Why do Cheerleaders counts 5,6,7,8 and not 1,2,3

Question

Why do Cheerleaders counts 5,6,7,8 and not 1,2,3

In: 871

Answer 1

I took a tap dance class many years ago (in 1999!) and the teacher, Acia Gray, said that while music is most commonly written in groups (called “measures”) of 4 beats, choreography usually works in 8-beat groups. So the count-off needs to end on 8, so that the next beat (and thus your first step) is on 1. But counting off 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 would take too long, so you just count off 5 6 7 8.