Many people have no idea what it truly means to be a competitive dancer. As someone who has danced for twelve years, everyone I met who was not involved in the dance world did not know what it encapsulates. This is odd, because a lot of people have never played baseball or football and know a lot about it. So… what is competitive dance?
Just to make it clear, it is nothing like the show Dance Moms. Dance Moms takes the sport (yes, it’s a sport) to the extreme. On the show, the dancers learn a new group dance every week, along with solos, duets, or trios if they are chosen. This is nothing like the average dancer’s experience. For most dancers, starting in September, you will learn multiple dances and work on them the whole season, typically until June.
There are many styles of dance that you can learn. The most popular are jazz, tap, lyrical, hip-hop, contemporary, and musical theater, although there are many more. For studios like mine, you may not have to take all of these classes. For example, I take all of these classes except musical theater.
Many studios may also require you to take ballet or jumps & turns classes. In years past, my studio has required us to take 2 ballet classes per week. Now, my level must take ballet technique and jumps & turns classes. This means I dance seven hours a week, plus I student-teach and dance on some weekends.
Many sports have programs at their schools; however, dance is often not found in a school setting. Unless you go to a specialized school or have a dance team, you are only dancing after school. At my studio you could be dancing five hours a night, 4:30-9:30. They try to steer away from it, but my Wednesday nights used to look like that.
Competition weekends are busy and stressful. Not only are you driving yourself to your physical max, but your mental max as well. You are stuck inside a school or convention center for long hours while constantly comparing yourself to the people around you. It’s very common to find some tears or yelling because of extreme stress. But, there is also so much positive! The feeling of dancing on stage with your friends is like no other! Especially when you had a good performance. It’s even better when you win.
Winning in dance is hard to define. At dance competitions, the first thing you receive is an adjudication award. This is a medal to represent your score range. For example, at Breakout, a popular dance competition, the adjudication medals are as follows: Platinum Plus is a score of 291-300, Platinum is a score of 279-290.9, High Gold is a score of 267-278.9, and Gold is a score of 255-266.9.
After they award an adjudication medal to all the dances from the session, they will announce the overall winners for every category: the top 10 or so of those dances. Obviously, it would be nice to get first place, but most dancers will be excited about any overall placement.
After competitions, you receive your actual score along with the judge’s critiques, which will most likely come in the form of a video of your dance with their voice talking over it. Now, you apply what they said and get ready for the next competition!
Now that you know everything about competitive dance, what do you think about it? Let me know in the comments!
