How long can dance and cheer music be? Cutting a routine mix to time.

All-star cheer and dance: USASF

The U.S. All Star Federation publishes the rules most all-star cheer and dance events run under. Cheer has a maximum only. Dance has a minimum as well as a maximum, so a dance mix cannot simply be cut short.

The USASF rules set the limits but not a deduction for going over; that lives in your event producer’s scoring documents. The dance rules also say that music labelled “explicit” is not allowed, while music labelled “radio” or “clean” is permissible as long as it is suitable for family audiences.

Time limits change. Check your current rulebook or event information.

School cheer: UCA and NCA

Varsity Spirit’s school cheer brands time two things: the whole routine, and the part of it performed to music. A school cheer mix is therefore shorter than the routine, with cheer and crowd-leading sections around it.

UCA also times the entrance and exit: teams have 30 seconds from their introduction to start the routine and 30 seconds after it to leave, with official entrance timing starting when the first athlete touches the mat or performance area, and a 0.25 deduction for 1 to 5 seconds over or 0.5 for 6 seconds and over. NCA’s deductions sheet says only that any entrance or exit of more than 30 seconds results in a deduction, timed from the first participant stepping onto the performing surface, with no split by seconds. UCA’s rules put the advice plainly: because penalties are severe, time the performance several times before competition and leave a several second cushion for variations in sound equipment.

Time limits change. Check your current rulebook or event information.

School dance: UDA and NDA

UDA’s 30 second entrance and exit rule is the same as UCA’s, with the same 0.25 and 0.5 deductions, and it is not part of the 2:00 routine limit. UDA’s rules repeat the cheer advice: time the performance several times and leave a cushion for sound equipment.

Time limits change. Check your current rulebook or event information.

Your event may set its own limit

The tables above are what five governing bodies and brands say, and they only govern their own events. Many of the competitions a team actually enters are not among them:

• State high-school championships run under their state association’s rules, and the time limits vary by state and by division.
• Studio dance competitions each publish their own limits for solos, duos and trios, small and large groups, lines and productions, and they are often different from each other.
• College, international and independent events publish their own packets, and some producers change a limit from one event to the next.
• Special divisions such as exhibition, adaptive or rec divisions can carry their own times even at a UCA, NCA, UDA or NDA event.

So before you cut, read the rules or the event packet for the competition you are entering, and if the number is not there, ask the event producer. SongShrink’s built-in list carries only the limits above; for anything else you type your own time and save it as a preset, which is what most dance and cheer teams end up doing.

When the clock starts

This decides how long to make the music, so check it before you cut. The rulebooks differ in the detail but agree on the shape: the clock starts at the first thing the team does, and runs to the last.

• USASF cheer: timing begins with the first movement, voice or note of music, whichever comes first, and ends with the last movement, last voice or note of music, whichever comes last.
• USASF dance and NDA school dance: the first choreographed movement or note of the music, to the last choreographed movement or note, whichever happens last.
• UCA school cheer and UDA school dance: the first choreographed movement, voice or note of music, whichever comes first, to the last, whichever comes last.
• NCA school cheer: the first organized word, movement or note of music by the team after they have taken the floor, to the last movement, voice or note of the music.
• Game Day (UCA, NCA, UDA): spiriting and rallying before the routine are not timed; the clock starts with the first group movement, voice or note of music. NDA’s Game Day sections are each timed from the start to the stop of their own music.

The consequence: a music track that is exactly the limit leaves no room for an opening pose, a called cheer before the first note, or a sound system that starts a beat late. Cut the music a few seconds short of a maximum. For USASF dance, where there is a 1:45 minimum, aim inside the window rather than at either edge.

How to cut a song to the limit cleanly

You can do all of this in a free editor such as Audacity on a computer, in GarageBand on a Mac, iPhone or iPad, or in SongShrink. The steps are the same, whether you are trimming one song for a dance solo or fitting a chorus into a cheer mix.

