Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / Q&A Live at Spirit of Dance Awards Nationals - Summer Bonus Episode!

Transcript

Q&A Live at Spirit of Dance Awards Nationals - Summer Bonus Episode! · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_03: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Hey everyone, it's Courtney Ortiz, and I hope you're having a fantastic summer filled with lots of dancing.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: As you know, we are currently on our summer hiatus from our weekly episodes, but we are hard at work gearing up for a fabulous new season of Making an Impact, and season four is coming your way this fall on September 1st.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: This special edition episode that we are launching today is a summer exclusive as we patiently wait for season four to go.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: We have the opportunity to bring our podcast to Nationals this summer at two IDA affiliated competition events.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: This week's episode is coming to you live from Spirit of Dance Awards Nationals, which was held this July in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: This is our very first in-person QA podcast recording with a live audience.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: And we have some really great questions that our panel answered for the attendees.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: We hope you enjoy this summer exclusive and stay tuned for another special live episode coming your way in the next few weeks.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Let's jump on in.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Hi everyone.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: We've never been live in person before.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks to Spirit of Dance Awards for letting us be here.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: We're so grateful.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: So if you've listened to the podcast, you might have heard my voice before.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe not my, you've never seen my face, but here I am, live in the flush.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I am alongside my co-host, Leslie Mueller.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Hi guys, you might know me from the podcast or being here directing uh Team 2 events for Spirit of Dance Awards for the past two years.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I wear lots of hats in the industry, and I'm super excited to be here in this capacity today.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: Sweet.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: And Chris, how are we doing over there with things?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Are we good?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Recording and mics are good and y'all can hear us.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we have two special guest IDA judges joining us today for the QA.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: This is Sam Quinn, who arrived as of this morning.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Special, special guest.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so excited to be here.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: Rob Gibbs.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Rob Gibbs is here, who has been your judge all week at Spirit of Dance Awards.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: And everybody.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm super excited that they both wanted to join us on the panel today and answer some of your questions and some of our pre previously submitted questions.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks for being here, y'all.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm just looking at my script to make sure I don't miss anything.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like I said, this is our very first podcast live, and we're doing another one in a few days from like three days, like on Wednesday, at Diva Dance Competition in Cambridge, Matt, Maryland, is where that's happening.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: So Leslie and I are going to be straight from here going down to Maryland and doing this all over again.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um Yeah, we're super busy.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Super busy summer, but um we're really excited to make this happen.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: So in case you don't know, Making the Impact is a podcast that's been around for the past three years.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: It lives under the umbrella of Courtney's business, Impact Dance Adjudicators, which is the only service in the country that provides pre-screened quality judges to dance competitions.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_03: So our Spirit of Dance Awards was one of the very first uh competitions to start using our service about seven years ago.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: So we have about a little over a dozen competitions that use our service.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them use full panels, some of them pick a judge here and there.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a really awesome service for comps who would like to kind of offload that responsibility, but know that they're getting pre-screened, vetted, and now background-checked judges for their events.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: So that business has been around for uh is this your eighth year?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: About eight years.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: And like it feels like it feels like a lifetime.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: But so a few years into the service, Courtney had this grand idea to start a podcast because as judges, you get three minutes for one dance and you have to say everything.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so many of us are also educators, and there's so much more to say, and we have so much more to give.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: And her sort of brainstorm was how can we get more information out there, you know, aside from in class, aside from reading a blog, aside from, you know, being a judge for three minutes.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so she came up with the idea of having a podcast.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: So we've we're headed into our fourth season this year.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: We cover all kinds of topics from tights versus no tights, shoes versus no shoes, to things like what is lyrical, what is contemporary, why are they different?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_04: Justice for open.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: The open category, the whole podcast episode on what is the open category.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: So we do a lot of topics.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: We have a lot of topics that come directly from our listeners because we want to know what you want to know from us.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: All of us on this panel are, you know, over 10 years of judging everybody.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: Most of us are still dance educators to this day.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, we'd have a lot to say and we have a lot of love in our hearts for what you guys all do as dance educators yourself, day in, day out in the studio.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: So we're just here to help and we love what we do.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we definitely do.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: And before we kind of jump into the questions, I'd love to know just who's here today.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Where are you guys from?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Massachusetts.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Are you from Massachusetts?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone is really wow.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, awesome.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, okay, there's that.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was gonna ask some more states, but uh I guess that's it.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: And who who's sitting with us?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Is there studio owners?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Studio owners, great.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: Dance teachers, not studio owners, awesome.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: Any dance parents or no?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, hello dance parents, awesome.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: All right, we got everyone.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have any dancers, no.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so we don't have any dancers because they're taking class right now at Spirit of Dance Awards.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's what's happening.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, we have a nice uh mix of different, all different types of dance lovers here today.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: I also want to give a shout out to Chris, our sound engineer over here from Clear Line Technologies.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: And he is running our sound today at this event.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: So we really couldn't make this possible without you.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: We're so grateful.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: And we also want to give a shout out to the SE microphones for supplying our awesome studio microphones for our live podcast.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: How exciting! So thank you so much.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: And our podcast, like we said, we are launching season four in September, which I'm so excited about.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: So stay tuned because right now we're in our summer hiatus where we are kind of where we're doing this.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're doing this, you know, we're prepping for next season.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: We're thinking about what topics we want to do, we're getting guests lined up and things like that.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: And we need a break.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: Some people are some people do podcasts all year long.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how they do it.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I'm like, I need a break of not recording every single week.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: So that is what this is right now, and we can also travel and have a vacation and teach and things.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that's launching September 1st.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: So stay tuned for that.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: And finally, before we jump in, we recently in this past season started an option for listeners to donate to our podcast.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: We do all of this for free.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: You can listen to everything for free.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: We have over a hundred episodes now, um, now that we're headed into season four available.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a service called Kofi.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's a QR code that you can scan.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's right over there.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: You can donate as little as 50 cents.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like you can donate your Venmo balance if it's 50 cents.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, thank you.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: We appreciate it.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: But we've raised, we've raised, it's not really raising, but people have donated about$500 to us this season, which has really helped just with paying our editor because that's the one thing Courtney and I don't do.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: We pay an editor to keep the quality good.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: We pay him.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_03: We've purchased new materials, new new mics, new promotional things.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: So any little bit helps, but also things that help too are don't cost any money, which would be to write us a nice review on Apple Podcasts, share with your friends.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: We have a Facebook group also called Making the Impact uh a dance competition podcast community.