Sun City Poms: Retirement Mecca's Golden Girl Cheeleaders

With age comes wisdom-and miniskirts, pom poms, and some rad stunts. The Sun City Poms are a cheerleading squad comprised of ladies of a certain age-if you are under 55 don't even bother trying out. They were established in 1979 at the massive Sun City retirement community in Arizona and now perform 50 shows a year including at the Fiesta Bowl. British photographer Todd Antony crossed paths with them while working on a landscape project of the American West and was smitten. "They were effervescent and fun," Antony tells Yahoo Shine, "while also being very professional about getting their poses correct." The Poms do pyramids, high kicks, pinwheels (where three teammates flip another), and other risky stunts. Shooting one training session, Antony said he was nervous when one woman got stuck ¾ way into her split, "it seemed no one in the group was particularly concerned by this and looked on for some time as she got into to position where she could actually stand up again." Antony will be releasing more pictures of the amazng Poms this fall. -Sarah B. Weir, Shine senior writer