Pom Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A dance genre built on sharp, precise arm motions and tight formations performed with pom-poms, run as a team item in Australian troupe events and as a category in American dance competitions.

Pom is a dance genre in which the dancers hold pom-poms and build the routine around sharp, precisely placed arm motions. Typical movement includes straight-armed positions held at fixed angles, such as a high V, a low V, a T or a diagonal, snapped from one position to the next on the beat, combined with kicks, jumps, leaps and turns. The pom-poms exaggerate every arm line, so any dancer who is late, bent or half a count out is visible at once. That is why the genre is judged so heavily on unison, and why a clean routine looks like one body moving rather than several dancers doing the same steps.

In the troupe edition this page is written from, Pom is one of thirteen named genres in a one-day troupes event in Western Australia. A troupe is five or more dancers, placed in an age category by the average age of the performers rounded to the nearest whole year, rising in two-year steps from 6 and under, with an Open Age category and separate Novice Junior, Intermediate and Senior sections. A routine runs for up to five minutes; time spent entering or leaving the stage under ten seconds is not judged, and a routine that runs over time receives a spoken critique only, with no score or placing.

The other four events in eTalenter’s data that carry the title are American studio and school dance competitions, where Pom sits in a list of performance categories alongside Jazz, Hip Hop, Lyrical, Contemporary, Tap and others. They run it from solos through duets, small and large groups to full lines, so one dancer or thirty can enter, with time limits that grow with the size of the group (in the events that print them, a solo runs two and a half to two minutes forty-five seconds and a line four to four and a half minutes). A routine is placed in the category that best describes it, which means a team choosing Pom is telling the panel to expect pom work rather than a jazz or hip hop routine that happens to use props.

None of the five editions prints the marking criteria for this item. The Australian troupe pack says marking follows the organiser’s own criteria without listing them, and the American rules print the score total (out of 100 in three of the events and out of 300 in two) but not a breakdown by genre. The advice on this page is therefore general guidance on what dance panels usually weigh in pom, not an organiser’s rule.

Where Pom comes from

Pom grew out of American cheerleading and drill-team traditions, where pom-poms were used to make arm movements easier to see from the stands. As school and studio dance teams began to compete on their own, the pom routine developed into a dance genre of its own, built on the same crisp motions but staged with choreography, formations and music instead of crowd cheers.

Where Pom is run

In eTalenter’s data the title Pom is carried by five dance competitions: a Western Australian troupes-only event, where it is one of thirteen genres, and four United States studio and school competitions, where it is one performance category among twelve to twenty-two. Pom is also run in school and college dance-team contests in the United States, but this page describes the item only as these five events run it and does not claim use anywhere else.

• Australia
• United States

Key facts

• Team in the Australian troupe edition: five or more dancers, boys and girls together, placed by the average age of the group (6 and under, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and Open Age, plus Novice Junior, Intermediate and Senior). The American editions also accept solos, duets and trios, small and large groups and lines.
• Routine length: up to 5 minutes for a troupe in the Australian edition; in the American events that print limits, solos run 2:30 to 2:45 and lines 4:00 to 4:30, and one event allows team routines up to 5 minutes.
• An over-time troupe routine in the Australian edition receives a spoken critique but no score or placing, and entrances and exits under ten seconds are not judged.
• Scored out of 100 in three of the five events and out of 300 in the other two; none prints criteria for the genre, so the template carries a total that the adjudicators fill in.
• Pom is a separate genre from Jazz, Hip Hop and Contemporary even though routines borrow kicks, leaps and turns from them; entering as Pom signals that the pom-poms and the sharp arm work are the point of the routine.
• Ideas, not rules: a routine built on a single repeated motion motif, one change of formation per eight-count phrase, a short unison freeze before the final pose, or a cascade where arm hits travel along a line one dancer at a time.

On eTalenter, Pom is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 5 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Pom is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 300, commonly time-limited to 2–8 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Pom

What a Pom panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Precision of the arm motions: every position reached on the beat, at the same angle, with straight elbows and a flat, steady line. A high V that is slightly bent or arrives half a count late is the single most visible fault in the genre.
• Unison across the group: matching timing, height and angle for every dancer, including the pom-poms themselves. Panels watch the ends of the line and the youngest or newest dancer, because that is where unison breaks first.
• Pom handling: clean grip, pom-poms held so they stay full and visible, no drops, no tangling and no dancer hiding the pom behind a body part. Handling the pom-poms is part of the technique, not a costume extra.
• Dance technique between the hits: kicks with straight, pointed legs, jumps with height and landing control, turns that finish on a spot. Strong pom teams show real dance skill as well as arm sharpness.
• Formations and transitions: clear shapes, even spacing and quick, quiet changes between formations. Slow reorganising or dancers visibly looking for their marks costs more than a slightly less ambitious pattern done cleanly.
• Energy and performance: sharp, confident faces and a routine that builds to a strong finish rather than flattening out after the first minute. Choreography is also weighed, so use variety of level and direction instead of one repeated motif.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Pom under Scoring Setup, or start from the full group dance judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Pom

How entrants and their teachers usually get Pom right on the day:

• Drill the basic positions first. Start every rehearsal with five minutes of arm positions on a count, with the group in a mirror or filmed from the front, so the whole team learns the same angle for a high V, low V and T.
• Cut the music to the time limit with a margin. For a five-minute troupe limit aim for about four and a half minutes, and in the American events rehearse to the printed limit for the group size so a slow entrance cannot take the routine over time.
• Choose choreography to the weakest dancer’s range and then raise it. A pom routine only looks sharp when every dancer can hit every position; a simpler routine done together beats an ambitious one done unevenly.
• Build a six-week plan. Weeks one and two: music, motion vocabulary and the basic formations; weeks three and four: add kicks, jumps and turns and clean the transitions between formations; week five: costume, faces and pom-pom handling; week six: two full run-throughs on a stage-sized floor with a stopwatch.
• Film the routine from the front and watch with the sound off. Mark each moment where a dancer is early, late or bending an elbow, and fix those few counts one at a time instead of running the whole routine again.
• Prepare for the day: spare copies of the music, a spare pair of pom-poms for every dancer, hair and costume that stay secure through kicks and jumps, and a warm-up the group can do together in the wings.

Frequently asked questions

Is Pom judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What is the difference between Pom and Jazz?

Pom is built around sharp arm positions held on the beat with pom-poms and tight formations; Jazz is built on stylised body isolations, leaps and turns and has no required prop. The events in eTalenter’s data list them as separate genres, so a team chooses one for each routine.

How long can a Pom routine be?

In the Australian troupe edition, up to five minutes, with entrances and exits under ten seconds not judged and an over-time routine receiving a spoken critique only. The American events that print limits allow roughly two and a half minutes for solos and four to four and a half minutes for lines, and one event allows team routines up to five minutes.

What are the marking criteria for Pom?

None of the five events prints genre-specific criteria. The Australian troupe pack says marking follows the organiser’s own criteria without listing them, and the American rules print a total score (out of 100 or out of 300) rather than a breakdown. The advice on this page is general guidance on what dance panels usually weigh.

Is Pom a solo or a group item?

Both, depending on the event. The Australian troupe edition runs it as a team item for five or more dancers; the American events also accept solos, duets, trios and small and large groups. Always check which sizes your event offers before entering.

Do I need real pom-poms?

The sources here do not print a rule on props for this genre, so the safe reading is that pom-poms are expected. Check your event’s own prop and music rules before the day.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full group dance judging criteria guide, or browse every dance competition item.