In 2000 after winning both the NCA and UCA Partner Stunt National Championship, I remember seeing Cirque du Soleil for the first time. As I watched Olga Pikhienko perform in Quidam on DVD, I remember thinking so much of this is similar to the Stunts that are performed in Cheerleading. 

In 2015, Instagram had really started to become popular. I was starting to see more Acrobatics Gymnastics or "Acro Sport" if you are from outside the USA.  I had been training the same "Cheer Style" stunts for the past 15 years and I wanted to learn something new.  I initially started @cheeracro_ on Instagram as a place where I could archive all of the cool skills I wanted to learn. As the page grew in popularity, I began sharing innovative skills that I would find or people would send me with the most talented athletes. My goal was to cross pollinate and have Cheerleaders trying Acrobatics skills and Acrobats trying Cheer skills. 

In 2016, the Head Cheerleading Coach from the University of Kentucky (UK) reached out to the @cheeracro_ page and that was when my goal materialized. UK wanted to hire an Acrobatics Gymnastics Couple to come and train their cheerleaders in Acrobatics to improve their hand balancing skills. I reached out to my friends, USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame members Kiley Boynton & Ryan Ward, and setup the clinic. 

That year University of Kentucky incorporated so many acrobatic skills in their routine.  As soon as this took place, everyone else wanted to learn these skills.

Now almost every level of cheerleading involves handstands or "inversions", and Cirque du Soleil has hired a group of Cheer stunt pairs to perform in one of their cruise line shows.

As the community has grown, the difficulty and creativity of skills has only increased. Cheerleaders and Acrobats now train together often and we have created a community where there is common ground and mutual respect for the many different techniques.