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: So many words that has what do we have over?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like we have like 1700 people.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we have a lot of members.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: We it's it's much nicer than the the dance teacher networks that we might all be a part of because we have parents, teachers, students, judges, dance industry professionals all there.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it's I think a more productive conversation in that Facebook group.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_04: Very supportive.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh very supportive.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of sharing of of accolades and and things that your kids have been doing.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: And we love to see that because we're all judging all these competitions we go to, like we see these kids, especially with all the IDA competitions.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: So we get to learn who they are and and watch them grow just like you do.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, any little bit helps, we appreciate you.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yay.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: All right, so let's jump into uh this QA.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: So how this will work is you can stand up and head on over to this beautiful microphone right in the center of the room.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason you have to do that is so we can capture your audio so we can produce this into a podcast because this is going to be turning into a summer exclusive episode that is launching in the next few weeks for all of our fans worldwide to listen to.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have a question that you'd like to ask, you can come up to the mic.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: You can share your name if you'd like, your where you're located, your studio if you want to give them a shout-out as well.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: And we're totally open to any type of question.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't have to be just about the competitive dance world.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: It can be about what's next for your dancer as they pr as they progress into the professional world or college dance or training at your studio, costuming, uh, technique, performance, truly anything.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: If you have a question, we're here to answer.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: And we're all professionals up here who have been doing this for a while, whether we're judging, we've been on all sides of the industry as well.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, Leslie directs now at Spirited Dance Worlds, she's on the back side.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: I run a business slash professional dancer, educator, educators, professional dancers.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like we've done it all.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: So we are more than happy to answer any question you may have.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: So if there's any questions to kick things off, if not, we have some pre registered.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: So don't worry, we can kick things off on our end.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you need to warm up a little bit.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, I love, I hope somebody asked a question.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I have some that get them, start thinking about them.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe something will come to you.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: Why don't we start with a lobby question?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: Because we had we had several questions in our in our little box this week that were children who just were being very silly.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: So that was kind of sad.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: It was I was I thought it was hilarious.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: It was the I was like, this is amazing.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Good job, child.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: But we did have two actually pretty good questions.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll always look for this.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: We'll start with one of our questions from the lobby.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm assuming this is coming from a dancer.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Could have come, it's an anonymous person.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know who they are, but they asked what kind of music or genre is preferred for a title routine, if any.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Great question.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'll start.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: Go rock.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know that there is a really specific type of style or genre that we're looking for.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_05: I think for me, let's like hone in just on Spirit of Dance Awards this week.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's more important to me that we're showcasing our dancers to the best of their ability.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_05: I know when I was growing up, there was always like one year that our studio director always asked us if you wanted to do something different than what you thought that you were best at, but you wanted to try.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_05: That was an experience that we always tried growing up as artists because I feel like we our studio was really focused in on being versatile in all different types of genres.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_05: But I don't know that there is one.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_05: I just always want for that dancer to get on stage and be able to form uh perform to the strongest of their ability and feel as if they're the most comfortable on stage.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, I don't I don't need for the costume to be dripping in rhinestones and for it to be the most dramatic Celine Dion song that I've ever always wanted to listen to.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um but we had at at titles this year, we had so many different types of genres.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, most of my resume is is tap and musical theater.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_05: So that's where, you know, that's where a lot of my background comes in.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_05: But I also grew up as a comp kid that had every different type of genre at school and then went to college in the city.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_05: So it's not like, you know, I think, especially with IDA judges, there's definitely never going to be one genre that we don't have any experience in, but we just make sure.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: Step for maybe clogging.
• 12:09
  unknown: Yeah.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: I don't really have a lot of clogging experience.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I think double step, rock step.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_05: That's all I want to do.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_05: Clogging, I tried to research as much as possible because when when I was younger in the South, clogging's huge.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_05: And um, I I remember going to my first competition to judge and was like, well, what if they do clog?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I don't know, I don't know what to say.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_05: So I need to look up some YouTube videos.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, oh, this is what this is.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_05: We really remember that one before we go.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_05: So no, to the to the answer that question, there I don't, I don't ever need one specific genre.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_05: I think uh there's so many different walks of life and and uh hopefulness in those kids that that I just want to be there to support no matter what their genre is.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I think what he said, but also a strong showcase of technique, but most importantly, what genre they feel comfortable performing in.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_04: For me as a judge, we've judged many a title competitions, and it's what we remember at the end of the day of that person made me feel something, that person like made me smile, they made me laugh, they made me cry if it was Celine Dion because hashtag always Celine.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um but it's what they feel comfortable doing and how they can perform and how they can touch us.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's not how many pirouettes or how high their leg goes, but what they made us feel.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_04: And at the end of the day, you know, that for me is what sticks with it.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_04: So if it's musical theater and awesome, and if it's Celine, let's do it.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I was judging another event last week, and you know, you see a lot of kids who do title have several other solos, and so you see the same kid every week or every day.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: And there was this one girl who came out, she had on these black knee pads, and everything was black, and she was super fierce, and it was this m real modern solo, but that wasn't her title solo.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: Then we get to title day, and she does a beautiful Celine Dion rhinestone dripping lyrical, and she was lovely, she was good at that, but her title solo should have been that modern solo because she was better at it.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: She captivated me.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't just another, you know.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: Listen, we all love Celine.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: Like we're we all grew up in a certain age, we all love Celine.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: And the kids now are getting to love Celine too.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: But that kind of style, it's a dime a dozen almost at this point.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: If you can show me something like Rob was saying, that you do well, because I was like sitting there the whole week, I was like, oh, because she and she didn't win title.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: She didn't even place.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, oh, she really might have placed with that other routine because it was just, it was so different.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: It was so very clearly her.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I just I had this thought in my head all week of I wonder if that was her choice or somebody else's choice who thought she should do this rhinestone dripping lyrical dance for her title, because that's what title is.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: Because I don't think title is anything.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: Title should be you, your personal best.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: So that's my two cents.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think that what's interesting about this question, and I'm really glad we had this type of question because I think we've talked about maybe doing a title episode.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: We've never really talked about title on the podcast before.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: It was it was suggested actually by a listener.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I think what's interesting about this is obviously, as most of you know, title's different at every competition that you go to.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: So the expectation and what the judging panel is looking for, and also what the competition determines what makes up a title, you know, competitor.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Some people have to do interviews and do public speaking.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: Some people, I did title when I was young.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's I think it was star power.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I had a model in a dress.