Children’s Folklore Recent Titles in Greenwood Folklore Handbooks Myth: a handbook

CHEERS
Gigalo
All: Gig ah lo-o, gig gig a lo-o
Gig ah lo-o, gig gig a lo-o
Group: Hey, Kayla
Kayla: What?
Group: Are you ready to gig?
Kayla: Gig what?
Group: Gigalo
Kayla: My hands up high
My feet down low
And this is the way
I gig a lo [fancy steps or hip-shaking dance]
Group: Her hands up high
Her feet down low
And this is the way she gigalos
[repeat from the beginning with the next soloist, and continue until everyone in 
the group has a turn as soloist]

---

Examples and Texts 67
Azizi Powell, creator of the Cocojams.com Web site, collected this cheer 
from her daughter, who performed the cheer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 
mid-1980s. Later, while visiting her daughter and her daughter’s students after 
the turn of the twenty-first century, Powell observed performances of “Gigalo” 
with the same words as the text she had collected in the 1980s.
Like other cheers, this one gives children practice in singing and dancing, 
both on their own and as members of a group. “Gigalo” has an appealing text 
and rhythmic sequence. Gaunt’s 
Th
e
Games Black Girls Play
analyzes variants of 
this cheer (80–85).
Jump in the Car
Jump in the car (clap, clap), step on the gas (clap, clap),
Step back and let (name) pass.
She’s got that oo-aah,
Look at that bootie,
Ain’t she fine,
If you want it, you’ve got to pay up on it.
[Children take turns]
Irene Chagall observed one six-year-old and two seven-year-old African 
American girls playing on their school playground in Marin City, California, 
in January 2007. After she saw the three girls performing “Jump in the Car” on 
the playground, she asked them to do it again; they performed the cheer for her 
without the “bootie” line. During their music class, when the girls recited the 
cheer again, a male classmate shouted, “Look at that bootie!” (e-mail communi-
cation, March 4, 2007).
Chagall comments, “This is not exactly what one wants to have happen dur-
ing music class, but it sure is a mark of children’s folklore.” Performances vary 
according to context. When adults watch and listen, the words may be different 
from words used when the children are on their own. Male/female interaction 
also influences performance.