Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / Levels at Dance Competitions - The Conversation Continues

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Levels at Dance Competitions - The Conversation Continues · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_05: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_05: This is Making the Impact, a Dance Competition podcast.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_05: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_05: It's a topic we just can't stop discussing in the competitive dance world.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_05: Levels.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_05: Whether you are for or against levels of competition, they seem to be here to stay.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_05: So join us on this episode of Making the Impact as we provide some new perspectives.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, dance world, and happy Halloween from Making the Impact.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I'm here with my co-host, Leslie Mueller.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_05: Happy Halloween, guys! I love Halloween.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_05: This is one of my favorite holidays.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love Halloween too.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I love how spooky and festive the entire city gets over here in New York City.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love seeing all the kids out walking the streets in their costumes.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's so much fun.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I always grew up loving Halloween, but I have to say, as I've become an adult, I don't really celebrate it anymore.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really go all out.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's almost like in New York, you have to like pay your way into any type of party.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I just don't feel like spending$50 to go to a Halloween party.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_05: That's very true.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_05: I just I like the Halloween movies.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_05: I love Hocus Pocus.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_05: I obviously love Halloween candy.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_05: And then last year we had our first opportunity to like sit on the front porch and give candy away to the trick-or-treaters.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_05: So that's what we're going to be doing tonight on Halloween.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_05: And then obviously saving some candy for ourselves as you do.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, Halloween is fun.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_05: And this is$199.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_05: We're talking about levels.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_05: It has been a while since we've had a levels chat.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_05: And we knew obviously we like to revisit topics because there's always changes happening within our dance world.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and levels are no exception.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_05: So we've got some great guests today.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, two wonderful guests, one new guest, one uh previous guest, and they have some awesome stuff to talk about today.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they do.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: But before we jump into this levels chat, let's hear from our sponsors.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Attention, all dancers eager to continue training during the upcoming holiday break.
• 2:19
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• 2:21
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• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Set to take place from December 28th through the 30th, 2024, in Los Angeles, California.
• 2:30
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• 2:33
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• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: This camp welcomes all intermediate and advanced dancers ages 10 through 22, with discounted tuition available for college students.
• 2:52
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• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And for our Making the Impact listeners, we have a special promo code just for you.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Use the code MAKINGTHEIMPAT in all caps when registering for an upcoming Francisco Gala Dance Works program on their website to receive$75 off your registration.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about the New Year's training camp and all of Francisco Gala's workshops, visit the link in our show notes or visit FranciscogelaDance.com.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_05: If you've spent serious time in the studio focusing on your technique training, then you've probably heard of Relative Motion.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_05: For the past few years, Relative Motion has been taking the industry by storm by making anatomy visual on dancers and helping them accomplish top-level technique quickly and safely.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_05: But now the question is: have you heard of Perform Plus?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_05: For competitive dancers, Perform Plus is the next level to your dance training.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_05: And studio owners and teachers, this is for you.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_05: Perform Plus is the newest cutting-edge adjudication platform, which is quickly rewriting the landscape of dance competitions.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_05: Partnering with a competition standard judging system, you not only receive your score and verbal critique, but judges can now pick the top areas of technique that need work and link you to the perfect training exercises to get you there.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_05: As a teacher, this resource gives you fresh ways to perfect the standard corrections.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_05: Because how many times can we hear stretch your feet on a judge's tape without thinking we already work on that?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_05: Instead, you'll be filled with new inspiration on how to approach it all with unique perspectives and renewed momentum.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_05: Perform Plus also offers genre-specific teachers, meaning you won't be encouraged to use more plie in your hip-hop pieces, but you'll be immersed into each genre.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_05: This system is the perfect way to partner with the competition throughout your season, so the event doesn't end after the weekend.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_05: Your competition family's investment in training is seen throughout the year, not just at the event.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_05: And all of this comes with no additional cost to you.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_05: Don't believe it?
• 4:48
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• 4:56
  SPEAKER_05: You do not want to miss this, so register for a technique-packed Perform Plus event today.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to check out IBA affiliated competition DECA Dance.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: DECA Dance Competition and their UNCONVI is entering their sixth season of events.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: DECCA stands for Dedication, Education, Creativity, and Artistry.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: This fall, we're excited to highlight the education events DECCA has to offer.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: They just wrapped up their annual mini mayhem event for ages 9 and under, and next up are their two unconvention experiences.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: These dance education events feature take-home exercises over choreography combos and feature specialty genres of dance paired with familiar styles, like Bollywood and ballet, African dance and tap dance, or Latin and Jazz.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Their UN Convention in New Jersey on November 10th is extra special, created to include live music in dedication to original DECA team member Andrea Michaels.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're also bringing the Unconvention experience to New England for the first time this fall on November 17th.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: IDA will proudly supply judges for Decca season of competitions in 2025, and we invite you to learn more about their creative events at Decadance Competition.com.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's Decadance Competition.com.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Here's to another season of epic dedication, education, creativity, and artistry at Decca Dance.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Dance World, it is time to jump in to a much needed chat.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what that's about?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Levels at Dance Competitions.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about it 24-7, but here we are again, bringing it back to the pod because we there's just so much to talk about.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And there's so many things that are changing, aren't changing in the industry that we wanna remind you maybe competitions are listening, maybe studios are listening, and this episode is early in the season on purpose to help you determine where to properly place your dancers at competition before you register them in the wrong level.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because let's be real, that's probably what's happening most of the time.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is a lot of uh a lot of studios are putting their dancers wherever they feel when it comes to working the system and taking home that first place trophy when maybe you actually belong in the advanced level or maybe you belong in the intermediate level.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a lot to cover in a short amount of time, but here we are today on making the impact, making it happen to talk about levels again for the millionth time.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so thrilled to have two guests joining us on the podcast, one new guest and one oldie guest.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we're taking it way, way, way far back with this guest because they joined us on season one, episode 19, COVID-19.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Crazy that it's COVID-19 and episode 19 didn't put that together until this moment.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: COVID-19, the effects of the dance community.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, that was a pivot episode because obviously a pandemic happened.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And while we were all sitting at home quarantining, we said, let's record a podcast and talk about how this is impacting our dance world.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this previous IDA judge joined us on that chat.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited to welcome back to the podcast, Julia Galloway.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Julia.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_04: Hey y'all, good to be back.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_04: I'm so glad.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm excited to have you on like a different type of topic this time around.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think that this will be way more fun than the COVID episode.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, yes, I anticipate the same.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Julia, um, I've known you for a long time.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know that I've actually had the opportunity to teach you way long ago back in the day, which is so full circle and crazy.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then for a little while, you were actually one of the judges on the IDA roster, which I know you're no longer with us now on the roster because you're doing bigger and better things.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: But and you're gonna tell us all about that.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, Julia, if you wouldn't mind sharing the world, more about you, where you grew up, where you're at now, any career credits, dance training, and what you're currently working on.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_04: So I started off in Charlotte, North Carolina, just a little bit north of Charlotte, and then quickly moved to Florida as soon as I could to start dancing.