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like I like an evening gown and like walk across the stage.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: It was, it was, I was so out of, you know, so uncomfortable, but it was part of the thing because whoever won, this was at Nationals, whoever won got to be the face of Dance Spirit Magazine or something crazy, you know.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: So they wanted somebody that knew how to carry themselves and knew who could be that face and had like almost like Miss America.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's what it felt like.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that titles are different everywhere.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: And there's, I love, you know, what everyone said as far as making sure that you're showing you your best you.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: But then I also think that it's different depending.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's why so many people are confused as to like which which solo should I enter if I have multiple?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: Should I put this intense modern that's going to be memorable?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: Or should I kind of like do this like showy lyrical?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: And some people might go in the opposite direction, whereas, like, well, I need that flash and jazz and things because I want to see your performance quality.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not about like standing out with something obscure and different.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: And that almost feels like could be more overall style.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like this was well executed, this was unique, the choreography was awesome, this is different.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas title could be, I need to see who you are as a performer and your showmanship and that type of vibe in a dance.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I, but again, I think it's different.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like every single competition is different.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: But I think what we kind of said at the end of the day is just making sure you're presenting you your best and feeling confident with it.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like it should be the dancer's favorite solo that you're entering into title because they're gonna perform it the best.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: Out of if they have three solos, it should be the dancer's decision.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like I think the teacher should definitely guide the dancer, be like, I think this one would be best for you.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: But if the dancer's like, I love this one the best and I know I'm gonna perform it the best, then do that one.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it's not that deep, you know?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: And your regular dance is gonna have the chance to get first overall against everybody.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that one's still competing, but do your favorite one for title if you're gonna even go through the, you know, go through even entering it separately into a whole separate division.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_04: And I think there's also looking into different competitions as to what the title, like Courtney was talking about.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_04: I grew up doing Dance Masters of America, and those title competitions are literally 10 days long.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: Scholarship auditions, audition classes, interview, literally modeling yikes.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_04: But looking at the requirements and seeing what is asked of the dancers and how how this the actual solo feeds into the overall score, because a lot of times the audition classes are like 10%, and you know, your on stage question if you have to talk out loud to the audience is another 15%.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: So headshots sometimes too.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_04: Headshots, yeah, the quality of a headshot.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_04: So kind of just feeding into like what that forty-five percent of your score, if like one solo is always getting XYZ placement at all of regional competitions, you're going to a nationals or title competition, you know, thinking strategically about you know which one has always done better, looking at why it does better.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: And if your dancer is solely focused on doing the other solo, like what can you learn from your other solo to help them do better with the other solo that they choose to present?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_04: So a lot of a lot of game uh game time decisions.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of love this.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like we should do a podcast on this one.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: Title?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: Write it down.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: All right, we're moving on to our next question.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: This was previously submitted online from an anonymous dance teacher in New Hampshire.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Rob, I think you'll like this one.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: So the question is what are your thoughts on comparing tap dance to other styles at dance competition?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Tap is unique when compared to styles like jazz, ballet, hip-hop, and acro, and doesn't necessarily follow the same qualities as those other styles, such as hitting correct positions and alignment.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because of that, it's frustrating to me when we always get beat by a tap dance.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: Oh.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: That went in a direction I didn't expect.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: Me too.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I I think it is a great question, actually.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_05: And I think tap right is its own genre.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_05: Um I I think the leverage to talk about conversation pieces of each separate genre is probably really important as well.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_05: Um like I said, my most of my background or most of my career was in tap shows um in and around the United States.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_05: So that's where it looks like I'm the most, you know, the most leveraged, and I probably so because it it is it's insanely hard to find dancers that have the kind of musicality, especially for a solo.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_05: I actually thought about this yesterday when we were watching um senior competitive solos and thinking you're so vulnerable when you're on stage as a soloist.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_05: And I think it it's like 10% more when you're a tap dancer because you're literally putting your percussiveness and so much opportunity for not sitting into the pocket of the music, uh staying in those kinds of leverages of timing and specificities of shading and coloring of sounds, and maybe, you know, maybe the stage that's under the Marley is not great for tap dancing.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I remember having a tap teacher when I was growing up that they would never tap dance on hardwood if the hardwood was going uh lateral.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_05: They need to tap dance if it went this way because they tapped with the grain of the wood.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_05: And to be totally honest, it made it made so much sense to me because then I remember going into those studios and then practicing and being like, oh, it actually does.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_05: There's like a muffledness to it, and of course we're tap dancing on Marley, so it's kind of you know, you're you're doing with what it is.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_05: So the the differentiation and maybe the frustration behind that is is real, I'm sure.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_05: So uh the idea that that an amazing tap dancer could come out and and sweep an entire competition based on a really insane lyrical dancer seems a little uh a little off for me, but I I would never say that someone's feelings are unjustified, especially in those kinds of spaces.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_05: I think usually it's because uh if you see someone that can get on stage and that that can perform, but then also be the entire drum casing uh while in their number, you're like, well, you just added a completely other layer to it, right?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_05: So we can do lyrical dances, we can connect to those lyrics, but then if you can also be the percussiveness of that piece, it's it's something that only you know certain amounts of people can really have that kind of artistry in it.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and jumping off of that, a tap dancer can can impress me alone without music because their feet are the song.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: You don't even need music.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: You can give me an a cappella tap dance, and if you are a musician, that's all I need.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: A lyrical dancer, you know, we we talk about this a lot.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: What's lyrical?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_03: What's contemporary?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: What makes it different?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: For me, lyrical, I need lyrics.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: I need your story.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: I need to know what it is.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: And that's you're really hard pressed to do that without music.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: So if we were really getting into the nitty-gritty of that question of, you know, oh no, my a tap dancer beat my really good other style dancer, that's probably why.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: Is if that tap dancer's music went out and she's a great tap dancer, I can still give her the same score I would have given her because all I need is your feet.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's that's kind of where I land with that.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry, teacher in New Hampshire.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like I think, I think it happens.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I do think, you know, across the country, judging for the past decade, depending on where you are, there's not good tap.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so when you come to an area where there is good tap, people who care about tap dancing in that way, we really want to recognize it.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: And it's not to say that we don't care about lyrical or ballet or technique in that way.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: But tap, you know, I think we have this conversation of tap is a dying art form.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I think in some places it is.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think everywhere, certainly not in the in New England.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: Not New England, not New England, not New England, 100%.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: No, New England is like doing the thing.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: But that's surprising that comes to me, comes to us from New York.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: Where I'm like, oh no, but there's really good ballet and really good tap up here.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like every just really good.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like I don't know what to say.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: But I think for me, that would be the reason if, you know, if if somebody's a musician, right, they're a musician alone without any help from music.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_04: I also think there are when thinking about judges, there are some judges who just aren't strong tap judges and don't know what a good tap piece is versus looking at someone doing all its own turns.