A dance style category at a competition powwow, open to girls, boys, women and men in three age bands and scored individually against the other dancers in the same class.
Fancy is one of the dance styles in a competition powwow, where every contest category is a style, a gender and an age band. On the template behind this page it is the broadest of the styles: it is offered to both female and male dancers in each of three age bands, Junior (7 to 12), Teen (13 to 17) and Adult (18 to 39). That gives six separate classes, and in each of them every entrant is an individual with a single registrar-issued number.
The template is built from the published dance categories and rules of one competition powwow in the United States. In that source the Fancy classes sit beside other styles that differ by gender and age: the girls’ and women’s lists include Jingle and Traditional styles, while the boys’ and men’s lists include Grass, Traditional and Chicken. From the senior divisions upward the styles merge into shared classes, so older dancers are placed in separate merged items rather than in this one. An organiser should therefore read Fancy here as the younger and adult classes only.
Placings come from a point system, not from one judged round. The rules the template follows describe points accumulated across sessions from the Friday grand entry, with each contestant’s registrar-issued number recorded at every grand entry. Dancers register ahead of the event, enter one category only, cannot switch afterwards and dance in full regalia. The contest committee selects judges together with the arena director and head judges, and may combine any category that draws fewer than five dancers.
For an organiser using eTalenter the work is mostly bookkeeping done well: keep the six classes apart, issue numbers at registration, log who was present at each grand entry, and total points per dancer across the weekend. This page explains how the category is organised. It does not describe the dance itself or the regalia, which belong to the communities that practise them.
Where Fancy is run
On eTalenter this item appears in one template, the competition powwow template, where it is assigned to female and male dancers in the Junior, Teen and Adult age bands. Competition powwows are held across the United States and Canada, usually over a weekend, and a Fancy category is among the most common on their schedules. Each powwow publishes its own age bands, merges and rules, so check the organiser’s notice before assuming another powwow splits the classes the same way.
- United States (the competition powwow the template is built from)
- Canada and other competition powwows across North America, each with its own published rules
Key facts
- An Individual item: each dancer is one contestant with one registrar-issued number
- Six template classes: female and male in each of Junior (7 to 12), Teen (13 to 17) and Adult (18 to 39)
- Older dancers enter merged classes, which are separate items on the template
- Points accumulate across sessions from the Friday grand entry; there is no single judged round
- One category per dancer, no switching after registration, full regalia required, and a class with fewer than five dancers may be combined
- The template scores out of 100 marks as a working scale and sets no time limit; the source prints neither
On eTalenter, Fancy is filed under On Stage and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Fancy is most often entered as an Individual competition, commonly run for Male, typically scored out of 100.
What judges look at in Fancy
What a Fancy panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- The published rules name no scoring sheet for Fancy, so committees agree their own yardsticks before the first session; the points below are organiser guidance, not rules from the source
- Footwork that answers the drum: whether the dancer keeps to the beat through the song’s changes of pace and finishes exactly on the last beat instead of a step early or late
- Energy held to the end: because points are added up over several sessions, a dancer who dances the last session as strongly as the first usually out-scores one who starts hard and fades
- Variety and control: a class of Fancy dancers is judged against each other, so clean, deliberate changes of movement tend to separate close contestants from those who simply move fast
- Safe use of the arena: staying inside the dancing area and avoiding contact with others, which matters when many dancers share the floor at once
- Regalia kept in order through the whole song, so that nothing slips or comes loose and the judges can watch the dancing rather than the outfit
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Fancy under Scoring Setup, or start from judge scoring and tabulation software.
How to prepare for Fancy
How entrants and their teachers usually get Fancy right on the day:
- Confirm the correct one of the six classes before registering, because the rules allow one category only and no switching afterwards
- Register through the online form before it closes; onsite registration closes at a fixed time on Saturday, so a late arrival may not be able to start the points race at all
- Rehearse to live or recorded drum songs with unexpected endings, so stopping on the final beat becomes automatic even on an unfamiliar song
- Train for a weekend, not a three-minute song: practise full-length sessions back to back, and plan water, food and rest between grand entries
- Check every part of the regalia a week early, fasten what could loosen, and pack a small repair kit so a fault never costs a grand entry
- Make sure the registrar records the number at each grand entry; the committee totals points from those records, so a missed entry is a lost score
- Younger dancers can practise with a parent or older relative who has entered before; teens and adults can watch an earlier session to see how the arena fills before their own class is called
Ready-made event templates that include Fancy
Open any template to preview it in eTalenter and install it as a live, editable event.
| Template | Category | Score label | Competitions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Powwow Dance & Drum Competition (Denver March Powwow) | On Stage | Marks | 6 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Fancy judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, commonly for Male, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
Which dancers can enter Fancy on this template?
Female and male dancers in three age bands: Junior (7 to 12), Teen (13 to 17) and Adult (18 to 39). Older dancers are placed in merged classes that are separate items on the template.
Is Fancy judged individually or in a team?
Individually. Each dancer holds one registrar-issued number and earns points of their own, even though many contestants dance in the arena together.
Is there a time limit for Fancy?
The source behind the template prints no time limit, so the template sets none and uses a working scale of 100 marks. An organiser who needs a limit should set it in their own event and publish it with the rules.
Can a dancer enter Fancy and another style in the same powwow?
No. The rules the template follows allow one category only and do not let a dancer switch once registered.
How are points added up?
The source describes a point system accumulated across sessions, starting with the Friday grand entry, with the contestant’s number recorded at each grand entry. The number of judges per category is not stated, so the template does not set one.
Want the full judging picture? Read judge scoring and tabulation software, or browse every on stage competition item.
Try Fancy in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Fancy, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.