ONE-ON-ONE with Ray Jasper!

As We Look Ahead to The Cheer Worlds 2026, Let’s Reflect Back And Celebrate The Cheer Worlds 2025 With Ray Jasper!

BY: ASHLEE BUHLER

Long before Ray Jasper became one of the most influential cheer choreographers, he was a high school band student at Serra High School who had no interest in pyramids and pom poms. But everything changed when a Serra High School cheerleader handed him a VHS tape featuring performances from two of the West Coast’s top high school teams — Mater Dei and Los Alamitos. What started as a curious glance at competitive cheer turned into a leap of faith, launching a decades-long journey that has helped shape the evolution of the sport itself. Renowned for his innovative choreography, sharp creative vision, and commitment to pushing the cheer industry forward, Jasper has built a legacy that spans nearly every corner of the sport. He spent seven years as an instructor with NCA, played a foundational role in San Diego’s first All Star team — the San Diego Rebels — and later launched his own program, Champion Outlaws, which ran from 1992 until its 2010 merger with West Coast Mavericks and CheerForce Simi Valley to form what is now CheerForce. In 2000, he brought his talents to the big screen as the lead choreographer for the hit movie Bring It On and has spent the last 16 years traveling the globe with his company, Action Spirit, choreographing winning routines for some of the most elite cheer programs in the world. Now, with decades of experience, countless titles, and a reputation as one of the most respected creative minds in cheer, Jasper continues to leave his mark on the sport — one routine at a time.

What do you remember from your very first experience with choreography?

When I joined the team at Serra High School, we went to NCA in Dallas. I was so obsessed when I got there. I sat and watched every single cheerleading team in that arena because I loved it so much. I think going to Dallas was a turning point for me because that’s what fueled the fire that brought me to where I am today. It just gave me life. When I got home, I said, “I want to choreograph our dance. I think our dance could be better.” They all laughed at me. I remember the girls saying, “You just started cheerleading. Who do you think you are?” I went home, put on “Push It” by Salt-N- Pepa and choreographed a routine — back when dances were about six or eight counts long. Then I came in and said, “I have the dance,” and my coach said, “Show us what you learned,” not really thinking I was serious. I did it, and she said, “Wait, this is actually better than what we’re doing. Ok, we’ll do it.” That was my first experience choreographing!

You worked as a choreographer for the fan-favorite movie Bring It On. How did that opportunity come about?

I was at UCA Nationals with Champion Outlaws and a lady came up to me and just randomly said, “Hey, are you the coach? Do you know who choreographed your routine?” I said, “Well, I did.” She goes, “My name is Jessica Bendinger. I’m a writer.” I had no idea where this was going. She goes, “So I just wrote a script for a movie, and it’s called Cheer Fever (later changed to Bring It On). We’re about to start production, and I’m really interested in having you come to Universal Pictures and try to audition for the choreographer.” I remember going, ‘Yeah, ok, whatever,’ not thinking it was serious. I was in cheer mode. I said, ‘I don’t want to think about this. I need to think about my team and focus on that.’ Then we got home, and one of our team moms, Bev Cassidy — who was a huge influence on pushing me to do things outside my comfort zone, because I would turn down opportunities just out of fear of failure — she sat there and said, “No, you’re not going to let this slide. I’m going to make sure you follow through with this.” She pushed me to go, and I sat down in front of all these producers and directors and they asked me so many questions and asked me to provide a reel. There were four other choreographers auditioning for it as well. I didn’t think I got the part. And literally two days after that, Jessica called me and she said, “You have the job.” I sat there and I went, “What? I’m going to help choreograph a movie?” She goes, “You’re not JUST HELPING. You are going to choreograph the movie.”

Tell us about the choreographic process and what it was like translating cheerleading from the mat to the big screen?