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_04: So I think it also then goes back to incredible services like Impact that have well-rounded judges, even tap-specific judges like, you know, Rob's a great tap judge, but being able to differentiate what is a really, really strong tap piece and what is just, you know, the lyrical solo that everyone knows.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_04: I also think there's such a difference in when a dancer comes out who's dancing and tapping with their full body, and it's not just from your hips down and your upper body's like loosey goosey.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_04: But when you see that tap solo come out and they are literally dancing and they are the percussion and they're really just, you know, killing their choreography, but making phenomenal tap sounds, I think that is what, as judges, we're like, holy crap, like how is this kid, how is this kid doing this phenomenal?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_04: How do they understand and how do they correlate their upper and lower half?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_04: Because the majority of the times judging a tap solo, we're like, you have beautiful sounds, but now we need to remember that you have like 50% of your body up here.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_04: And how do you dance full-bodied in a tap solo?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: And being a professional, and you know, we just dance in the Miss Massachusetts pageant.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, oh my gosh, like what are our arms doing?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_04: How do we do our paradiddles?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what are we, where are we looking?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_04: And it's stressful.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm 30 years old.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my God, old.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um but you know, it takes a lot of extra thought and brain power and rehearsal time.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_04: But when a teacher can get their student to do that, it is so worth celebrating and it's so worth giving them that recognition because they deserve it.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_04: And they're able to really showcase not only their artistry, but their musicality and the fact that they understand what tap is.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_04: You are percussion, but you have portabras and it's great.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_04: So I think, sorry, New Hampshire, but um you know, I yeah.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I tot I totally agree.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like that I've seen tap dancers that blow me away and win first overall.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like that, and sorry about it, New Hampshire teacher, but like they do because they deserve it, like for all the reasons that we said.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I actually was just judging out a nationals in Florida, it was and it was a dance convention, so the caliber of talent was so high.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, and I remember judging, I think it was like eight hours of senior contemporary solos, and then the tap section finally came around, and I was like, all right, give me something different, let's go.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: And there was a tap dancer, she had on pink tap shoes, and she had everything you just described as far as like the effortless execution of the lower half of her body, but she was such a performer, and I told her on the critique, I was like, and she was 17.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I can't wait for the day when you graduate and you're going to go be just jamming in a jazz club in the lower east side of New York City, and just like, you know, with the drummer next to you and just living your life, you're gonna get hired for that because you you're just so charming and like fun to watch and engaging.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's I just sat back and enjoyed it.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's what we want to do at the end of the day is make the judges just sit back and say nothing.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, I feel like I'm at a, you know, like at a club right now and you're doing like an improv jam with a musician.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like it was just really unique and cool.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: So to me, I was like, this is the same level of difficulty and execution as head springs and triple pirouettes in a contemporary dance, you know.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I it's hard to compare, yes, because they are two different genres, but I think that it's possible for tap to to dominate sometimes.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: It does, it does, it just does.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it does.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_05: I also think this is my last part of it.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_05: I also think that there's an opportunity to think about New Hampshire.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: You can just leave it on the table.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_05: Miss New Hampshire, that there is you can be a really wonderful tap dancer, but then what separates that as well is that you also have ballet and jazz training as well.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_05: And I can tell that from your portabras up top.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_05: So you can be an incredible contemporary dancer and have no tap technique, but then you can also be an incredible tap dancer and and still you must then have an impeccable ballet and contemporary technique.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_05: And I think sometimes for me that's also what sets it apart, which is also stemming from what Sam said about the torso and the port de bras and any kind of shouldering, or you're thinking at that point, because I also teach a lot of ballet, you have a palm on that's gonna happen in your tap dances as well, your tap pieces, that stems from something that you did at the ballet bar last week.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_05: But you don't have to showcase that in a contemporary dance, uh, your, you know, your double wings.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_05: You're not focusing in on separated wings or a shiggy bop or you know, a rhythm term.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_04: And I also think it's imperative that tap is implemented into every dancer's training because it not only helps, obviously, with the art form, but your musicality and your jazz, in your ballet, in your contemporary is gonna change.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_04: And majority, you know, if your students are looking to go to New York, I would say more than half require like a tap portion of, you know, if you're auditioning for a Broadway show, there are like four or five different shows on Broadway right now that require tap.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_04: And because the industry is so selective with who they're casting, you have to be able to do everything.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_04: And tap is part of that.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it not only, of course, will help you book more jobs, but it changes the way you hear music, it changes your rhythms, it changes the way that you music your it helps with your musicality.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm so grateful that I had strong tap training growing up because I feel like I'm a stronger jazz dancer because of it.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it's imperative that everyone taps.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um go tap.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: Go tap, yeah.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: And thank you, anonymous dance teacher, for the question.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: Do we have any questions from our questions?
• 29:14
  unknown: Hi, my name is Sean.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm from Every School of Dance.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Still talking about that subject, I was always I have a thing with the hip-hop.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: I love hip hop, but I don't think it should be critiqued with a beautiful ballet or lyrical or tap.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that was my my thing.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: How do you feel about that?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's a tough one.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: I think it lives in the same world as the say the tap question because good hip-hop is almost like tap in that the musicality and the shading and the accents are so much more important than what a contemporary a lot of times has become, which is reach over here for eight counts and stretch your leg over here for eight counts.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, some contemporary utilizes a lot of accents and and different um contractions and things like that that that if you do it well, it it feels almost like hip-hop, you know, and there's such a thing as contemporary hip-hop, lyrical hip-hop.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we have this fusion these days.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um there are hip-hop competition, and I I I do think that that's a world that should be utilized if your studio is is that big into hip-hop because I didn't train in hip-hop.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_03: I I grew up when hip-hop was the running man.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's just not it's not a thing that I trained in.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't have I can speak to the rhythms, I can speak to the accents, I can speak to your placement and all kinds of things that just general dance technique can talk about.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_03: But that's one of the things that I think most competitions struggle with casting their panels is getting somebody who could really hip judge a really, really good hip-hop dance, but also judge a really advanced tap dance and then your ballet variation that's coming out from Capellia.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if that person exists.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's a that's a very specialized trifecta of things.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, in in a perfect world, you know, we would just all go to YAGP or we would all go to, if Gus Giordano had made a competition, like we would all go there for every genre.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_03: But I think, you know, I think most judges try to do their best.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: And and one of our things with IDA is that most of the compet the competitions will request, if they have a studio that comes out with strong hip-hop, they will request to Courtney, hey, we need a hip-hop judge, somebody who can legitimately talk about this on that panel.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: Same thing with tap or ballet or whatever it is.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so you know, if if your studio does specialize in something, I would recommend reaching out to the competition to make sure you have a qualified judge on the panel.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um because that makes a difference.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: That makes a difference in how the overalls are gonna play out.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because if the people aren't qualified, and even when it comes to tap too, it's like I've sat alongside people that think what we just watched was exceptional because they don't know tap, and I'm like, uh, they missed a thousand sounds and they were five counts ahead the entire time.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, they were charming and like they performed, but they were a hot mess.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: And no, they can't get an ultimate titanium.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, you know, like it, you know, whatever, whatever it is.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I think the same thing can apply to hip hop.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's like so hype at hip with hip-hop.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: The crowd's going, everyone's screaming, people are like twerking on stage, and the moms are going wild.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like that happens, so then automatically the judges that don't know hip-hop just uh think, well, this must be great, right?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: The audience is getting hype.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I think this has to be like overall high score winner.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, well, do you understand the foundation and technique behind this genre and the fundamentals?