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: So I worked with Disney, I worked with Universal, worked with um a cruise ship, Viking Ocean Cruises, danced for the MBA with the Orlando Magic and the Miami Heat Dancers, um, did some backup dancing down there, and now I live in Denver, Colorado, sunny Denver, um, teaching out here and continuing to adjudicate and host with Showstopper.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: So that's where I'm at now.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I love Denver more than I can even explain and super happy to be back on the pod with you guys.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love the versatility that your career has given you throughout.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can really do it all.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're um, and I think that's what's so awesome about seeing hearing your career credits is that you've worked on dance team MBA style work.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: You've worked at theme parks, you've worked on cruise ships, you can be a commercial dancer, you can do all of the things, and it's really exciting to hear that.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I've loved watching your journey through the year.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we're happy to have you back onto the podcast to talk all about levels with your years of experience in the competition world.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: All right, our next guest who's joining us is a longtime teacher and also a newer judge to our roster.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: She joined with IDA last season, and we're thrilled to have her as a brand new judge to us, but she's been judging for many years, and I'm excited to get to know her even more on this levels chat.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to welcome Kira Lett to the podcast.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Kira.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for having me.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so excited to finally be on.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I know we've been trying to make this happen, and then it finally aligned that you could be here for this levels chat.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't wait to hear what you have to share.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I'm very excited.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, same kind of deal, Kira.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you could tell the world more about you.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I am from Beverly, Massachusetts.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: I still live in Mass today.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: Live, love, Mass forever.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: I am a dance teacher and choreographer for the last 13 years.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_03: It is everything, it's my pride and joy.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: And then I got into adjudicating, and that has just brought, I think, not just my teaching experience to the next level, but even like life and being able to travel and doing all these other things.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: So I love doing that.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: And it's been probably four or five years now I've been in the judging world and super excited to be on the IDA roster again this season and working with a couple different competitions.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm just excited to see what the season brings and even more excited to talk about levels today.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, me too.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome, Kira.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for being on our team over here at IDA and all the work that you do for the dance community.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And let's jump into this important chat.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_05: Let's do it.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_05: Let's do it.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_05: All right.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_05: Well, thanks y'all for being here.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and I have had the pleasure of meeting both of these fabulous judges and uh colleagues.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_05: So always happy to have friends on.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_05: All right, so I guess pretty probably I'm assuming everybody listening to this knows what we mean by levels.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_05: But for anybody who might be very new to the competition world and maybe even the dance world, can somebody just give like a brief rundown of what do we mean by level?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_05: Do we mean division?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_05: Do we mean age?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_05: Do we mean skill?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_05: What do we mean when we say levels at dance competition?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: I would say it's a it's definitely both.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: So definitely ages comes into factor always, and more so skill of where the dances are at.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: I notice right now that most competitions go by hours, but I definitely think that it's something worth chatting about that it should be skills.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_03: Interesting.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: Julie, anything to add?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, competitions do it differently every time.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_04: Some competitions have three different levels, being beginner, intermediate, advanced, some just have two, some just have one.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_04: So it's really different any anywhere you go.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_04: And yes, based on skills slash hours, it's different everywhere.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_04: So it's just a mixed bag.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's some competitions too that even do like if it's your first year ever as a competition dancer, that's your level.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been doing this for a while, that's your level.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it has nothing to do with how many hours or or ski what type of skills you have, which is a whole nother way to look at it.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, whoa, okay, how many, how many ways do we break this down?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And even like you mentioned, Julia, some have no levels, some have two, some have three, some have four, five, six levels plus age divisions, y'all.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: What's happening?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that's where, you know, if you are new to this event or this art that is also a sport, that can all just be very confusing because there is no governing body of dance competitions.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_05: It's not like gymnastics or ice skating where you do have very, like very clear expectations of what you're doing at a certain level.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_05: That doesn't happen in dance competitions.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_05: And as we're gonna discuss today, a lot of events have tried to make that something that exists because it is so confusing.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think as a teacher too, it makes it hard competition to competition to know where to best put your dancers to make sure that it's fair for everyone involved.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_05: And it is challenging.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_05: I think our, you know, what we should probably lead with is like, we're not saying we know best either, because there's clearly a billion ways to do this.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, while yes, I do think we do see a lot of gaming of the system on purpose.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_05: I think there's also situations where you just didn't know.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_05: You didn't know any better, and you did what you did and you put your kids where you put them, and turns out they actually belong somewhere else.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, there's it's it's a complicated discussion, which is why it is also a very hot topic.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because we, you know, obviously the one that's coming to mind, like you mentioned, Leslie, gaming the system, the one that we specifically think of and we see most frequently are dancers dancing down from the level that they actually should be placed in.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say that I've also seen the flip side where dancers are actually put they've put themselves possibly based on following the rules correctly, and put themselves in a level that feels actually too advanced for them and that they should be in a lower level.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, as judges, we're trusting the studio to place the dancers and your students in the correct category that you think they belong in.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a lot of people that will like study those rules and go by the rule book, and they're like, Well, you know, they're not ready for this level, but the rules say this is where they belong, so I'm gonna put them there.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I respect that so, so much because there's so many other people that don't even open the rules and just decide because they that's what they want to do and it's their money and they're the customer, that my kid is an intermediate dancer, even though they're absolutely not.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're at the studio 24-7.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: But for some reason they think they're intermediate.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're actually our intermediate level dancers at our studio, so that means they're intermediate at comp.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, but the rules say that if you're there five more, five hours a week that you should be available, you know, whatever.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I just I respect the studios that actually look at the level rules because, like we stated, every competition is different.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna have a different expectation, they're gonna have a different requirement.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: So many of us wish that it could be consistent across the board.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be real.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: But every comp's trying to like do something new and flashy to draw you to them.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it just makes it so much harder for everyone registering because it's more rules we have to follow and align to.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I think some people are like, screw the rules.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even looking at them anymore.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna put my dancers where I feel like putting them.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, people really just there's either, I feel like there's no in-between either.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like you're either someone who's really following the rules and you're looking at it and you're like, okay, these are where my dances are gonna go, or it's the complete opposite, and you're just like, well, I'm just gonna put them where I think is best.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: And like you said, even with like the intermediate dancers at your studio, if they're there more than five hours a week, they may be your intermediate dancers.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: But if they're going out on stage and whipping out a clean quad, they're not intermediate dancers.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the hard part too, because a lot of people think I've read on um, we did a Facebook on our Facebook community, we posted that we were doing this this episode.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if anyone had any questions that they'd like us to tackle and things like that, and a lot of the comments um said, you know, for your example with the quad in intermediate, it's like a quad is a hundred percent an advanced skill.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: If we are defining it based by skills, that is a hundred percent an advanced skill, just like a lot of people will say an a particular acro move is not a novice skill or an intermediate skill.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: But there have been people that have kind of suggested like, wouldn't it be nice if the judges determine the level for the dancers?