I get it. You lay out lots of money for competition fees in the hopes of taking your dancers to an event where they will not only get the chance to perform, but also receive valuable, helpful, thoughtful and objective feedback to enhance their progress. When you come off a weekend and find that your tapes are not what you had hoped for (especially when they don’t support the scores given,) you feel a range of emotions from disappointed, annoyed, angry and cheated

Having been on both sides, as a teacher and a judge, I understand what teachers and studio owners are seeking and should be expecting. Any seasoned judge who also teaches will be keenly aware of this as well. Anything less and you should contact competition representatives to bring it to their attention. The information below should give you a sense on what a solid adjudication should encompass.

First and foremost you should be receiving three individual critiques which are subjective and well-rounded. Now, be mindful that judging, as fun and rewarding as it is, is also extremely challenging. You are sitting through hundreds of entries for extended periods of time so you have to cut the judges some slack if an entry here or there may not be stellar every time. But, while they may not speak the full length of, figure a two and a half to three minute piece...they should be speaking for the majority of it with thoughtful feedback. Nobody wants to hear dead air on their critique tapes for longer than a few seconds. Nobody.

So what should these content-rich critiques be including? Well, a solid adjudication should touch on multiple talking points. While technique is the biggest area which one will give notes and place emphasis on, judges should also be commenting on performance in terms of delivery, dynamics, musicality and emotion, focus, energy, portrayal and connection to concept, choreography and music. Judges should briefly mention costumes if there is something to note and should mainly reference its appropriateness and relevance to the rest of the piece as a whole.

The area of choreography is a tricky one because judges are scoring the dancers, not the choreographer - BUT be mindful, they are looking at the overall performance and deconstructing it, so it’s not unheard of to offer a suggestion or want to fully understand a choreographic choice on the critique. Having said that, the commentary on choreography should never monopolize the critique or affect scoring greatly and should certainly be addressed directly to the choreographer in case the students are offered opportunity to listen to critiques. Example. “Quick note for the choreographer, I loved the way you integrated multiple formation changes here in this final section. Just an alternative and objective suggestion from a fresh eye, but maybe take a look at the phrase right before the transition and determine if it could flow a little smoother into those formations.”

To summarize, all these talking points should connect and help you understand how the technique, the costumes, the performance and the choreography can be improved or how it is simply perfection in the judge’s eye. What you should NEVER settle for are recordings that have dead air until the last ten seconds of a critique, repetitive descriptive one-two word critiques that don’t go beyond, “Nice!” “Yes, ok, good” etc. which aren’t rich in content, imagery and explanation and critiques where judges talk or “harp” on one thing for the entire three minute piece. Professional and mindful judges will be succinct yet thorough and get their point across so the dancer understands how they are trying to help. In turn, they will be offering a full recording with some rich and textured feedback you can opt to apply for next time. Remember, critiques are completely subjective, but that’s also the reason you attend competition, to receive that feedback from a new eye. Overall, you should always walk away feeling the critiques were thorough, fair and knowledgeable and gave you and your dancers some new ideas to enhance the work you’ve already done!