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't, then you know, and like Leslie said, it's on my end, it's extremely hard to find those types of judges that can judge hip hop.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that you're as a studio are lucky to have, at the very least, at least one judge that knows what they're talking about with hip-hop.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: If you are bringing actual hip-hop to the to the stage, there have been so many times where studio um competitions have come to me and said, Well, we have a lot of hip-hop coming to this event.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: Can you please make sure that somebody on the panel is a hip-hop specialty judge?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, sure.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: I give you a hip-hop specialty judge.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: Then the hip-hop judge comes back to me and they're like, I didn't see a lick of hip-hop.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: It was nothing but jazz funk and street jazz on stage and not actual hip-hop.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, Oh, okay, so that's like the other problem in the industry is what is hip-hop?
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, which we did an episode on hip-hop season two.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, I think.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: Was that season two with Voltaire, Wade Green, and John Borella?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: It was really great.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, I think it really comes down to the judging panel at the end of the day and just preference and opinion, but it is it is tough to put them all alongside each other when it comes to top overalls.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: You have a question?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_09: Um my name is Rachel, and I'm with Amory School of Dance also.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_09: And I have a question kind of similar with this.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_09: I teach acro there, and I come from a gymnastics world, so this is still relatively new.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_09: And same thing with judging, you don't see a lot of acro entries.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_09: Not anymore, yeah.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_09: Is open a better uh kind of toss up and down?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_09: Do I enter them as an open or as an acro?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_04: I love open.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_04: I think open is great.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_07: Same question.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_04: I think it also depends on one looking at the requirements of what how many elements of acrobatic tricks you can have in your routine.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_04: And if that's if you're doing three aerials and you're still doing a jazz piece, keep it in jazz.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_04: If it's this acro specific piece and there is a fusion of you know the jazz element, maybe there's it's lyrical acro, who knows?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_04: There's you know, a lyra or a hoop, whatever.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_04: Silks.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_04: I always say go acro.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, oh my gosh, open, sorry.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_04: Go open because of that fusion blend.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_04: And it's I think you know, open opens up the door for so much interpretation, and you're not confined to these specific, you know, guidelines of judges being like, Well, why are you doing so many acro tricks?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_04: But this is still in, you know, the jazz category or the acro category.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: This could be better suited in open.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think judges will take points off based on category, but if there is that fusion blend, if there is something that kind of separates category, I will.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, Courtney will.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, I will.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'll just say it a lot of like grace.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_04: I think open is just it's that category that is the sweet spot of like it is acro, but there's also this element in it.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_04: There's, you know, a blend of XYZ.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_04: Open's awesome.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_05: I think in that, in that reference, that if it and you said that you are an acro teacher.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_05: So I think in those moments, uh, it's it could be a double-edged sword.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm sure that you've probably found this a lot in life.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_05: That if it's an acro solo, then I then I need the specificities of those acro elements to be right.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_05: Then I need for those to really be focused in on and not a you know a turn sequence somewhere in the middle, which is fine because that's you know, artists objective in that moment.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_05: But also, you know, it's the same kind of reference.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_05: If you put if you put someone in the ballet genre, then that's all that I'm gonna focus in on.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_05: I'm still gonna need the artistry, but I need then to be able to say there's no turnout there.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_05: So we trained a lot in acro when I was younger as well.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_05: Not that I physically can do it anymore, but if it's in acro, then you have to be prepared, not you, but proverbial you, then the world itself has to be prepared then for me to say you're not even finding the right space in your back hand spring.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_05: You're, you know, or if you're in a chin stand, you're compressing your vertebrae and there's no elongation, which of course, you know, you see all of those issues, and you can see those in a jazz solo because, you know, the chin stand is like one of the most popular things that's come around.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_05: But if it's not done correctly in an acro solo or, you know, production number, then it becomes even more finely tuned for me to be specific in my scoring.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_05: The same thing with ballet, and the same thing with tap, because how many people then have a tap have two tap solos or three tap solos?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_05: They need one in tap, they need in one in open, and then they put one in musical theater.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_05: Well, then in that genre, if you're in musical theater, then I don't need for it to be everything focused in just on your tap technique.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_05: Then I'm looking at a full broad perspective of it.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_05: So I think that's actually a really awesome question.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_05: I think to the audience and to anyone that that then also has that question is then be prepared because then I'm gonna come back in in respect of I then I need immaculacy based around your acro technique.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I think also just looking at the balance of what is what are your dance elements and what are your acro elements and what is that ratio.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_04: And if it's leaning more towards acro, awesome, but still, you know, having these these judges that love seeing the connection and the transitions, making sure everything is super blended and there's no like run, okay, yeah, here comes here comes my tumbling pass.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_04: But finding that delicate balance of a dance transition, those dance elements blended beautifully with the acro technique, I think also is another little step towards that open category.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_04: If you're leaning more towards a lyrical and we're just doing, you know, front aerials and all that fun stuff, open.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_04: But if it is that really strong, heavy, hard-hitting acro, you're showcasing, you know, forward, backward, side, whatever acro.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: I think that that's why competitions have acro limits for genres, exactly for this purpose.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_02: So we can determine and the ratio that Sam was just talking about, it's like we need to go by those guidelines for genre for different genres that we're entering into so they can be placed accordingly, so we as judges can do our job properly.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because if it's just the hodgepodge of whatever and a mishmash of five different styles of dance, and I don't even know if that was supposed to be a pirouette or was that supposed to be a scorpion, or what was that supposed to be?
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you're if we're sitting here on the opposite side of the table questioning every step that you're doing because we don't know what genre it's supposed to be, then it our job is gonna be ten times harder, and then that score is automatically gonna get lower.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that competitions have set those guidelines that have gotten more loose and relaxed in the past few years, mainly because of the fusion of acro that is taking over the competitive dance world.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas acro is in every style of dance, sometimes even tap.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: For I've seen it in ballet.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've seen it in every style at competition, and and we as judges are just sitting here kind of like, can't this just be ballet?
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: Can't this just be jazz?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: Can't this just be contemporary without a headspring?