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: So everyone's, you know, in their age divisions.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: But then the judge, by the end of the dance, they decide where that dancer lives because we don't know what's going on at home and in training, and we don't know how many hours a dancer is there at somebody might be there less, but just naturally gifted.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then there will be others that are there for 20 plus hours and still looking, they haven't like they haven't progressed.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like it just we don't know what's going on at home at the studio, but we can tell immediately what we have, we have expectations for each level.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like as professionals in this industry, we can look at a dance and be like, okay, so technique's this, performance is this, and all these things in our head.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we can kind of be like, that feels like an intermediate.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think they belong in intermediate.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Julia, what do you feel like having seen, like if you were to be told at a competition that you get to determine the levels?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_05: How like how does that affect you?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_05: Because I I'm thinking like, that's just another thing I have to do.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_05: You know, like what are your thoughts?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think I actually went on a rant on one of these Facebook posts because people have said that, you know, well, why don't the judges do it?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_04: And while that's a good thought, in my opinion, you know, like you said, Courtney, like we do have the experience to know kind of where they should fall in the levels.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_04: We are already doing so much at that table within that two to three minute window.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_04: And for a lot of competitions, the scoring is a sliding scale, right?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: So the scoring range for one level is not going to be the same in a more advanced level or beyond.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_04: So for me, if I watch a novice solo and I determine by the end, yeah, they should probably be in intermediate or above.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_04: I don't have enough time to then stop the entire operation, like stop the MC who has the next one queued up and the next one, the next one, to stop, have all the judges rescore because right, you have to completely rescore if the sliding scale is different for a different level.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_04: So then we have to stop.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody has to rescore, could be four judges, three to four judges.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_04: And is it really then fair for us to re-score a dance at the very end of it versus scoring it fresh live in the moment?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think that the score would accurately reflect the entirety of the dance versus the ending feeling or you know, so impression, yeah.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_04: Impression, exactly.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_04: So is it we're just doing too much?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_04: We for me, that's the dance teacher's job.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_04: I have enough jobs to do judging, and I always say, I think uh most judges will attest that if they belong in a higher category, I'll say that on the mic.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it gets said for sure.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and especially at least specifically at Showstopper, the highest score you can get is a crystal, right?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: Every dance competition has their own version of this, but you can't even get a crystal if you're in the intermediate or the beginner category.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_04: So that to me, I'm like, oh, like don't you want that?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like, don't you want a shot at being in the opening number?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_04: Don't you want a shot at like getting that beloved crystal?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you're only holding yourself back if you put yourself in a lower category when you belong in a higher one.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds like they're creating incentives to for for dancers and studios to want to compete higher.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we need more of that.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think competitions need to be uh less afraid to upset customers with those types of incentives because they should be there as fuel, as motivation to get you to compete where you belong.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you think you can hold your own in that category, then it shouldn't matter.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: But luckily you get you, yeah, like you said, you might be able to be in the opening number.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Is that if your dancer wants that, then you have to compete at this level.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a cash prize, you have to compete at this level.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: It can't just I mean, I'm all here for everyone competing, and I do think that there is a place for levels, but I also think that for the dancers who are dancing down, there needs to be some type of incentive to make them want to dance up.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if there isn't, and you know, if rules aren't actually going to be enforced, then nothing's ever gonna change.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_04: Something crazy actually that's new for Showstopper this year is there's no longer a novice division for solos.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I remember reading about this.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I support it.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure people aren't gonna be happy with my thoughts on that, but I think that it's a step in the right direction because solos fill in the majority of these competitions these days.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And no offense, but if you're novice, you don't need a solo.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see you dance with your team.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to be out there by yourself.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Solos are like$150 plus dollars.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like put that money towards training with your team and take an extra ballet class, take an extra jazz class a week with that money.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: I am here for again, it feels like an incentive.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you are a soloist, you probably are intermediate.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I think that feels fair.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I feel like a lot of times too, like dancers don't realize, especially when you're, you know, on a competition team, like we say to our dancers all the time, you wouldn't have a solo if you didn't have a group.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like you are training as a team, you're training as a whole, and having those individual things is just a bonus.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like you need to put that focus in your group.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: The more you do individually as a dancer is going to help your group in general.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: But you again, you wouldn't have a solo if you didn't have the groups.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: Ooh, I love that.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's such a good thing.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I feel like I feel like the at least for me, and maybe you guys can attest to that to this as well.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_04: I totally understand the importance of everyone has to have a solo first, you know, like everyone has to have their first their first solo.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly, yes.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I love and admire the amount of work that goes into that and what they gain from being on stage as an individual.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: I totally acknowledge that.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_04: And I think in my experience, the difference between the beginner and the intermediate level is nothing.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like I see dances in the beginner level and the intermediate level that could easily swap places.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_04: So I think by kind of squishing those categories together for solos, it will encourage greater growth and what give them still an opportunity, beginners, intermediate dancers to still have their moment on stage and gain what they do from being on stage by themselves.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I also I do I do love that no novice level for solos.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: And like you said, Courtney, definitely like an unpopular opinion.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: But when you think about it, like normally these kids have at least done a year as a competition dancer in a group.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I feel like at that point, you're not a novice dancer.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: If you're going out there on stage by yourself, you're an intermediate dancer.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: I kind of love that.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Me too.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I really believe that the novice beginner level, it should very much be group focused.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: It very much should be group focused.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I do applaud them for taking that risk and taking that leap.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I know Leslie, you were like, you know, it's hard when you're taking away something that people are going to be upset.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: But we also have to remember that this is kind of newer uh in the dance world.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, I grew up going to Showstoppers.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up going to a lot of these competitions that have been around for 30 plus years.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have novice solos back then because there weren't levels back then.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like levels are a newer addition to this dance world, even though a lot of studios only know it as levels.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, these competitions had to evolve with the times through the years and add these things.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then some of them might be realizing this is getting a little out of hand.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't working for our business either, because let's be real, it's a business.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when it's a competition that's filled with nothing but solos for an entire day, the competitions aren't making money anymore at that point.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, and it's primarily because of the addition to levels, is that now everyone has a solo.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, they had to be realistic and and make a smart business decision for them.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I I respect it and I I hope that other competitions will follow suit.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_05: And I think just like we've said often on this podcast, like there is a place for everyone.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_05: So even if a lot of competitions go this route and decide, you know what, we're not doing novice solos anymore, somebody out there's doing it.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_05: Some there there will be a place for you.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_05: There is not going to be an overall elimination of that.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_05: I just don't see that happening.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, I think for the for the studios out there that like, you know, are going to protest that, there's a place for you to go, you know.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_05: I want to shift gears into this question because I'm really, this is an interesting comment that was made from a group member on our Facebook community.