In an effort to visualize her own battles with anxiety, Taylor Moon Castagnari looked towards her eight years of experience as a cheerleader. She observed an obsession with balance and equilibrium both in American cheerleading and self-help psychology books and sought to reflect it representationally in her art. Cheerleading places much emphasis on technical dexterity while psychology prioritizes life balance and emotional equilibrium.  She further analyzes the feminization of mental health care and the sport of cheerleading. “The Balancing Act” exhibition explores visual correlations between cheerleading and  psychology, including the way in which nerve fiber tracking resembles the colors and shapes of pom-poms. She also investigated how the sport’s dance formations visually corresponded to psychology models, such as the Enneagram.

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She considered cheerleading stunting and the ways in which three supporting athletes (bases) lift their teammate (flier) into the air. In order to provide a stable platform for the flier, the bases counterbalance one another within the group. One base may have to lift extra weight to compensate for the weaker/struggling base, step in to save a falling stunt, or adjust their height through squatting to evenly match the height of the stunt partner. Likewise, different areas of the brain can overcompensate in chemical output or seek to do another lobe’s function when another part of the brain experiences trauma. 

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She also found a metaphoric relationship in the way human personalities and a cheerleader’s technique both shift when under pressure versus a relaxed state. Consistently in cheerleading, the pressures of performing a difficult skill will lead the athlete to execute the skill, either with healthy and proper technique or in a rushed and hazardous way. She was also intrigued by the concept of cognitive flexibility, which relates to a person’s ability to emotionally adapt. This segued directly into the physical flexibility required of cheerleaders. Likewise, cognitive flexibility pertains to fluidly shifting between thoughts and ideas, rather than feeling stuck in a frame of mind.

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The metaphoric parallels between cheerleading and psychology seemed to compound the more Taylor Moon Castagnari began to research. A clear parallel is seen in the concepts of neuroplasticity and practiced tumbling (gymnastics) sequences. As a thought routinely travels from A to B to C, it will more easily make the jump from A to C over time. Additionally, cheerleaders are able to connect several tumbling moves more fluidly after repeatedly piecing them together.