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I keep bringing up headsprings, but I just see them all.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they stress me.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm scared for I'm scared about them.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um so really fine, like figuring out that ratio and saying, we're walking into this dance as a lyrical dance.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_02: This is going to be lyrical.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm only going to put two acro elements, a side aerial, a front aerial, boom, that's it.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna put anything else.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_02: No chin stance, no elbow stance, no chest rolls, nothing, because that's not lyrical dance.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you don't work on that in lyrical class.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: Why do you put it in your lyrical dance at competition?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, think about it in that perspective.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: If you create a dance that if you have a powerhouse dancer that's an acro, gorgeous acro dancer and gorgeous technician, and you want to showcase that fusion, open for sure.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: But there's also the reason why there's not a lot of stuff in acro anymore is because of that fusion that's happening, where dancers now aren't just acro dancers and dancers, they're acro dancers combined.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: So then we see that fusion all the time where the acro category is not really existent because we're not just doing tumbling passes and showing off our acro technique.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: People want that, you know, transitional step in the flow and the gorgeous dancing because that's gonna score higher.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's kind of like, oh, well, I can show that I can dance and I have beautiful technique and I have awesome acro.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: So why not show the judges everything I can do?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: Is how I think people are approaching it.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I would say open sounds right for most most of the time if you're giving like a dance acro, but if it's just a straight up acro, then acro I'm not mad at the acro category.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: I actually am excited.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_04: But also having the judges that know what they're judging and know what proper technique is, and I think that goes a long way.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: So we get asked a lot for acro judges too, and a lot of people are getting more acrobatic arts certified now, which is really great.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think they have a um I think they have an adjudicators course now, which we've we did at a um, we have partnered with them and offered, you know, that to our judges as well, which is really great because there's a lot of judges that are like, I don't know actually.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: I can do a cartwheel, that's all I got for you.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like I can judge it, I can see when your alignment's wrong.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: I can see like where things, but I can't physically, I never learned how to do those.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that, like we said, it's hard to find a judge that can now also now you have to be a gymnast and judge, you know.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's just how many more things do we do we have to know sitting behind that table?
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's getting it's getting harder and harder, honestly.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_03: And that's that's why I mean we we are here plugging IDA too.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_03: Like, that's why IDA affiliated competitions are happy with our service because we do try so hard to find people who can do it all.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_03: Because I'm sure you guys have been to many competitions where you're like, I listened to that critique and that person said a nothing, or B, called a flap a shuffle, or C, you know, ragged on the choreography of uh a variation because they didn't know, you know.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_03: So we're best.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's the best, yeah.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, you gotta love it.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_03: Do we have more questions from the audience?
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_03: Come on up.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: Tell us who you are.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_07: Hello, my name's Chrissy, and I'm a dance mom.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_07: Um girls dance at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Westfield.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_07: And I just wanted to know if you guys had any advice for a young dancer who's not as skilled in the acro tricks and maybe has less confidence because of that.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_07: But just if you could talk to about that a little bit.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_05: I I think just uh you mean like to put it into other pieces, or just like it's it's okay if you don't have those tricks.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_07: Oh my gosh, absolutely.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_05: Of course, yes.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_05: I think I think kind of you know, thinking about even titles, right?
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_05: So thinking about that, you need to showcase your dancer to the best of their ability.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I I think there's a there's so many different body types in the world, and some people just aren't meant to go upside down, right?
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I'm definitely not meant to go upside down anymore at my age.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_05: So I think it's for me, I would never ever need to see specificities or specific details in any piece ever.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_05: And I think we've probably talked about that on a podcast, and I probably have as well.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I don't ever need to see in a lyrical dance a full turn sequence in second.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_05: I don't ever need to see in a tap dance a shiggity bop when you're when you're not ready for it, right?
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_05: And I think just challenging your dancer always in life to know that what they're bringing to the to the table is special no matter what, right?
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_05: No matter what their skill set is, no matter what their level is, because I will always take heart and passion on stage over tricks.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_05: I I think there was quite a few times this past week that I found myself saying a lot of the same things.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_05: So I think just even thinking about dance teachers and choreographers, like uh Focusing in on what the actual genre is, acro or tap or or you know, in in jazz.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_05: But to to build the confidence in a dancer to make sure that they know what it is that they're doing is where they should be right there, no matter what, is really important and really special.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that that that's probably a huge part of my teaching method is making sure that they know that that they're where they need to be.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_05: And if they don't, if they can't do a cartwheel, that's perfectly fine.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_05: There are probably more than likely professionals on stage in a Broadway show that have never even attempted to do a cartwheel and they're still making, you know, three times more money than I am per day.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_05: Um or, you know, contemporary dancers.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_05: I'm sure that there are dancers in uh, you know, Ailey in the city that have never once ever tried a side aerial and don't want to because what they bring to the table is so much more special than that, and and they have an element to their own performance skills.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_05: Does that make sense?
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's a difficult question, actually.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, really, really great.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's also worth noting that like we don't have a rubric.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_04: We don't have like, did you do your all-sacone turns?
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_04: Did you do your tilts?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_04: Did you do your break the knee, knee fall, whatever?
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_04: But doing for me, what really separates some of those dancers is when someone comes out and I can't talk because I'm either crying or I'm laughing with them, or I just have the biggest smile on my face.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_04: And again, they make us feel something.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're doing a beautiful Tondu prep double turn and you land it and it's beautiful, I will take a clean double over messy alstacone turns any day of the week.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it just is coming down to what they love to do.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_04: And if they're enjoying it, I'm having the best time.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_04: I'm throwing pencils everywhere.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's the best.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's being able to just showcase your joy.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_04: And whether your leg goes to 90 degrees, but it is perfectly rotated and you are showcasing that turnout, you're getting a high score from me.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_04: And again, there's no, I feel like everyone just sees all these power turns and how many times can you flip upside down and how many sounds can you make in your tap dance?
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_04: But can you do a beautiful syncopated double paradidal and it's on the music, it's in the pocket, and you have a strong porte-bras.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_04: It's the overall package, it's what you bring to the stage, and it's not what you bring, but it's how you bring it and just the overall presentation.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_04: But if you're enjoying what you're doing and you're having fun, I'm sold.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'm in.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, great advice.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_03: Anything?
