I'd say cheerleading. My friend and I used to do ballet to quite a high level but when I joined cheer it was all of a sudden harsh conditioning, bench pressing girls and learning how to do flips. It was definitely a bigger shock to the system.
I think it depends on where you do dance, cheerleading, gymnastics or baton. Not all programs or competitions are created equal. I noticed cheerleading, gymnastics, dance and baton have similar skills, but use them in different ways. For example, my daughter does cheerleading, gymnastics and ballet for her baton twirling and vice versa. So she could do a tour jete w/ baton skills added or a back handspring w/ a 20' toss or scorpions w/ baton work. Her coach says that is what you need if you want to make it to the advanced levels and win at good competitions. My daughter laughs when you ask her which one she is practicing for because the answer is usually all or most of them. I've seen some dance studios that make you wonder if a kindergartener made up the routines...may have done a better job. So cheerleaders are amazing gymnasts and dancers, while others do the minimum. I would say if you put in the effort to be a champion, they are all harder.
I'm also a dancer! To me it depends.
Cheer leading can be pretty hard when comes to completion just because your doing stunts, jumps, flips and all that jazz. But if your talking about like cheerleading for football then dance is totally more complicated! Hope I helped some? :):):)
Cheering is harder then dance, I did do dance but I quite because it was not challenging it did't push me to do better. I now do all-star cheering and it pushes me to do the best I can do and more. I have cheering every single day and it pushes me, not just in cheering but in school to i'm a strait A student because of cheering.
If you are judging it on with dance and high school cheering then you are completely wrong you can't say anything weather dance or cheering is harder in till you do all-star cheering and more then half of you people wouldn't even make the team. I'm 12 and on the CA cheetahs i'm the youngest person on my team, every one else is in high school and i'm in 7th grade. Cheering is my life and I would die with out it, and i've done dance to and it was not hard one bit. Cheering is the hardest sport there is and i've done just about every sport. I've done dance, football, soccer, swimming, field hockey, gymnastic, lacrosse, wrestling, soft ball and base ball, and I can strait out tell you cheering IS THE HARDEST SPORT THERE IS.
I used to dance and I now cheer. I have friends who are at extremely high levels of dance and yet I am stronger and have more intense conditioning. I only cheer for football and still have harder conditioning than football players themselves and for a longer duration. My tumbling skills however do not beat theirs. Launching another 100 lb. person 10'+ in the air definitely beats launching yourself less than 5. I think there is a lot more need to engage more upper body strength with the same amount of lower body strength in cheer than dance.
Cheerleading is kinda harder, because you have to be really strong and you can't be scared, because when they throw you up in the air, you have to trust them to catch your gain :) hope i helped!