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_05: And they said that they've heard of the idea of regulating the skills allowed in each level.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_05: They like that idea, but they feel that some of the beautiful high-level routines could be leveled incorrectly because there aren't many tricks, but the stylization and the choreography is like a pre-pro level.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_05: Speaking in terms of tap.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_05: They said their studio is a really high-level tap studio because that is their focus.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_05: So they should definitely be in the advanced level, but then you go into the different styles and they're not necessarily as advanced in those styles.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_05: So, what are your thoughts on maybe a different, you know, idea altogether of creating levels within each style?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: I actually love that.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: I never even thought of it that way.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: Because I feel like each, you know, you're your end goal obviously is to always have your dances, dancers be well-rounded, right?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_03: And you want them to be able to do all these styles.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: But if your studio is specifically, like you said, that studio, their primary focus is tap.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's what their dancers really excel at.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: But then they're not as strong in something else.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: Do we have levels according to style?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: Huh.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's like a I never even would have thought to think of it that way.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's a thinker for sure.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I that's why I wanted to bring it up.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think it's it's definitely something that I'm surprised comps haven't done yet.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: Because I feel like it's very like according to whatever you are for one thing, you're that, everything else.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I feel like it would cause a lot more issues per se, and a lot more different places to for dance teachers specifically, like when we're going to register our kids, it's gonna cause a lot more work.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: But I understand where they're coming from, but I also really stand for having well-rounded dancers.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that even if you excel in one thing, you really should make sure that you're getting enough training everywhere else to make sure that you're still excelling in those other styles as well.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like I have seen I have seen studios that like, for example, are phenomenal at tap and then in other styles are, you know, not as advanced as they would be in tap.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_04: But I wonder then if you let them be competitive for tap, for example, and then be an intermediate for others, do you think that then they would just win intermediate and also win competitive?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_05: It depends on how intermediate they actually are in lyrical and jazz.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_05: Like it's kind of like the conversation of, you know, at our studio, this is the intermediate group, but in reality, they are also just as advanced as everybody else at the competition.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I think at that, like that's what happens there.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's like maybe you're not quote unquote as intermediate as you think you are in the grand scheme of things.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like for them, you know, for that, and that's where it's like, you know, the individual focus of each studio is obviously gonna be different.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_05: And like we we say often here too, it depends on who shows up that day.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_05: Your placement depends on who shows up that day.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_05: And you cannot control that, you know.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a lot of factors I feel like that go into this type of leveling based on different styles.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, every studio is gonna have their thing, you know, like everyone knows, okay, this studio is the tap studio, and this studio is the hip-hop studio, and this studio is the ballet studio.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I do feel that all dance training is training.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um I I feel like that it would be really sticky and really confusing to have levels for genres because you, if you are training more in tap than you are in ballet, and that's just what your studio does, and you're advanced tappers and intermediate ballet dancers, you're still a better ballet dancer because of the amount of tap that you're taking.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: So with your musicality and your shading and your textures and the way that you hear the music and the way you sit in the pocket, I mean, that's a part of dance too.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I do believe it's all connected, and I think that leveling out the dancers makes or the, I don't know, the group.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's another one which I kind of want to get into because we taught, we kind of always focus on the soloists, right?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: We see these like flash tricks, boom, bang, soloists.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, they did a million pirouettes, and they're in the wrong level.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: But what are the rules around, and I actually don't even really know because I feel like there's so many rules I can't keep track.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: What are the rules around group routines and levels?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is there a ratio?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: If like you're an advanced dancer, but the majority of the rest of your dancers are intermediate, then do you are you able to dance with them in intermediate, or does that dance get bumped to advanced because you there's one dancer who's advanced?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how is that any of that fair?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: How does it work?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: It definitely depends on the comp.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: I've noticed that usually it is like a ratio if there's so many dancers in advanced, but you have a few intermediate, whatever like the higher number is, that's where the group goes.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_03: But it's different according to every comp, which again then also makes it very confusing.
• 31:21
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• 32:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_04: Some comps are like 50%, more than 50%, then you can go down.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_04: Showstopper is one.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_04: So you have one dancer that is a competitive dancer.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_04: They can't compete with advanced, the that group has to go up, which is then the issue with no no novice level solos.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_04: Because then if your kid does bump up to advanced, their groups then have to bump up to advanced as well.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: That does make it stickier when it comes to the groups.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's a little stickier for sure.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's right.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't I don't really know what's right because as we know at studios, like, and again, I I I'm just thinking of people just doing whatever they kind of want and not looking at the studio as a whole because there's dancers at studios that are better than other dancers.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: We know that.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: They might all be training the same amount of time, but they're just naturally better.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: So then they might be like, well, they belong in advanced.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And my daughter, they can't compete against my daughter because I'm not my daughter's not as good as that person.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, and then there's your answer.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: She's not as good as that person, period.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_05: Sorry, it's a competition.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_05: Like we're not as good at, you know, jazz as Courtney Ortiz.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_05: I do I'm pretty good, but I'm not as good as Courtney.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_05: And that just is a fact.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_05: So like she's gonna win first place no matter where we are.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I think that's where it's, you know, I think people start to just everybody wants to feel good about themselves and feel good about their child and their student.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, we all want to feel like I've accomplished something.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_05: And sometimes for me, that accomplishment is winning third place.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_05: And sometimes the accomplishment for you is winning first place.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that's just life.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_05: And I think sometimes everyone, literally everyone involved, forgets about that.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_05: That like this is kind of a microcosm of life.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I think now too, there's so many different awards and there's so many more placements.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like growing up, it was bronze, silver, gold.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_03: And that's all you got.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_03: You only had, or you only had the top three places.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like it wasn't all these things.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_03: So now all these kids are getting more opportunities, which is great.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: But then, like you said, it comes into that life factor.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like, this is life.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes you're gonna have better days, and sometimes you're not.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_05: Well, and also, I mean, and everybody gets so up in arms about the special awards not being as special.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_05: And truly, like we have given now now, nothing feels special unless it's first place because now everybody gets something.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_05: And then you feel bad about getting a costume award, and it's like, no, none of these were meant to make anybody feel bad.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_05: Like it's they're all awards at this point.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_05: And so I can understand like it's it's a frustrating, we live in a frustrating uh event space.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: But then you think about that first place, that's an automatic win because you only competed against four other people or three other people because of it.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or yourself.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or yeah, if you you could be the only one in your category, you could be the only intermediate age eight solo, and guess what?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: They have it broken down every two age divisions because between levels and age divisions, it keeps shrinking.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: So now there's like 500 overalls at every competition, and it's just a regional, and it's a one-day competition.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: So then there's like 500 people walking out with first place overall, and you're like, what's going on?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Is this a competition anymore?