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I just wanted to say if she if your dancer is somebody who really, really wants to get better and like really, really wants those skills and is just not quite there yet, take the time.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_03: Take the patience, have patience, trust the process.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, if you've got a good teacher who's working with her, that's sometimes we all it just takes time.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, I I talk about this all the time.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_03: I I danced growing up.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_03: I have a mom who has a dance studio.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: We competed.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_03: I went to college for dance.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: I never won anything.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_03: I won a bronze at headliners.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_03: My senior year, I was 10th place out of 11 in the advanced category because it was the first year they did advanced levels.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_03: I was not any any kind of phenomenon, but I got into a school for dance.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody saw my talent.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: I could do a triple pirouette.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's the best I could do.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I worked and I got paid.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I still work and I still get paid.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a little injured now, but I would have been more injured had I pushed myself and killed myself to try to get an aerial or to try to do all these things when I wasn't ready, when my body was just like, no, girl, this is not for you.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_03: But the majority, you know, even if your daughter's not headed on to a career in dance, um she still has value and worth as a dancer and as a human, even if she can't do an aerial.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_03: And her life will be just fine.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and that's that's what I try to because I know there's so many kids out there who just who want these skills because they see them.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_03: They're on the internet, they're on social media, their friends can do them.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_03: Some of their friends have a million dollars to pay coaches every day to to get these skills.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_03: And and they're just skills, you know, they're not life skills.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love, I love every everything.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I I think that totally hopefully answered your question.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_02: It is, it's hard, I think, for the current generation to see what's out there and then also see it on social media and see the praise that it's getting on social media.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but then also go to competition and then see the praise happening at competition where that that dance is winning first.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that dance had 500 pirouettes and headsprings in it.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, so it's hard to for the kids that are looking to be that first place overall dancer when it's a comparison game to be like, well, how do I get that?
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I guess the only way is if I get my aerial and if I get my flexibility stronger and higher.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: And it's really not about that.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we we sit we care more about the performance, and and I think that this very much relates to our technique versus tricks episode, where we care more about the technique than the tricks.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: You can do a million tricks, and if they have poor technique, your score is getting lower and lower and lower.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_02: Don't show me what you can't do, show me what you can do, and show me what you can do well is yeah.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it's also worth calling out a lot of depending on if you're going into the professional dance world, depending what like track you want to go, if you want to go down the Broadway track, you'll most likely never do more than a double pirouette ever.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_04: If you if you even do that.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_04: If you're going to the cirque route, you're probably doing Scorpions all day every day.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_04: But like Courtney was saying, there are so many dance programs that showcase individual skill sets, but also the versatility.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_04: So I would also recommend your dancer honing in on like every single style and become acquainted with each style so that you do have those opportunities to explore, like, hey, I actually really like this contemporary.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_04: Like my leg isn't going above 90 degrees, but I'm staying on the floor and I'm just rolling around.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_04: There's stuff for that.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_04: And if you want to do pot de beret turns and like spot changes, there's a track for that.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_04: So just kind of figuring out what you what you really like, what you enjoy, but also knowing that like in the real world, if you're going to a Broadway show, double pirouettes unless you're in newsies.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_05: And I I think as well, I I know your dancers, I know your your children.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_05: And I think the light that they bring on stage is so much more important than you know, than a triangle stand or anything.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that that says an abundancy to more than likely their upbringing and probably the their training that they're getting as well.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_05: But also I would love to be able to change the mentality of the competition world to uh what Courtney said of it doesn't matter if you win first.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_05: To me, uh I tell a lot of a lot of students, it doesn't matter if you came out in any kind of ranking.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_05: To me, it matters more so that you're really content and you're happy with what you presented on stage that day.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_05: Are you, when you're when you're going to bed at night and you're laying your head down on your pillow, are you happy with what you put out on the stage?
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I think the dance competition world, while it is a competition, and of course there's always going to be ranking, and I think that's just the society that we live in.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_05: Take those critiques and hopefully you'll have really good dance competition judges and you'll hear those critiques that will be able to speak to the artistry of it as well, and to be able to improve them as artists, and then there'll be technical aspects as well.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_05: But for me, um most of my critiques are always based around performance value and are based around the artistry that you're putting on stage.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that to me, that's so much more important than a you know a front head sprint as love the head springs today.
• 51:31
  unknown: Thank you.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_08: You're welcome.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_02: Do we have any other questions?
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_08: Oh it's getting hot.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_08: I love it.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_08: Um, my name's Lindsay.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_08: I'm from Elite Dance Center.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_08: I just had a question because we you actually kind of were talking about the artistry and not having a rubric.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_08: So when you put a piece out, how much does it affect the scoring when you don't necessarily like the story that they're telling or don't think it jives with the song or the the lyric or whatever genre it could be, if it doesn't necessarily jive for you, how does that affect in the in the scores?
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_05: I think this the same the same perspective of that art is so subjective.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_05: And if if your judges are true artists, then they are able to recognize that no matter what, that there's something on the stage that that they may not connect to.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I'm sure that there are lyrics to songs that that there's no way that that I could empathize with ever.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_05: But if if that artistry is in motion and is apparent and is well produced on stage, then it doesn't matter.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_05: If I can't connect with it, but I see that.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_05: And I think, you know, I gave um a critique this past week to a soloist about making sure that there's some sort of light behind their eyes as well as as in as what they're producing from their chest forward because I saw so much emotion physically, but then there were times that I looked up and it wasn't there.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_05: There is no rubric, you know.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_05: This isn't figure skating in the Olympics where you must do these things and there's a specific way, and then there's not a specific way, right?
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_05: And there's no, I'm I've never judged the Olympics or any kind of thing like that.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_05: So I would imagine that there's probably really definitive no gray area.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_05: But for me, that's where dance sits, more so uh because you have your own opportunity to portray something, a song, you're gonna listen to a song, and I'm gonna listen to a song, and we're gonna we're gonna embody it completely differently.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_05: I think we'll more than likely see that today in our improv challenges.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_05: But being able, again, to just make sure from an artist standpoint, as a choreographer, as a studio director, as an artist, as a dancer, that you're content when you lay your head down on your pillow at night, that you did what you wanted to do on stage.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_05: You got your story across and hope that it was received well.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, so you think you can dance exists in the world and you have those dances on that stage.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_05: I'm sure those choreographers, they're Emmy Award winners, right?
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_05: They're there, some of them have even more accolades that are higher than that.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_05: They're nervous every time, right?
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_05: So, and I think that that's that percolation inside of you that that you want it to be perceived.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_05: We need to be able to get our art out, and that's so much more important.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_05: I stemmed off of your question a little bit, but I think it also is that uh same family.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and we do some most competitions, I won't speak for everybody, but even if you don't see it, we do we have a rubric of like what the percentage of your score has being part of it, if that makes sense, the breakdown.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_03: So at Spirit, I believe it's 40% technique.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_03: So if your dance is technically sound and I as a judge don't jive with the subject matter or think something's off in terms of you know appropriateness level or anything like that, I'm gonna give you that 40% technique score.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_03: You will, if if it's an ultimate technical dance, you will get a 95.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_03: You might not get a 97 or a 98 because of some other things that might be wrong that play a little bit more into the percentage of performance quality overall presentation or whatever else the other thing might be.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_03: I can't remember what it is.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: Choreography maybe.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_03: But like our job, 40% of it's technique.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I can't say no to your good technique.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_03: I I gotta give you the technique score.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_03: But those other things, like Rob was saying, are a little more subjective and you know, play off of okay, well, did the storyline come through for me as an artist, as a viewer?
