Tag: dance competitions

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Choreography creating Dance Competitions Educators

Been Caught Stealing

Wow this one is a hot topic.

It is increasingly easier to copy choreography, which often results in publicly shaming the individual who stole it.

Why steal choreography?

“Because I have to create something successful and my work isn’t good enough.”

“I have to create a dance in a style outside of my expertise.”

“I have to choreograph 40 dances and how am I supposed to make each one of them brilliant.”

“I’m just not good enough period, and I need to please the customers.”

It took me a long time to find my voice. I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing when I started choreographing. My earliest efforts were mashups of things I learned at conventions, tap festivals, classes I took at Edge PAC (miss you!). I thought, I couldn’t possibly come up with something as good!

So, while yes, it’s wrong and immoral (and sometimes illegal) to copy someone’s choreography verbatim, I have to say I have a little empathy.

I want to say, you can do it. Explore your own voice. It might not always come out amazing but it’s yours. And the only way to strengthen that choreographic muscle is to work it.

Be comfortable with something not being right or good.

And if you ARE publicly called out for stealing choreography, for god’s sake own it. Say I’m sorry. Say, I’m a huge fan of your work and I was in a creative rut. The worst reaction is no reaction. The longer you wait, the harder it is to dig yourself out of that hole.

And if you do feel like you’re in a rut, visit some of the great works: Paul Taylor’s Esplanade, Twyla’s In the Upper Room, Brenda Bufalino’s Strike Up the A-Train. There’s inspiration everywhere. Let it spark ideas. Ideas that are yours.

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collaboration Dance Competitions Educators motivation Training for success

Let them play sports

A group of children are indoors in their elementary school gym. They are sitting on the floor and getting ready to play sports. The kids are holding a basketball, a soccer ball, and three volleyballs.

Every year it’s inevitable. Dance educators lose their minds over scoring, judging, levels, lack of students’ enthusiasm and efforts and the list goes on.

Lots of complaints about competing priorities.

Lots of frustration with students losing their drive.

I consider it a gift when a student comes to me who plays sports. Every week they either win or they don’t, and they go home. Rinse and repeat. It’s a practiced thing. Every game is different. It’s not a routine they’ve practiced and replicated over and over.

Students don’t feel burned out by too many hours spent at the studio. Please, have a well rounded life so I have happy dancers in my class.

I question the current status quo where dancers compete in every dance style (often more than once) and are required to take a long list of classes in order to be on the competition team. I was the kid obsessed with all of it, but most kids aren’t me.

Bring me the kids who play sports. It’s less work on my part to instill the desired attitude, ethic and mindset. It becomes a group effort, and we can all play a role in sending passionate, determined, collaborative-minded humans into the world.

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Dance Competitions Educators

Honey I shrunk the costumes

Where did all the costumes go? It seems there’s a global shortage on nylon, spandex and polyester! Oh no! We must shrink the costumes to cover only the absolutely necessary body parts!

Seriously though. I feel very uneasy when adjudicating these tiny dancers in their tinier costumes. White briefs, no tights, eeek! I’m just nervous. Add that to the constantly choreographed unflattering angles (read: hello, here’s my crotch).

Truly, while I am of course giving my expertise on technique, stage presence and overall performance, I can’t help but to feel uncomfortable looking straight on at a barely clothed dancer’s, er, um, well, you know…

Choreographers and dance parents can put their kids on stage however they’d like. I’m not calling for a puritanical ban on all things inappropriate. That’s just not my department.

I’m simply saying that when I am adjudicating said dancers, I 0% enjoy this aspect of it. Do what you want though. I’m here to give you the constructive feedback you paid for.

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Artists Dance Competitions Educators motivation

Ditch these terms

“We’re a recreational studio” or “they are a recreational dancer.” These phrases get used as a crutch to say, ‘we’re not very good’ or ‘they don’t train that much so they don’t have to be good. They’re just recreational.’ Some dancers train more hours per week. Some like to pop in once a week and pursue other endeavors like sports, extracurriculars, band or other passions. The qualifier ‘recreational’ has come to have a diminishing or condescending tone. Do we still need it?

“They’re a competition/competitive dancer.” Do these dancers spend hours every week at the studio to chase that dangling carrot of top adjudication? Is that the motivation? Do we need the qualifier ‘competition’ or ‘competitive’? There’s nothing impressive about it.

Dancers are dancers. Full stop. If you dance, you are a dancer. We get out what we put in, and measuring accomplishment externally, by awards or others’ assessments of us, is far less rewarding than the intrinsic satisfaction we from feeling a little stronger than yesterday.

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Choreography creating Dance and Social Media Dance Competitions Educators

Tricks

Let’s talk comps! “Tricks win” is a common sentiment regarding dance competitions and judging. Threads inquiring about what judges are looking for is is another common topic of conversation. Complaints about critiques are prevalent. I’m going to break this down.

Executing tricks for the sake of tricks is not interesting. It’s not something I want to see or something that is impressive. 99% of turns in second on the competition stage are not stage ready. A majority of pirouettes done on the competition stage are not stage ready. Aerials are almost always not interesting. Heel stretches (I don’t enjoy calling them that, but you know what I mean) are almost always not done correctly. You see what I mean. I could go on.

When I sit at the judges table, I’m not looking for anything specific, but what does move me and make me excited is authenticity. When a choreographer and/or dancer finds a piece of music that moves them, and the movement follows the arc and dynamics of the song, the audience feels that. They get that. Realness is more desirable than a string of technical elements lacking individual stylistic quality.

BUT if the sequence of “tricks” is executed with technical proficiency, it’s going to score well. We are judging technique, stage presence and precision. Even if I don’t like it, I’m scoring it high if it’s executed well.

It’s true that judges’ critiques can often fall short. A common complaint is that the judges don’t talk throughout the dance, then give a score. I agree that we do need to hear from whoever’s adjudicating. If a dance is very good and I find myself not speaking as much, I articulate that. It’s something like: “I am really enjoying this and that’s why I’m not saying a lot. Your technique and artistry are exquisite.”

If, as we sometimes do, we get a judge that doesn’t really know what they’re talking about, but they at least keep talking through the dance, cool. Honestly, cool. I’m (almost) never mad at that because it’s just not productive. In the end, if we are on that hypothetical professional stage, our audience doesn’t know dance but they know what they enjoy. Connection = success.

If we can take a genre that generally has a narrow audience and bring awareness to a broader audience, that’s what it’s all about. Think: Twyla. If a judge doesn’t know tap (they should, but… you know) yet the choreography moves and has relatable rhythms, dynamics and style, then it will more often than not adjudicate well. If it doesn’t, we take a look at it and see what we can improve, or we shrug it off and try again next time.

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Artists creating Dance Competitions teamwork Training for success

Who cares

Every year there are a few months when competition complaints and criticism of judges are abundant. It’s consistent from year to year, even in this most unique of seasons.

  • The judges don’t know tap.
  • They only want to see tricks.
  • The scoring is all over the place.
  • Do judges take off points for…

What’s interesting is that the kids aren’t the ones who are upset. Honestly the parents (of my students, at least) are never upset either. They are excited to see their kids on stage and to see the growth in ability from one season to the next.

Dancers are there to perform, to understand the rewards of working toward something and to work through the nerves of performing on a stage, in a costume, under lights and in front of an audience and/or complete strangers who will assess them in 2 minutes.

Winning is fun in the moment, but if we don’t win, are we going to hinge our validity, progress, artistry and joy on a snap judgement numerical score given by a stranger that can’t possibly know what it took to get that dancer or group of dancers on stage?

Trust the artistic process and enjoy the ride. Nobody remembers what the score was.