If you have a friend whose kids go to dance competitions, you probably see their posts on Facebook. But they might as well be speaking a foreign language. LOL Dance competitions are set up to look like everyone is awesome and a winner. In a way, it is sweet. Another view is that it is setting our dancers up for failure. I had to explain some of the terminology to a horse friend once. Describing it is equine terms was hilarious. Dance competitions are an everyone gets a trophy society. Horse shows are definitely not. Let me break down some terms and misconceptions for you all.
1) Adjudicated awards: This is the everyone get a trophy part. So every dancer receives a score (usually out of 100) from each of the three judges. These scores are combined to determine their adjudicated award. These awards are given some great names, but the most common are Platinum, High Gold, Gold, High Silver etc. I have seen them named after gems, a star rating, etc. This past weekend they were Ultimate Elite, Superior, Outstanding. I am waiting for the day that I see Double Sparkle with a Twist. LOL. You see how these might be deceiving. If someone tells you they got a gold or an outstanding, you think they are amazing and at the top of their game. In actuality, there is definitely room for improvement. In saying all of this though, know the these dancers are getting scored by three judges..... totally subjective. I have seen scoring that was skewed both ways... too high and too low. Different competitions are known to look for different things. Some are completely technical and some look for showmanship/entertainment factor. I think all dancers who are brave enough to get on stage deserve accolades.
2. Levels: this is a subject that gets my goat a little bit. There are usually 2-3 levels of competition at each event. Recreational/Intermediate/Competitive. It is a teacher's job to place their students accordingly. This is usually determined by the numbers of years competing or the number of hours of technique classes they take. I have seen this system abused by many studios. Students who have been competing forever placed in an intermediate category, young kids put in a dance to bring the age category down. Teachers/studio owners do it for one of two reasons. Either their dancers are not strong, and they want them to build their confidence or they want the studio to do well so the wins will bring in more customers. My girls would rather see how they fare against the best of the best. We always place them in the highest level, and we do not shy away from competitions where the best studios are going to be. Sometimes we pick competitions strictly based on date and location.... sometimes we have no idea who is going to be there.
3. Placing: This is where we get to the nuts and bolts..... they rank each level/age division. Sometimes they do top ten and sometimes only top 5. The divisions can be as large as 50. At nationals one year, one of my dancers was up against 200 other soloists. To place is always exciting... it's especially exciting if you have watched all the soloists, and you see some great talent. I would rather one of my dancers place 10th in a really hard competition than first is an easy competition. But a win is a win.
4. Special awards: some times they have special judges awards, category winners, costume awards, photogenic, etc. At the end of the day, these competitions are a business, and they like to recognize as many individuals as possible in order to keep business coming back. Not a bad way to do it
The one really great thing about dance competitions that has horse shows beat.... the critiques. You often get both written and video critiques. The judges let you know exactly where you could improve and what you did well. I wish horse shows would try this out. Because sometimes that scoring is a mystery.
Let me talk about for a second how we are setting them up for failure. To make a career out of dance is hard. Auditions are brutal. People in the professional dance world are honest..... if you are used to getting a Double Sparkle then hearing that you did not get anything at your audition might be a huge slap in the face. On the flip side though by the time a dancer reaches 10, they know what is what... they are not fooled by the glorious sounding names of the adjudicated awards or levels. Those are mostly for the blissfully unaware.
I hope you enjoyed my guide to competition.... and a break down of how you might be deceived ;) In honesty though, each dancer who gets out there deserves admiration and our attention. They do it because they love it.