1. Write down the rule, not just the number. Is it a maximum, or a window with a minimum? Does your routine have a music portion inside a longer routine? Decide your cushion now: a few seconds under a maximum is usual.
2. Map the song. Listen once with a pen: introduction, verse, chorus, bridge, ending, with the time each starts. Decide the story: a strong opening, the big moment for the hardest section, and a clear ending.
3. Drop whole sections, not random seconds. Most popular music is built from phrases of 4 or 8 bars, and dance counts of 8 line up with them. Removing a whole verse or a repeated chorus keeps the music making sense; trimming an odd 7 seconds out of the middle of a phrase does not.
4. Cut on the bar line. Count 1-2-3-4 along with the song and place each cut just before a “1” on both sides of the join, so the beat carries straight on and the choreographer’s eight-counts stay whole. A cut on another beat is the next best choice. Zoom in and put the cut at the very start of the drum hit, not after it. Join like with like: a chorus into a chorus, the same key, the same instruments.
5. Crossfade the join. A crossfade of a few tens of milliseconds hides the click where the two pieces meet. Too long a crossfade smears the beat and you hear two rhythms at once.
6. Decide the ending. Keep the song’s real ending if it lands on your time, fade out over the last few seconds, or stop on a beat where the final pose lands. A sudden stop in the middle of a phrase sounds like a mistake.
7. Level and export. Make the pieces the same loudness, keep the peaks under the clipping point so gym speakers don’t distort, and export in the format the event asks for. MP3 plays almost everywhere.
8. Check it like a judge. Play the exported file from start to finish, read its length, then time the whole routine in practice with a stopwatch from the first movement or word to the last. Do it several times, as the UCA and UDA rules recommend, and keep the cushion.

Two things to avoid: cutting a song from a streaming service (the download is copy-protected and no editor can open it; buy the song as a file instead), and changing the speed of the music to hit the time. SongShrink’s own thresholds are a fair guide: it says nothing up to 8%, notes that a change of 8 to 15% may start to sound odd, warns that above 15% most music sounds unnatural, and stops at 50% either way. Choreography set to the original tempo will no longer fit anyway.

Licensing at Varsity Spirit events. Varsity’s music guidelines require teams to bring printed proof of licensing to event registration: a purchase receipt from a music provider, a receipt for a single song, or documentation assigning the rights for non-commercial sources. They say streaming services may not be utilized. An editor does not have to be from the Music Provider Directory, but the team must still be able to show proof of purchase from a provider in that directory, plus proof of licensing for all sound effects and voiceovers in the mix. A team without the required paperwork is given the opportunity to purchase a pre-mixed track from one of the music providers or to count the routine verbally; a team that chooses neither is disqualified from the competition and not allowed to perform. Read your own event’s music rules before you compete; cutting a song to time is an edit, not a licence.

Where SongShrink helps

SongShrink is an app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android that does the steps above for a song you own. You pick the time limit from a built-in list that names the rulebook and season on each one, including the USASF all-star cheer limits (2:30, Prep 2:00, Novice 1:30, non-tumbling 2:00), the USASF all-star dance window of 1:45 to 2:00 and the Novice 1:30 maximum, the UCA and NCA music portion of 1:45, the UDA 2:00, the NDA Team Performance 2:15, and the 1:00 Game Day section. For anything else, type your own time and save it as a preset.

The app finds the beats, bars, phrases and sections of the song on your device and suggests up to four finished edits: keep the ending, most energy, smoothest joins, or fade at the time. Each suggested cut prefers a nearby bar line or beat between phrases, so eight-counts stay whole, and joins are crossfaded by default. If the song is too short it can suggest repeating a section instead. Turn on Land exactly on the target and, when the music is long enough, SongShrink trims and fades the end so the music is exactly your time; shorter music stays short unless you repeat a section. You can tap sections to keep or drop them, nudge any cut by a beat or a bar, reorder or repeat pieces, build a medley from several songs with the tempos matched, and undo everything. The length is shown to the tenth of a second.

Export evens out the loudness with peaks kept safe for gym sound systems, and writes MP3 at 192, 256 or 320 kbps, M4A or WAV, named with the event, the athlete and the length. Songs, projects and exports stay on the device; nothing is uploaded. SongShrink is free to download and try; exporting is a one-time unlock, and the store shows the price in your currency.

Also on the Mac App Store Get it on Google Play

More answers are on the SongShrink support page: which songs work, getting a song in, how exact the length is, and which format to use. Cutting on an Android phone has its own guide, and the gymnastics and skating limits are in how long can floor music be? and figure skating music length.

Questions

How long can a cheer routine be?