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like it just it's really hard for me to wrap my head around it when I see what's going on on these forums, and people will twist it any way they they can to say, well, the the the age ranges are just way too big.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're just way too big.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have four levels, but we need to make the age ranges smaller.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: How can how can a nine-year-old really compete against an 11-year-old?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's in that's ridiculous.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people will always find something to say.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I I personally I think we just gotta go back to the old school ways of dance competition, eliminate that middle.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go recreational, whatever you want to call it, rec competitive, maybe age ranges that have three three ranges for each.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't even we don't need a four and under age category at comp.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, there's I've seen some comps that have like eight age divisions, then level, you know, it's it's too much.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's too much because then you have overalls two.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then there shouldn't, there shouldn't be 25 first place soloists at a what at one competition.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you really think about it in that perspective, it's too crazy.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Plus the saturation of the entire industry of 200 plus regular competitions in the in the industry.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it we need to streamline it a little bit because it's just getting too confusing and we're never gonna please everybody.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm frustrated with the levels.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: I I have to admit, I even said before we started, I haven't really been in a levels game for a minute because I'm specifically working and exclusively working with dance conventions at this point, which don't have levels, and they have age divisions, and there's only four.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Four age divisions and no levels.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it is wonderful, everyone.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm letting you know it is a great world over there in how conventions are doing competition.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like it feels prestigious to get first place.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: It really, really does.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: It feels prestigious to get in the top 10 at that competition because you're really competing against dancers that are your age, and you can't change someone's age.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that's where we got to go back to if you are this age, that is your level, and that is it.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: People probably hate me after this episode.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_03: No, I love it.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I feel like even from a dance teacher perspective, like it would make things a lot easier.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the way that we do it here, it just it makes sense.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's it depends on your team.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like, pretty much after you've had a season competing, you're competitive.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like it doesn't matter what your age is.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like, some usually for say you're like a first-time soloist, you know, you'll be an intermediate for that first year, so you're getting comfortable on the stage, but then after that, you're competitive.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_03: So all pretty much all of our dancers here, minus like our really little ones, or if say we have like an intermediate team that like just started, it was their first year competing kind of thing.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_03: But then after that, everyone's competitive.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I mean, for us, it's easier to level wise, but I feel like just in general, it would make everything so much easier.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then also, you're not sitting at awards for 12 hours because there's so many different awards that are being given out.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Julia hosting the awards in her heels looking fabulous, but like, man, I bet your feet hurt.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_04: They do those long ones.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, show software is like a little bit easier in that regard, but yeah, when you have those awards that you're like, you look at the paper and you're like, all right, six first place overalls, let's go.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_04: You're just standing there, like sledding through my my outfit.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: So true, though.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: And I appreciate that so much that you do that with your students because I think I see it the most in the mini category, like eight and under, is like even if they're phenomenal, they have like$500 costumes on, they're still competing in the beginner level.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, because they're all phenomenal, they're all doing triples at age seven and like back tucks and like being fabulous, but then there's no one in the competitive mini division, right?
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like that, yep.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's where that's where we struggle too.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_03: So a lot of our like mini or petite soloists, once it's their second season, you know, they're in competitive and they're only competing against our other dancers who are also at that level.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, this is not what we came here for, you know what I mean?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like, we don't need to be competing against the person who's wearing the same jacket as you.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's that's not what that's about.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_05: Like, well, and I'm sure it makes for a lot more, and I don't really know, but I can assume that it might make for a lot more animosity within your studio that might not actually be there.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_05: Had three other studios had kids in that division too.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_05: Because now it's not, oh, Sally from Studio B actually won and I won second place.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_05: Now it's my teammate who won first place, my other teammate who won second place, my other teammate who won third place, and I'm down here at sixth place.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_05: And there's nobody.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, of course, we're all gonna have emotions, but like now all these emotions, good, bad, or ugly, are being directed within your team and not to an outside source where you could say, Oh, well, we that studio does these things differently.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, not that anybody wants to blame anybody for anything, but it's all just concentrated within your bubble now.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's more emotions that are coming up on an already emotional weekend.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that can't be directed anywhere else.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_04: That hierarchy then just shines straight back into your studio on Monday and you're like, Yep.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's I think that's really like my biggest frustration with it broken down so much, you know, because it does it, it creates no comp no actual competition.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't know, like it's not like the all of the studio customers can see who's registering for these competitions.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: The only people that know are the competition directors.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there is so many times where they leave studios in the dark until the very last minute and say, Oh, so this is a very short one-day event, and you're competing against your entire studio, or there's only one other studio there, but then because of levels, they might not even be in the same level as you.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: So then you're competing against yourself.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just unacceptable when it costs this amount of amount of money.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not only, I know it's not only about the win, but again, it is called a competition for a reason.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't just a performance opportunity.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone cares about that darn first place.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone cares about that score, and they care about it so much that they're gonna spend thousands of dollars to go and do it.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: It needs to be an acceptable experience, an appropriate experience for everyone involved, even for the judges.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it makes our job really hard and and not as fun when it's like, oh, we're just watching the same studio for an entire event.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I want to see variety.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want it to be like head to head.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea who's gonna get first place.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, who who actually won?
