The Spirit Fingers Routine In ‘Bring It On’ Has Haunted Me For 20 Years

Iconic cheerleading movie Bring It On was a cultural reset.

Aside from Center Stage and 10 Things I Hate About You, I can’t think of movie I watched or quoted from more as I was growing up as a teen in the noughties. The movie has just celebrated its 20 year anniversary and it’s still as good as ever. The dialogue is hilarious and the rivalry between the film’s San Diego’s Rancho Carne Toros and East Compton Clovers was one for the ages.

With Kirsten Dunst as the Toros’ bubbly team captain, Eliza Dushku as the rebellious new squad member and Gabrielle Union as the fierce Clovers captain, the film gifted countless iconic moments. My personal favourite was the Clovers exposing the Toros for plagiarising their routine at a football game, by reenacting their dance alongside their cheer enemies.

Absolute king shit.

But while most of this movie fills me with joy, there is one moment that I still find absolutely horrifying to this day: when eccentric cheerleading choreographer Sparky Polastri arrives to teach the disgraced Toros a bizarre new routine. A routine filled with “spirit fingers.”

The guy was creepy…

And scary too!

This choreographer was not OK to be kept around high school students! He was a raging maniac.

While Sparky was a dark character, it was the dance he taught the team that I’ve never been able to get out of my head, especially the performance’s introducing phrase: “Prepare for total domination.” What did this mean?! Was Sparky the leader of some cheer cult?!

The routine was backed by the kind of mind-numbing, repetitive music that I assume is played on loop to punish serial killers, and the dance itself was part mime, a lot of jazz hands (sorry, spirit fingers!) and all-round just deeply cursed.

The movements were sharp and stiff, like robots had overtaken their bodies.

I imagine this is what will greet me inside the gates of hell.

The worst part was Sparky’s insidious obsession with spirit fingers and ensuring all the cheerleaders kept their fingers enthusiastically twinkling at all times. I hate it. I simply HATE spirit fingers.

The final product was truly cursed and you just need to watch it from beginning to end and then take a long shower to cleanse your tainted soul:

Even though I know the Toros revised their routine and ended up placing second in the championships (behind the Clovers, of course), I still can’t let this completely cursed routine go.