It was the actors — they call them the talent — and then real cheerleaders, which I had to cast. I called my friends and said, “You’re going to be in a movie and you’re going to get paid for it. Show up.” Even people that had nothing to do with cheer are the spotters in the movie. I trained with the Toros for about five weeks. We were there from 6 a.m. until whenever the director said we were done. I remember Kirsten Dunst came in and she was kicking her legs up with flexed feet. I went up to her and I said, “With due respect, I know you cheered… but we always point our toes. So point your toes when you do this kick.” She started laughing. She goes, “You’re right about that.” It was a fun experience to work with talent. Most of the cast figured it out pretty fast. Right after that, we started training Clovers. That’s when I worked with Gabrielle Union and the singing group Blaque. That was quite an experience because I knew who Gabrielle and Kirsten were. It’s hard to not be starstruck and still try to be professional, but we made it through. I’m actually still friends with them! Every now and then I’ll get a message, which is cool.

You were on camera as well, right?

Yes! I ended up on both teams. On the day we filmed Toros one of the boys just didn’t show up. We were calling him and the director, Peyton Reed said, “Where is he? We need to start filming.” Then he said, “Listen, you’re the one who choreographed this routine. You look like you’re fit. You’re going to do it. Go get sized for a uniform.” I said, “Are you kidding me right now?” He said, “No, I’m not. We’re losing the lighting. You have to go and get a uniform on.” So I went and got my uniform, and learned the parts really quick — because it’s different when you choreograph and then you’re actually in it. This male athlete was throwing tossed cupies in the routine. I could still tumble at the time, and I ended up tumbling in the routine too. Then the following day, another one of the boys got really sick. He could not keep anything down, so I ended up having to be on Clovers as well. The director looked at me and he said, “You know what to do!” So I did the same thing. I learned the Clovers routine. I look back at it, and it was probably one of the most amazing experiences.

After coaching for over two decades, what led you to focus exclusively on choreography?

During that time, I was not only coaching high school, but I was also doing All Star. Next thing you know, All Star blew up! At that time, having six or seven teams, it was a lot to do. I was being pulled in a lot of directions and I noticed that I was starting to resent my job. I told myself, ‘I’ve got to pull back. I’ve got to do something.’ I stopped coaching my high school team, and I focused just on coaching All Star. I would also travel when I could to choreograph. I started choreographing more, and people were asking me to come out and work with more teams, and I noticed that I was not present for my own teams. You could see that as much as my other coaches tried to keep the ball rolling, we just weren’t what we were before. You could tell my absence was showing. It got to the point where I had to think about myself at that time, and I said, ‘I love choreographing, and I love working with kids, but I don’t love the business side of it.’ So coaching was the next thing to go. I already had a huge network at that time for me to be able to live off of what I was doing just from choreography. I just mapped it all out and I said, ‘OK, I can make a humble living by doing this.’ As I started choreographing more, I started getting international jobs, working overseas, and it just blew up!

Speaking of working overseas, you worked with two Australian teams that won Cheer Worlds this year! Can you tell us a little about them?

Evolution of Dance (EOD) — Pink Panthers is one of them. They’re an all-girl team and they do really well in Australia. I’ve been with them for over 10 years. It’s taken quite some time to get to this level because Australia, just recently, was still in the infant stages. Now the sport has obviously become really big in Australia. They have the minis and younger generations coming in, but it started off with a lot of older people and a high turnover in athletes. It took a long time. These kids are now homegrown. EOD was one of those programs that I’ve been able to see the evolution and how they became this small gym to who they are now. They’re one of the first Australian teams to bring back a gold! The other team, Pure Allstars, which is on the other side of the country in Melbourne, is a co-ed team. April Jenkins is the new owner of Pure, which has been around for a while, but she was very ambitious. When she got the job, she said, ”I want to take my team to Cheer Worlds.” And she just bought the gym and I said, “OK, so where’s your team?” She goes, “I am putting together a team. By the time you get here, we’ll have one.” When I arrived, she had most of the stunting ideas down, and I just tweaked it. I spent about a week with them. They blew my mind when I saw them at Cheer Worlds because they learned the routine at the end of February. I just remember watching them and just being so proud. I thought, ‘Why are the tears coming out of my eyes? I’m not a sappy person.’ Tears are coming to me because I know these kids worked so hard. It was a lot of love, a lot of time behind closed doors, going over videos, researching, figuring things out. I’m just glad that they were recognized. They’re the first two teams in Australia to actually go to Cheer Worlds and bring home gold! So I’m really proud of them.