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I love that feeling.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I just think that how much we've separated it now and broken it down because of everyone complaining, it just has made the competition experience less competitive.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: But hopefully that will change.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there are some comps that are starting to make some adjustments and that are hearing their customers' wants and needs.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if I remember back in the day when, you know, I was growing up competing and there weren't leveled comps, I do remember there being different comps for essentially like different experience levels.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like you knew if you went to Showbiz in the 90s that that was like a very high-level competition.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was attracting high-level talent.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you went to XYZ competition, it was maybe not as intense.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you might have a shot depending on your level.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you would choose your competitions based on where your studio, you know, what level your studio existed.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're even more saturated, you know.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, like you said, Leslie, there's a place for everyone, but there's a place where Levels as well.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_05: But I'm also curious, several competitions in the last year or so have also announced like throwback events where they do actually go back to no levels and and you know, kind of like you said, Courtney, to to be that.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_05: I'm assuming the goal is to attract the higher level talent who doesn't ever have anybody to compete against.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, they're offering that opportunity now, whether people are going to take them up on it and actually go and participate.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I'm I'll be curious to see like how that how that rolls.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_05: Because that's what they're trying to do.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_05: And it makes total sense to, you know, to be able to listen to the customer that says, We're tired of competing and competitive and having nobody there because nobody wants to bump up.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_05: You know, now if those people all go to a competition together, there you go.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_05: There's your competition.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_03: So one of the competitions that I work for, Star Quest, has been having like the throwback events.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_03: I know that we do have a couple this season, and I'm so hoping that I get to judge those ones.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's just a nice change to some like to show show the dancers in this generation what it was like.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the things that I've I th I I am predicting could be not an issue, but possibly that could uh prevent people from studios from signing up is that because there are so many leveled studios now where they take like their whole studio to an event for the weekend, it would be like another weekend that they have to commit to to take their advanced team.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they probably would be like, well, I'd rather just go to a leveled comp that I can just take my whole team and not have to commit to another weekend.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's the only thing that I can think of would prevent people from going.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: But like I think an easy fix for that could be maybe Friday or maybe half day Saturday is open to other levels and come have a performance opportunity, come get some judges' critiques.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's not a score.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_05: You just call yourself advanced that whole weekend and deal with it.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_05: You bring your whole team, even if you have beginners, and you say this is what this is like.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_05: The end.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_05: You're not gonna be we're not gonna be upset about the bronze or the non-placement or whatever.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_05: Like we are going to experience this.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that, you know, that mindset might be the way to go, as opposed to like trying to, like you said, figure out the logistics of getting everybody where they actually need to be, you know, if it's not possible.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the things I want to talk about briefly is acro, because as we know, that is one of the biggest issues when it comes to where people belong in levels.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, when you see people complaining about skills that they feel are more advanced than the level that the dancer is placed, they think of acro skills.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe they're doing round off back talks.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe they're doing front aerials.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe they're doing a regular aerial in the novice category.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: They're not talking about dance moves anymore.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're not talking about pirouettes or a switch leap or, you know, actual dance.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: RAP the switch leap.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: RAP the Switch Leap.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: I never see them.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: Switch second.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Impressive.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Switch second.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're hard.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so I think that everyone sees again that flash, that trick.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: And there might actually be people who were gymnasts first that now are dancing and are in a lower level because they're new to dance, but maybe the teacher wants to showcase their gymnastic ability.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: But does that make them an advanced dancer or an intermediate dancer just because they have a skill like an acro aerial or front aerial?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_04: Y'all know I have opinions on this.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: Goat.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Go, Julia.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_04: I'm the acro girl.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_04: You guys know this by now.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_04: I totally understand seeing a frenarial or like a this or a that in an intermediate dance and being like, what the heck?
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_04: But I think the point is that if you're a good judge, you should be able to see the frenarial.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_04: Like for me, I'm like beautiful frenarial, amazing.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_04: They go into a pirouette, I'm like, ah, that's why we're in the advanced division.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_04: And a good judge will be able to see both and understand where they need to be scored based on both.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_04: It's and it's it's to me, it's like seeing a dancer that has legs for days, amazing skills, amazing technique in their lines, and then they go into a pirouette and you're like, oh, that's why you're in the it's the same thing, right?
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's a skill just because it's the dreaded acro that everyone has very polarizing opinions on.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like it's easier to be like, well, acro screw it.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it's an easy thing to pick on because it is a skill that, like I said, is polarizing.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_04: But in my mind, I'm looking at it just like this dancer is great at legs, but not that needs more work on turns.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the judges should be able to decipher the difference between the two and score appropriately.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_04: And for me, I'm like, I grew up with people that were gymnasts and came into dance.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_04: And if she did a solo girl, she would not be scoring high.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I don't hear if she has a prenarial or a layout stuff out or a full.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_04: Like it doesn't matter.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_04: So to me it doesn't matter, but totally open to others.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I am also live, love, accro.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_03: But for me, I feel like what people don't realize is that it's acro dance.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_03: So it's not just cool, you're whipping out all these skills and these passes and whatnot.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_03: But if you don't have those smooth dance transitions in between, then you're not an advanced dancer.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: So if you can't do, you know, that gorgeous pirouette into that side aerial or have some smooth, you know, have that acrobatic arts training and have those smooth transitions, then you're not an advanced dancer.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_03: I do see looking at it and being like, are you serious?
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_03: They're whipping out a front aerial and intermediate.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_03: But again, if they're not having those transition steps and different things like that, I can totally see why the teachers are putting them in a different level and not in the advanced.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_04: Emphasis on the well-formulated acro dance.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_05: And I love that you brought up acro dance because if you would like to go to an acro competition, I'm sure they exist for that exact skill set.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_05: But then we are at a dance competition in which there is an acro category.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_05: So we're gonna need to see all those other things.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_05: I think the issue becomes when the audience and the parents and the everybody looks at something, they see the routine that scores really high.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe it's they think it's in the wrong category or the wrong level, but then you have to look at what else is being presented around it.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_05: So maybe your acro routine with all the skills and everything, maybe some poor dance transitions, maybe it doesn't really, you know, maybe they do really live in the act in the intermediate category.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe they're still gonna score the highest because the other participants don't have that high-level dance either.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_05: And they don't have the very high-level acro skill.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_05: And that is that is where, like you said, Julia, good judges can they're placing it right.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_05: To to a lay person, it may not look that way.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_05: But like we are actually looking for the combination of a high-level dance skill and a high-level acro skill if those things are being put together.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_05: If you don't have the high-level acro skill or the high-level dance skill, you're not gonna be higher.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_05: You're not gonna score higher, you know?
