Taylor didn’t actually lose a tooth, she still has that perfect smile but it is very, very physical and it is very dangerous.
“People throw balls, they throw people.
“They throw a fully formed person, a grown adult into the air and catch them so they need to be strong but trust is ultimately the most important thing.
“It is really, really dangerous but that’s why you have to train.”
There is that moment when Jayleesa’s mother Stacy speaks about being unable to watch her daughter perform because it scared her, she was getting thrown so high and so the potential for an accident or injury was also so high..
“It’s physically demanding.
“They do a lot of training, a lot of conditioning and there’s really high expectation on them that they have to be there, that they have to achieve.
“If you don’t attend all the sessions, you’re made a sub.
“That’s exactly what happened to Rickie. You have to be fully there. You have to be switched on because people do get hurt.
“You’re saying there about Jayleesa’s mum Stacy.
“Stacy is a really, really interesting person and very open, warm, giving person.
“The whole reason that cheer works, it’s the support from the families.
“You see all the mammies driving them everywhere and waiting outside.
“Taylor’s mother lived in Mayo and the training is in Galway so she’d drive, wait for the maybe four hours for the session and then drive back to Mayo again.
“She’s given up her day to do this.
“They’re baking cakes, they’re raising money. They’re really, really involved to kind of to help their daughters continue in sport and to achieve and to be successful.
“Their daughters are growing up and kind of going out into the world on their own and all they can do is support them.
“It’s a coming of age thing.
“They’re still children and they’ll always be children.
“We’ll all always be children in the eyes of our parents but they have to go into the world and do and make their own choices.”
I think one of the guys in the film talks about not finding his place in soccer, GAA, rugby and then he did in cheer.
I bet many of those featured have similar stories, cheer gave them a place to belong which is important..
“It 100% is.
“Now, we were really, really conscious of not putting cheer up beside GAA because it’s a very niche sport.
“But we had a couple of the cheerleaders who were playing for the county.
“But Shane and Rickie were talking about that they didn’t have a place in these sports because they didn’t feel that it was for them.
“When we started shooting, I was expecting it to be something like these cheer films that you see from America.
“You would see films like Bring it On and I thought it was going to be similar to that here but it isn’t.
“I could say, unequivocally, this space in the gym is a safe space.
“It’s an opportunity for people who were really, really talented at tumbling, at stunts, at performance, to come together and make something really spectacular.
“Hilton and Jamie, his husband, have created this space where people come and they always come back.
“It is niche, but it’s definitely a place where they feel that they belong.”
Dean speaks about his sexuality which is a great moment of him being so comfortable but it also being so accepted..
“That was an amazing moment for us.
“We did a test screening with all of the guys after that and Dean’s talking to Maeve.
“They’re just having the chat and nobody of their age reacted to the fact that he was giving us his coming out story.
“The reaction was the fact that he had a girlfriend (before coming out).
“It’s totally different.
“His peers did not care. They didn’t care but the fact that he had the girlfriend at the time was scandalous.
“He was trying to go, ‘No, no, no, no. Everything was fine. I didn’t cheat on anybody’.
“I think it’s just all about accepting.
“They’re supporting of each other.
“It’s lovely and they shared it with us.
“It’s just nice.
“We were expecting it to be bitchy, hard and harsh but it was not like that.”
The film obviously culminates in the world championships where the team does brilliantly with Rickie, who had been pushed to the periphery for missing a training session, returns to the action to play his part in the success..
“Could we have asked for anything better?
“It was a gift from the gods and the lovely Rickie, who is the nicest guy ever, was there. He was willing, he was able. It was just amazing.
“The world championships is just so intense.
“I’ve never experienced anything in my life like it.
“And, obviously, I wasn’t performing. It was so intense: The amount of cheerleaders, the amount of glitter and hairspray- I know an awful lot about fake tan now I didn’t know, it’s just insane.
“And it’s lovely when you see them all exchanging these little bands and little teddies and things, just making connections, making friends.
“They knew they weren’t going to win the World Championships.
“Obviously, they’re a small Irish team.
“They’re up against countries like Japan, the UK, Norway and America but they had their own goal. They were aiming for top 10.
“Myself and the sound recordist Colm were sitting watching them when they were performing, we thought they did amazingly well and then when we went outside, they were crying.
“And we were like, ‘Lads, what’s wrong?’
“They were convinced they didn’t get into the next round, but they did.
“At that moment, they had won.
“And Rickie had to go in as a sub, it was amazing.
“I was so delighted for him.
“He could have easily just given up and walked away but he was still there and he got on the floor.
“He was petrified but he did it.
“It was crazy that it unfolded like that.”
The coach Hilton is even seen crying in those dramatic moments. The emotions are so heightened..
“Hilton willed the guys to get to America because they sometimes just don’t believe how good they are, what they could do and he really would support and push them.
“This man is so dedicated to cheer.
“He’s very sassy and he’s very animated but he really, really wants the best for them. He really does.”
What were the wider reactions of everybody when they saw your film about them?
“They loved it.
“There was a lot of laughs and there was a lot of tears.
“There’s compassion around Jayleesa not getting to go (to the World Championships), she did eventually get to go when all the restrictions were lifted.
“But they did all feel for her but generally, they love it.
“They absolutely love it.
“I would very much be of the opinion that it’s their story, it’s not our story. They shared it with us so they have to be happy. And they loved it. They really did love it.
“And when we released it in cinemas here (Ireland), they got on the Late Late Show.
“A couple of them were on The Late Late Show being interviewed and speaking about cheer and what it means to them.
“It’s great that it increases the profile of cheer in Ireland as well.
“It’s all positive.”
That’s interesting because as depicted in the film there are a lot of people who don’t realise that Ireland has a cheerleading team but if the guys have made it on the Late Late, that is much less the case..
“It is a surprise to people that they cheer in Ireland but I think the real thing that stands out for me, from the responses we got, was just that they’re nice people.
“There’s a perception of people of that age and who they are and what they’re about.
“What people are feeding back to me is it’s something really positive about people at that age.
“It’s a feel good film.
“It’s not necessarily the most hard hitting film ever but it makes you remember about your time when you were that age and also just these people are the future.
“That’s what it feels like.”
Eat Sleep Cheer Repeat screens 1.30pm Saturday 16 November at VUE Piccadilly as part of Irish Film Festival London (13- 17 November).
For more information, go to iftuk.com.
For more information about Cheer Sport Ireland, go to cheerleadingireland.com.