You choreographed for 16 Cheer Worlds teams this year — 10 of which won gold. Can you share a special moment from one of these victories?

The California All Stars – Black Ops has always been the underdogs going against Top Gun Revelation. We always fell short and were always getting beat. A lot of people don’t know this, but Black Ops only had four returners. That’s a brand-new team going against a Goliath team like Top Gun Revs. The whole year was a learning experience for the kids. It was learning to lose gracefully. It was a lot of disappointments, but also learning how to cope with those disappointments and then go to practice and try to make it right and figure it out. Right before we went to Cheer Worlds, coach Mike DeVos had an accident. Mike is an integral part of California Black Ops. He was in a huge accident where they put him in a coma because he had swelling of the brain. He was in a coma and was not able to travel to Cheer Worlds with his team. It was a little nerve-wracking going into it, knowing that their dad, basically, was not going to be there to support them because he’s fighting for his life in the hospital. And then there’s Neda Emamjomeh, who’s pregnant and has a little baby bump and is trying to handle the stress. It was a group effort between Tannaz Kirichkow and all the coaches at The California All Stars really surrounding her and giving her the love and support, myself included. I have to put a shoutout to Ben Lear and Wes Haley because they’re a part of the chemistry of what made Black Ops who they were. Thankfully, we won! I just could not believe that we actually did it. Every time we went against Revs, we just couldn’t beat them. Then going through all those issues and coming out on top was so profound. I will never forget that moment. Just seeing the love and the support and the community come together — that’s what cheerleading is about. I feel like sometimes we lose that. We forget it’s about the kids. We’re worried about the wins. All these things are just white noise, in my opinion, because I’ve been in this business forever. I’ve seen people come and go. One minute you’re hot, the next minute you’re not. I never take things for granted. It’s amazing how resilient the kids were. There was so much pressure on them. They already knew they were going in as underdogs. I could say that probably half of them thought, ‘We’re going to get second again.’ But they went in and just gave it all they could. You see it in their faces. Just thinking about it right now gives me chills. That is probably the most profound thing that happened to me at Cheer Worlds — that team winning.

As a choreographer who has worked with so many successful teams, do you ever feel any pressure to deliver?

Absolutely. I always get really nauseated before I walk in the gym. Teams like ECE Bombshells — I’ve worked with those kids when they were juniors on J-WOW. I’ve worked with them for years and years, and I’m always, always sick to my stomach. It’s because I want to be able to set them up to be successful. Of course, I feel responsible. I’m part of their journey. I want to make sure that I get it right. I always get nervous. It doesn’t matter… they could be a brand new team and I’d still put the same pressure on myself.

When it comes to choreographing a routine, where do you draw inspiration from?

I draw my inspiration from the chemistry of the team, and that is 100% fact. If the team is in there and they’re excited and they say “Yeah, we want to do that!” That pumps me up. It eases me and it makes me feel like, ‘Ok, we’re going to do this together. We got this.’ I feed off the energy of the kids. Obviously, I also watch a lot of acro. I watch a lot of gymnastics and dance. I always said I should have been a dancer because I went to Dance Worlds and I didn’t want to leave. In dance, you have two minutes to showcase so much choreography. However, in All Star cheer, we only have a few eight counts of actual “dance” to show off. So we are pushing to include as much as possible in a short amount of time. But first and foremost, I draw inspiration from the kids. Then after that, I go in with a game plan, depending on what team it is, because every team is not created equal.

What’s your message to athletes who are interested in pursuing a career in cheer?!

I’m always thankful that I’m able to do what I love. I always try to tell kids, “Do what you love and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.” I had a lot of people tell me, “No, that’s not the right direction to go in. You’ll never make anything of yourself.” I would tell kids just to follow their dreams. The truth is there are multiple career paths that one can take in this industry. Stay true to yourself, always be professional, and understand that relationships are key to a long career. I’ve had an amazing journey and would love to encourage others to follow their dreams!