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and that's why it's important to have judges that actually know how to judge acro, because we see it so much these days.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_04: And to someone who doesn't know how to accurately judge acro, they're gonna be like, wow.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_04: You flipped, you did a flip, you know.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_04: You made all those sounds in tap.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_04: Look at all those sounds.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_05: Look how fast your feet are going.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_05: It's the same thing with tap.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_04: So it's at the end of the day, I see I think any acro specific judge is gonna be the one that scores the acro the lowest because we actually know what we're looking for in the technique of the acro.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_03: I agree.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's not always about the flash and the tricks, everybody.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: It might be what you think won.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then and and that's the hard part too.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we see it often even in teacher groups.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, parents are confused because they're like, Well, I they had these turns and they had these botmas and they had these aerials, and that must be what wins.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: And what you said, Leslie, is so real and so right because it really depends on who shows up that day.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: That dance might end.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: We've always heard that that same uh conversation.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard it from studio owners for years.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: While my dance won first place last weekend at XYZ competition, how did they get 12 at this one?
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's because it's you weren't the best this weekend.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry about it.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: Are you properly are you in the right level?
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, second of all, you weren't the best this weekend, you were the best last weekend, but there were better people that showed up today, and that is what they recognized.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it is it is tough because a lot of people are watching what's going down and thinking this is what the judge is like, this is what the judges would determine is first place overall, but that might have been our only choice.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: We might not even agree with the dance that's winning first place overall.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, and that happens to me all the time.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you know, it's like, ah, I'm not on the same page as you guys, like, or or I can agree with you, or we can agree to disagree, you know.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_05: But somebody might score up.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_00: Mine, I don't mind if there's disagreement on the panel, but like, like sometimes it's like, so what's gonna win?
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's all kind of the same, you know, it's all it's all living in the same.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's not like that standout dance, and maybe that one thing makes them win.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what is it?
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they all did an aerial that looked really great and that's that made them win.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just the aerial.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they did a pot of beret and we liked that, so they get to win, you know, if they're all kind of on the same field, and it and then it goes down to how it was choreographed and and all of the things like that, because that's a part of it too.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: Presentation, costume, like things that are more of a teacher's critique could be also partially why they might win.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of factors, right?
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_03: And it also depends on who's on the panel that weekend.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like if it's a different set of like you could do the same exact performance and three different judges come in, and you could get a totally different score.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like it really is a judge's opinion.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_05: And it's just it's not black and white.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_05: It is never black and white.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_05: It is never this wins because this.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_05: It's because this, this, this, this, this, and that.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_04: And then the averaging of the scores.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_04: And most of the time, the people that are like, well, how did that win?
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_04: They didn't sit right in front of the stage and watch every single routine and break it apart.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I bet you watched a dance like this and then went out in the lobby and kiki with your friends.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like, right.
• 54:35
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• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's that's such a valid point, too, because you really have to watch the whole event to really understand how things were determined.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if you if you are even just an audience member watching and you do decide to sit there for 15 hours and watch the whole event, you should probably be able to determine who should get what, you know, if you should probably go home and find something else to do because I mean geez.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_05: You're not getting paid for that.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_05: That's exhausting.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_05: You know there's people that do it.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I've been recently just doing like some research on my own for different different things in the dance world, but on Reddit, you know, so gosh, don't even come for the dance competition world on Reddit because you think Facebook is bad.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_05: It's this die hard people are just, you know, talking about the results from this event last weekend compared to the results from this event.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_05: Like they are like deep diving into why people got certain scores, and it's like, oh God, this is exhausting.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have they listened to our podcast?
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_05: They have.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_05: They have.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_05: There's a lot of mention of making the impact on the Reddit uh competition dance forums.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_05: So all good things, you know, all people like suggesting that people go listen to this because people are hungry for this information and to understand why this routine won or why that level doesn't make any sense, you know.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_03: And here we are telling you all about it.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_03: I also I do wish that how other like figure skating and cheerleading and things like that, and gymnastics, even how they have like a set scoring system or set level things like that.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_03: I do wish that at the end of the day, all comps would have that those same things, but then make it their own.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like if you want your top award to be the sparkly crystal unicorn winner, then that then you do that.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_03: But then I feel like it also would make it easier for us judges because no matter what event we're judging for, we know the scoring system.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_03: And then you can also, with your dancers, be like, okay, so this was your score this time, and that would make sense the next time.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas if all the comps have a different scoring system and different levels and different things.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_03: So I feel like if we had some sort of unison across the board, even something something, anything, yeah.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_04: But then you get into the territory of like, you guys know every city has its own range, right?
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_04: So like you can go somewhere and the talent, the caliber is just gonna be higher.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes the cali the caliber is just gonna be at a different level, and then it's and then it comes down to like, okay, if we have that set range, would we then in a city that doesn't have as higher high caliber of dance, would the would we then never give out the shiny unicorn crystal?
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like, or do we adjust the range to the city?
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_05: And we usually adjust the range to the city, and that is like for for the listeners out there, that is what we do.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_05: It's nobody's writing it down, nobody but but in our heads as judges, you are shifting your perception of who is quote unquote the best that weekend.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_05: It would not be the best next weekend, or even in a different state.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_05: And that is kind of the hard reality of it, is that you know, there there is just no real best.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_05: This is it's a simulation.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_05: Everything is fake in the world, it doesn't make any sense.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's where it comes back around to who showed up that day.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that that's where that applies because again, like it is it is very regional.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we have talked about doing an I don't know, we've been talking about it for a while to do an episode on like different regions and in the country of dance and just what varies and uh things like that.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_05: But it it really was it's so interesting to look back on dance competition history.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_05: Like you can go on YouTube and find, you know, back in the day they would do like the entire nationals would be recorded and you could watch it.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_05: Which which company was that?
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_05: Star Systems, I think.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, show soppers would do it.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I can't remember which one it was.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's one of the ones that's been around for a very long time.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_05: And you can Google it and look on YouTube and see what a nationals looked like back in the early 90s and the late 80s.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_05: And that's really where you could see the regional differences because you know, people who ended up at nationals were from certain pockets of the country.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_05: And it's different now because we have 15 nationals.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_05: Like some competitions have five, 10 different nationals, which really then turn into regional competitions because you're not getting a studio from California competing in South Carolina.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_05: You're just not.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_05: That's not really happening anymore.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm I'm very curious to do our our um regional episode, which eventually we'll get to.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the final things that I want to just mention, because we kind of touched on it a little bit earlier, and it's in regards to bumping dancers around.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's just a big conversation as well in the dance world right now, as far as like you said, Julia, we don't want, we don't need one more responsibility at that judge's table.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're already asked to do honestly too much.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_00: There is many there are many competitions who ask us to do a broken down score, give a full critique, and write notes for special awards and nominate other things for other things at the same time, and then they're moving on to start and stop our video.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, start and stop our video, label things.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it is out of control what is on our plate in a short amount of time.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: Our brain doesn't ever shut up.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't multitask, this is not the job for you.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think that we need to enforce some type of bumping.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: I like the concept, I like the idea.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's our job.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think that there need they need to hire someone else that sits there and audits and monitors the entire competition.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure that no one's breaking rules, make sure that the music is appropriate, make sure that everyone's placed properly.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hit up the judges and say, Do you guys agree with this?