Under the USASF Cheer Rules effective 1 June 2026, an all-star routine may not exceed 2:30; All Star Prep routines may not exceed 2:00, Novice routines 1:30 and non-tumbling routines 2:00. Under the UCA 2026–2027 school rules the whole routine is 2:30 at most and the music portion 1:45 at most, with Game Day routines at 3:00 overall; NCA’s 2026–2027 school divisions use the same 2:30 routine with up to 1:45 to music, and 3:00 for Game Day. State high-school associations and other event producers set their own limits, so check your event’s rules.

How long can a dance routine be?

Under the USASF Dance Rules effective 14 September 2026, each all-star team has a minimum of 1:45 and a maximum of 2:00; Novice tier teams have no minimum and a maximum of 1:30. Under the UDA 2026–2027 school rules, Pom, Jazz, Hip Hop and High Kick routines have a maximum of 2:00 and Game Day routines 3:00 overall. Under the NDA 2026–2027 school rules, Team Performance routines may not exceed 2:15, Jazz, Pom, Hip Hop and Kick routines 2:00, and Game Day routines 3:00 with 1:00 per section. Studio dance competitions set their own solo, duo, group and production limits.

When does the clock start?

USASF cheer: with the first movement, voice or note of music, whichever comes first, and it ends with the last movement, last voice or note of music, whichever comes last. UCA school cheer and UDA school dance: the first choreographed movement, voice or note of music, whichever comes first. USASF dance and NDA school dance: the first choreographed movement or note of the music. NCA school cheer: the first organized word, movement or note of music by the team after they have taken the floor. In every case the clock runs to the last movement, voice or note, so a music track that is exactly the limit leaves no room.

What is the deduction for going over time?

UCA school cheer: 1 point for 1 to 5 seconds over and 2 points for 6 or more, and judges do not deduct until 3 seconds over the allowed time. NCA school cheer: 0.25 for 1 to 5 seconds over and 1.0 for 6 or more in Crowd Leading and Performance divisions, 1.0 and 2.0 in Game Day, with the same 3 second allowance. UDA school dance: 0.5 for 3 to 5 seconds over and 1.5 for 6 or more. NDA school dance: 0.5 for 3 to 5 seconds over, 1.5 for 6 to 10 and 2.5 for 11 or more, plus 0.25 for each Game Day section over 1:00. The USASF cheer and dance rules set the limits but not a deduction; that is in your event producer’s scoring documents. If a routine is retimed in a review, UCA, NCA and UDA use the exact time without the 3 second allowance.

Does my event use these limits?

Not necessarily. USASF rules apply to all-star events that follow them, and the UCA, NCA, UDA and NDA rules apply to those brands’ school events. State high-school associations, college championships, studio dance competitions, international events and independent event producers each publish their own time limits, and some change them by division or by event. Read your event’s own rules or packet before you cut, and treat the figures on this page as what those bodies say, not as a universal rule.

Can I cut a song from Spotify or Apple Music, and do I need licensing paperwork?

Songs from streaming services are copy-protected, even when downloaded for offline listening, so no editing app can open them. Use a song file you own: an MP3 you bought, an iTunes Store purchase, or a mix from a competition music service. Varsity Spirit’s music guidelines also require teams to bring printed proof of licensing to registration, such as a purchase receipt from a music provider or a receipt for a single song, and say that streaming services may not be utilized. Check your event’s music rules before you compete.

Sources

Every limit above was read in the governing body’s or brand’s own document on 27 October 2026.

• USASF, Cheer Rules, effective 1 June 2026 (general routine requirements, item 13) and Dance Rules, effective 14 September 2026 (general rules, item 5, and the music wording).
• UCA, 2026–2027 School Rules and Regulations (routine time limitations, entrances and exits) and 2026–2027 Point Deduction Explanation, both linked from the UCA school rules and scoring page.
• NCA, 2026–2027 school divisions, rules and scoring page (routine length 2:30 with music up to 1:45, Game Day 3:00) and NCA High School Deductions and Violations, 1 April 2026 (time limit violations).
• UDA, 2026–2027 School Rules and Regulations, 24 June 2026 (routine time limitations, performance routine time, dance Game Day time).
• NDA, 2026–2027 School Rules and Regulations, updated 28 July 2026 (time limitations and time limit violations).
• Varsity Spirit, music information and guidelines (proof of licensing at registration).

This is general information for athletes, parents and coaches, not legal advice. Rules change; your current rulebook and event information take precedence over anything here.