In New Zealand and Australia, a competitive sport involving marching teams of young women grew up and became established from the 1930s.
Marching combines military precision with formations and elaborate costumes.
The sport had its origins during the Depression of the 1930s when teams were formed to keep young women fit and healthy. The sport became more organised during the 1940s with a system of scoring developed to ensure teams could compete against one another. Points were deducted for lack of precision, dressing, movement and length of pace. At its peak, marching competitions drew large crowds of spectators.
Teams marched not only in competitions but also frequently appeared in parades and social occasions such as blossom festivals, A&P Shows and car race events.
Marching was the inspiration behind the television series Marching Girls which was developed for Television New Zealand and screened in New Zealand in 1987.
The Australian Marching Association (AMA) was the main officiating organisation for the sport in Australia up until 23 June 2012. On that date, at the organisation's Annual General Meeting, the sport unanimously approved the new name of DrillDance Australia to replace the name Australian Marching Association. DrillDance Australia is now the governing body. This rebranding marks a significant turning point in the sport in Australia as it takes steps to once again be a popular choice of activity for young people as well as those returning to the sport. Marching New Zealand (MNZ) is the main officiating organization for the sport in New Zealand.
In Australia, teams compete in the U/8, U/12, U/17, Senior and Masters sections. Routines, depending on the age group, consist of Basic Drill, Technical Drill, Exhibition Drill, Thematic Drill, Thematic Dance and Prop DrillDance. Costumes, movements and music enhance each type of routine according to the team's chosen theme.
In New Zealand, teams compete in the Kiwi, Fernz, U/12, U/16, Senior, Master and Leisure grades in the Review and Inspection, Technical and Display drills.
Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for competition. Cheerleading routines typically range anywhere from one to three minutes, and contain components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting.
Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifically played in schools. Netball is most popularly played in Commonwealth nations.
Synchronized swimming or artistic swimming is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine, accompanied by music. The sport is governed internationally by FINA. It is traditionally a women's sport, although FINA introduced a new mixed gender duet competition that included one male swimmer in each duet at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships and LEN introduced men's individual events at the 2022 European Aquatics Championships.
Ice dance is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. According to the International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body of figure skating, an ice dance team consists of one woman and one man.
Synchronized skating is an ice skating sport where between 8 to 16 skaters perform together as a team. They move as a flowing unit at high speed over the ice, while performing elements and footwork.
Formation dance is a style of ballroom dancing. It is pattern or shadow team dancing by couples in a formation team. The choreography may be based on a particular dance or a medley of dances. Formation dancing may be done for exhibition or for competition between teams. There is also a type of formation in Bhangra.
A drill team can be one of four different entities:
A military drill team is a marching unit that performs routines based on military foot or exhibition drills. Military drill teams perform either armed or unarmed.
A dance drill team creates routines based on precision dance movements rather than military drill. These teams usually do not carry anything, but may use props in field production numbers. They may perform to recorded music, or the live music of an accompanying marching band.
A team that execute routines carrying either one or multiple flags or pom-poms. This team's movements are also based in dance and may also have a heavy influence of gymnastics as well. These teams also may perform to music, either live or recorded.
A team that is mounted or advances some type of mobile object. May also include teams of dogs and handlers.
Exhibition drill is a variant of drill that involves complex marching sequences which usually deviate from drill used in the course of ordinary parades. Teams performing exhibition drill are often affiliated with military units, but the scope of exhibition drill is not limited to military drill teams. Exhibition drill is often performed by Armed Forces Precision Drill Teams, the drill teams at service academies and ROTC and JROTC units, and civilian drill teams that perform at parades, drill meets, and half-time shows and other public venues.
Torvill and Dean are English ice dancers and former British, European, Olympic, and World champions. At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics the pair won gold and became the highest-scoring figure skaters of all time for a single programme, receiving twelve perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s which included artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge, after skating to Maurice Ravel's Boléro. One of the most-watched television events ever in the United Kingdom, their 1984 Olympics performance was watched by a British television audience of more than 24 million people.
Artistic roller skating is a competitive sport similar to figure skating but where competitors wear roller skates instead of ice skates. Within artistic roller skating, there are several disciplines:
Women's Australian rules football, is the female-only form of Australian rules football, generally with some modification to the laws of the game.
Baton twirling involves using the body to spin a metal rod in a coordinated routine. It is similar to rhythmic gymnastics or color guard.
A dance squad or dance team, sometimes called a pom squad or song team, is a team of participants that participates in competitive dance. A dance squad can also include: a jazz squad, ballet squad, or any kind of religion dance squad. Dance squads are a type of performance dance.
Pep flags, also known as flaggies, short flags, small flags, or twirl flags, is the performing art of twirling one or two flag(s) as part of a choreographed routine. In the early 21st century, some school flag squads have implemented a third or even fourth flag in routines. This performing art is mainly prominent in Southern California high schools. It is mainly in high schools but a few are in elementary, middle school, and college/university levels.
Softball in Australia is played in Australia.
In Australia, calisthenics is a team-based competitive performing art taking elements of rhythmic gymnastics and ballet combined with a strong emphasis on theatricality, costume, dance and musical interpretation. Since the 1950s Calisthenics has been an entirely female art form, however males have recently been re-introduced in the younger age groups. The art form was created entirely in Australia and can be easily differentiated from traditional calisthenics by its focus on competition and choreographed theatrical performance instead of simple synchronized exercise. The word itself comes from the Greek words for beauty and strength. Calisthenics is currently practiced in all states except Tasmania and has recently been introduced in New Zealand.
Women's soccer, also known as women's football, is a popular sport in Australia. The sport has a high level of participation in the country both recreational and professional. Football Australia is the national governing body of the sport in Australia, organising the A-League Women, the Australian women's national team, and the nine state governing bodies of the game, among other duties. Women's participation of modern soccer has been recorded since the early 1920s. It has since become one of Australia's most popular women's team sports.
On the club, national and international level, men's netball teams exist, but attract less attention than women's netball. Mixed teams are not uncommon in Australia and are very popular. Men's national teams do exist in Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Brunei, Canada, England, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, the Isle of Man, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, South Africa, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and Zambia.
Kay Teer Crawford (1914-2001) was an American choreographer known as the "mother of drill team".
Also known as U.S. Nationals & Pageant, this national dance competition for precision dance teams, dance-drill teams, and dance studios is recognized as the origin of the competitive dance industry. The event was trademarked under the name Miss Drill Team U.S.A. and registered as a non-profit organization in 1973 by Dr. Kay Teer Crawford. In 1989, the competition re-branded itself as Miss Dance Drill Team USA in an effort to recognize the varying performing arts interests of the many out-of-state teams that regularly traveled to Southern California to attend the annual event, which over the years has been held in the cities of Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Irvine.
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