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: They do need a bathroom break.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: There needs to be just another person that is actually making sure that everyone is following the rules.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it is not my job as a judge.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_00: My job is to critique and score.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then there should be someone else that actually monitors the other things that are going on that could affect your placement, that could affect if you get disqualified, that you know, like all of the appropriateness and all of these issues that people talk about 24-7.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's because it is not my job.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_00: That is not my job to to do and handle.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is the responsibility of the competition, and they should hire someone to handle that.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that is where bumping could come into play.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if there was, like, I'm just spinning out an idea, there was kind of like we talked about like a curve for all of the adjudications, then whatever the score is, it would actually work if the curve, if they got bumped because the curve would work in its favor or whatever it needed to do.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the hard part is that if let's say overalls were already announced for the novice and they competed in this, but then they need to be in that category, you know what I mean?
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's like, do they not get to have an overall if they would have?
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's sticky territory, but I do think that there is something good about telling dancers, hey, we bumped you up to the next level.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: We think you belong here.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_00: And like, I like there was one competition that was like making social media posts out of it and like making it like an achievement.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I really respected that.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was like a great way to approach it and like make some progress uh for this whole dancing down thing.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_03: So one of the IDA affiliated comps actually that I judge for this past season, Legends, they did that.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_03: They had someone at the table and they would like announce after, like, congratulations! Like, you've been, I don't know, not that I don't think they said bumped up, but you've been like graduated or something along those lines to a different level.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_03: But I think they made sure that all of the levels for that.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_03: So like the teams, it was like the novice, intermediate, and advanced were all in that session.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_03: So that even if you got bumped up, you could still place in the overalls.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_03: So it wasn't anything that we had to do, it was someone else was completely doing it, and it was great.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love that and it just kind of worked because I think it was the same score system like across the board, and they kind of just adjusted it like accordingly.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_03: So that's it was great.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure that feels so good for them too, especially like right after they finish.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_04: I cool, like feels like a golden buzzer, kind of right, yeah.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, again, it's like an incentive.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I think our job, as like you said, Courtney, like it's not our job to make sure these kids are getting bumped, but I do think it's our job to mention on the critiques that, you know, I feel you know, these dancers can graduate to that next level or however you want to word it.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_03: But I think it is our job to say that because I feel like a lot of outside people that aren't listening to those critiques don't think that's something we do.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_03: But we do say things like that.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_03: Because we some competitions don't allow us to bump dancers.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like it is in the hands of these teachers and choreographers, and some do let us bump, but it just depends.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_03: But it is again our job to make sure that we're saying something about it and showing, you know, that we have that knowledge and see the dancer's potential.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_00: Completely agree.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_00: And bumping in the levels chat is a hot one, so wanted to make sure we included that.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I think we covered a lot of really great discussion on this chat, and I'm sure we could continue on for many more hours because there's so much more to talk about.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_00: But to all of our listeners out there, hopefully you have some new new ideas and new perspectives that we shared from different sides of the industry, from the dance teacher side, from veteran judges side, from even the host side of things over here on Making the Impact for our levels 2.0 chat.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, Kira and Julia, this was so much fun.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for chatting dance with us on making the impact.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_00: We love having you both as guests and uh for all that you have done in the dance world.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having us.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thank you for having us.
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_03: It was awesome.
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, how we have our guests lead us out on making the impact is with one final thought that you'd like to share on our topic today, which is levels at competition.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you can talk to dancers, you can talk to studios, you can talk to comps, you can talk to whoever you'd like.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_00: And final thoughts, already set.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_04: I think my final thought to everyone involved in dance competitions, the moms, you know, the parents, the supporters, the teachers, the choreographers, the dancers themselves.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_04: You are capable of so much more than you think you are.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_04: We see dance every single day, every single weekend.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_04: We all live and breathe dance and just believe in yourself because odds are you're gonna go and you're gonna level up or bump up and you're gonna do so much better than you ever anticipated.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_04: And there's gonna be good days and there's gonna be bad days, but every day is a lesson and every day will make you better regardless of the outcome.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_03: Love that.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think for me, it's you know, these things and performances and different things that you do at competitions are gonna carry into your regular life.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_03: So trust, you know, dance teachers, trust your gut, put these dancers where you feel they should be placed accordingly.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_03: And dancers just give a performance of a lifetime.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_03: I always tell my dancers, live it, love it, leave it.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_03: Live in the moment, love what you do, and leave it on the dance floor.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_03: No matter what level you're in, you're gonna succeed.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_03: And this will be the memories that you remember for the rest of your life.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna remember the all of the times that you had in that performance.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_03: You're not gonna remember if you got first place at XYZ in 2024.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_03: Just go out there and do your thing.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in to our episode all about levels at competition.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to follow our guests on social media.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can find Kira at Myth underscore Kira28 and Julia at LittleJulia.
• 1:07:23
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• 1:07:30
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• 1:07:36
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• 1:07:44
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• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_00: Ready to take your competition dance to the next level?
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_00: Looking for a fresh set of eyes to critique your solo?
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then say hello to IDA's online judges critiques.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_00: Simply send us a video of your dance, whether it's from an in-studio rehearsal or an on-stage performance, and our judges will take it from there.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_00: You'll receive a standard video critique just like you get a competition, but we take it one step further with our best-selling feature: 10 to 15 minutes of post-critique additional feedback.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_00: Your judge can now go back through your dance to elaborate and explain their corrections in further detail, and even pause the video to show you exactly what they are referencing throughout their critique.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_00: We even offer genre-specific judge requests, 24-hour rush delivery, and bulk order discounts for studios submitting five or more dances.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_00: Prices start at only$35 per critique and are available year round.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_00: Visit our website to learn more and submit your dance now at Impact DanceEdjudicators.com/slash online critiques.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_00: Get ready to wow the judges at your next competition after using IDA's online judges critiques.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_00: We can't wait to see your dance.
• 1:08:58
  SPEAKER_05: Season six of Making the Impact continues with our upcoming 200th episode next week.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_05: Also coming up are our first genre spotlight episode on Fossi and an episode on the product versus the process.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Halloween from Making the Impact.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next week for some more great episodes.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, keep dancing.