A girls’ and women’s dance style category at a competition powwow, entered by age band and judged individually against the other dancers in the same class.
At a competition powwow, every contest category is a dance style, a gender and an age band. Jingle is one of the dance styles, and on the template behind this page it is offered to female dancers in three age bands: Junior (7 to 12), Teen (13 to 17) and Adult (18 to 39). Each entrant is an individual with a single registrar-issued number, so a Jingle class is a set of separate contestants dancing in the arena at the same time rather than a team.
The template follows the published dance categories and rules of one competition powwow in the United States. In that source the list of styles changes as age rises: the youngest girls and women have Jingle alongside Fancy and Traditional styles, while the senior and golden-age divisions merge several styles into shared classes. That is why Jingle appears here as three separate assignments rather than one class running across every age. A separate item, Fancy Shawl/Jingle, covers the merged older women’s class.
Placings are decided by points, not by a single judged round. The rules the template is built from describe a point system accumulated across sessions beginning with the Friday grand entry, with the contestant’s registrar-issued number recorded at each grand entry. The contest committee chooses the judges together with the arena director and head judges. Dancers register in advance, enter one category only, cannot switch after registering, and dance in full regalia. The committee may combine a category that draws fewer than five dancers.
Organisers run the style as its own category because a powwow audience, and the dancers themselves, think of the contest in terms of style first. For an organiser using eTalenter the practical work is to keep the three age bands separate, issue numbers at registration, record the grand-entry attendance, and total points per dancer across sessions. This page describes how the contest is organised; it does not describe the dance or the regalia, which belong to the communities that practise them.
Where Jingle comes from
The jingle dress tradition is generally traced to Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) communities in the Great Lakes region in the early twentieth century, where it is associated with healing. Powwow contests later adopted it as a competition style, but it remains a living ceremonial tradition first, so organisers should treat the category with respect and let the community’s own dancers and elders guide how it is introduced and announced.
Where Jingle is run
On eTalenter this item appears in one template, the competition powwow template, where it is offered to female 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 Jingle category is common among them; each powwow publishes its own age bands, merges and rules, so check the organiser’s notice before assuming another powwow splits its women’s and girls’ 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
- Offered to female dancers in three template age bands: Junior (7 to 12), Teen (13 to 17) and Adult (18 to 39)
- Older women dance a merged class (Fancy Shawl/Jingle), which is a separate item on the template
- Placings come from points accumulated across sessions from the Friday grand entry, not from one 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, Jingle 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, Jingle is most often entered as an Individual competition, commonly run for Female, typically scored out of 100.
What judges look at in Jingle
What a Jingle panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- The published rules name no scoring sheet for this category, so committees agree their own yardsticks before the first session; the points below are organiser guidance, not rules from the source
- Timing with the drum: whether the dancer’s footwork stays on the beat and answers the song’s changes, including the stop at the end, rather than drifting ahead or behind
- Stamina and consistency across the whole song and the whole weekend: because points accumulate across sessions, a dancer who keeps the same quality in the last session as in the first collects more than one who fades
- Command of the arena: using space well, staying within the dancing area and avoiding collisions with other contestants, which matters because many dancers are in the arena together
- Regalia worn properly and safely: the rules ask for full regalia, and an outfit that stays in place and sounds even rather than clattering loosely lets the judges focus on the dancing
- Presence and respect: dignity in how the dancer enters, dances and leaves, which separates close contestants within an age band
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Jingle under Scoring Setup, or start from judge scoring and tabulation software.
How to prepare for Jingle
How entrants and their teachers usually get Jingle right on the day:
- Register on time through the online form, because registration closes ahead of the event and onsite registration closes at a fixed time on Saturday; a late entry cannot join a points race
- Choose the age band and category carefully at registration, since the rules do not allow switching afterwards and a dancer sits in one class only
- Practise to real drum recordings with surprise endings, so the dancer is used to stopping exactly on the final beat of an unfamiliar song
- Build stamina for a weekend, not a single song: walk or dance for the length of a session in practice, and plan food, water and rest between sessions
- Check the regalia a week ahead: secure anything that could come loose, carry a small repair kit and know how to fix a problem quickly without missing a grand entry
- Arrive for the grand entry and confirm the number is recorded each time, since the committee works from the numbers the registrar logged
- After a result, ask the head judge or arena director for general feedback if the committee offers it, and use it to plan practice for the next powwow rather than for the same week
Ready-made event templates that include Jingle
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 | 3 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Jingle judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, commonly for Female, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
Which age bands offer Jingle on this template?
Junior (7 to 12), Teen (13 to 17) and Adult (18 to 39), each as a female class. Older women are placed in a merged class that is a separate item on the template.
Is Jingle judged individually or as a team?
Individually. Each dancer holds one registrar-issued number and collects points of her own, even though many contestants dance in the arena at once.
Is there a time limit for the Jingle category?
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 Jingle and another style?
No. The rules the template follows allow one category only and do not let a dancer switch once registered.
What if too few dancers register in one age band?
The rules say the committee may combine any category that has fewer than five registered dancers, so a small class can be merged rather than cancelled.
Want the full judging picture? Read judge scoring and tabulation software, or browse every on stage competition item.
Try Jingle in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Jingle, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
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