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_03: And if it did, did it resonate?
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_03: Did you do your job as a performer to get me on your side, you know, or to move me in the way you wanted to move me?
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_05: So Yeah, I think there's there's professional dance companies in New York City that I've been to see their pieces because I I lived in New York for 15 years.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_05: So I've had so much art surrounding me for so long.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_05: There's pieces that I saw from professional contemporary companies and ballet companies that I didn't connect with and I didn't like, but I also knew someone needed to tell that story that day.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_05: And it was more important than me understanding it in that moment, seated.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_05: I I think that's where I would really base that honing in of that craft.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_04: So I also think him and I are the perfect example of like he loves one thing, and I'm like, oh, okay.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_04: Or like uh like Celine Dion lyrical, and it's like I surrender, and I'm like flipping tables, and he's like, What?
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so we're the perfect example of like it could be apples and oranges, but at the end of the day, the technique is what is it's all about at the end.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I totally agree.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that it just really depends on it.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it really does come down to an a preference and opinion of your panel.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like there have been times when there have been some of the best talent, and like if we're in a contemporary, all the artistry, all the technique, uh great execution.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_02: So then it's like, all right, well, how do we pick?
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_02: How do we pick out of everybody's lining up the same?
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_02: What if they all got the exact same score?
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_02: At that point, it kind of comes down to opinion and preference of, well, did I like this one better than that one?
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_02: Which theme did I like better?
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_02: Did I get the storyline better?
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_02: Did I like this song better?
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_02: These costumes were better.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, and then you just kind of like that's what it comes down to in those like really close tight who's gonna win scenarios.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't know, I we've talked about this a lot on the pod.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I feel like that usually on score sheets, we're catering our critiques to the dancers.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: There's not much on the score sheets anymore that even cater to, you know, the teachers, I guess.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's not much we can't tell you, hey, your choreography isn't that great.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_02: We would never say that.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, there's constructive ways to say, like, that transition right there is not really reading.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_02: I would love maybe we could create a level change there to make that work or something, but we are not really able to say that much anymore on the critique tapes.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then even in the score, if there is a score for choreography, like we don't want to penalize the dancers for a teacher's choreography.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that is almost just a preference thing sometimes, you know.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_02: Did we like it or did we not?
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: Or could, you know, were there holes or oh, that was off the music, or that didn't visual didn't make sense.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's just preference.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then we're altering someone's vision and art at that point when we give our preference.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_02: But then there's a lot of teachers that are like, I want to know those things so I can become a better choreographer.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm yes, which is why we have the podcast to give you more information that we can't tell you in three minutes.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_02: On so yeah, so I mean, that is something Rob was talking about teacher-only critiques, and that's something I've mentioned to a lot of competitions that I think that they should implement.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_02: I actually started doing that this season at Revel Dance Convention, in which I teach and and judge for, and they introduced a fourth judge so that didn't interfere with the three judges.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_02: It was a fourth judge that didn't score and just gave teacher critique.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_02: It was awesome.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_02: It was amazing.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was a and I sat there and I just got to be brutally honest and give feedback.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it was like the best job ever.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was my dream.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_04: It was.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_02: It was so good.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it was well received too.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of teachers were like, thank you for that.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I just wanted to know if this, if this was reading, like the thing you were just talking about.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like, is my vision coming across to us?
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_02: You will never know if we're just talking to the dancers the whole time.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes, as a choreographer, you need to know, yes, I know their performance is lacking, but what can I give them as a choreographer to make this make this visual come, you know, be a little bit more clear for the viewer.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_02: And if you aren't ever able to get that feedback from a professional, then you're never gonna be able to grow either.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's the, I think that's the one thing that's kind of for me personally, and I've talked about it a million times on the podcast, like how the industry has evolved into the we don't want to upset the teachers type of thing because it's, you know, you could lose business, and I get it.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's a business at the end of the day, but there are so many teachers out there that are still hungry and want that feedback and want that criticism and want, you know, constructive help on how to improve for their art as well, because you have transitioned from dancer to choreographer now.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, how do you continue to evolve as a choreographer besides just hearing, okay, you guys have to work on your technique?
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you got to make sure that preparation's turned out.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, we have to make sure, you know, it's just if it's all about the dancer, there's nothing for you anymore, besides your first place trophy if you win.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I think teacher critiques would be an awesome addition to a lot of competitions.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't know when.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_02: Give them feedback and tell them you want that.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's the only way.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: You're their customer, so they'll listen to you.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: We can talk about it all day on the podcast.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_02: But if you tell them, hey, this is something that I think would be great and I would love to have this type of feedback.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they'll listen.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think that's the only way to make change.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_04: And also three people's opinion, you know, it's gonna be different tomorrow.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_03: Or like that song, you know, my boyfriend broke up to me during that song and I can't hear it anymore ever.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's it's there's so many nitpicky things that like you just you can't know.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's always important to remember too.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_05: It's a brilliant question.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_05: Actually, it really is.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_05: And then there's so many different layers to it all.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_05: But we do have teachers only online critiques, right?
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_02: When we we do our online critique service through IDA, which I talked about at the award ceremony last night, and we're gonna give away a few here at this giveaway uh happening shortly.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_02: But if a teacher submits uh critique, they can request for teacher-specific feedback.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: So most of the time we get a lot of parents that are submitting their uh soloists for our online critiques, but occasionally we get teachers.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, Spotlight sends Spotlight Dance Academy Academy.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_02: They're here this weekend.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_02: They use our service and they want Becky the owner, she's like, give it to me straight.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_02: I I want to know exactly what I can do to make this dance better before I go to competition.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to know all the choreography, good and bad.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like, did you understand what this was supposed to be without me explaining giving you a description?
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think that's important to look at as a choreographer is your title shouldn't have to explain the dance.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_02: Your how you, you know, get that point across in the movement and the performance of a dancer is how you should, you know, get your theme across to your audience and your judges.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, we do do teacher critiques, but I'd love to see them at competitions more.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have a dancer question.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Maya from Dance Unlimited, and I was wondering what's the difference between jazz and musical theater?
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because in jazz, my teacher always tells me don't have the same face the whole time because it's gonna be boring, and you need to like have different faces, but then in musical theater, you just need to like sell the story.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's the difference?
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great great question, Maya.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_05: It is really great.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_05: Great question.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for being confident and coming up to ask that.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_05: I think there's so many different layers, of course, in jazz, right?
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_05: You can hear even just yesterday in our senior, I don't know if you were in the audience to see our senior competitive jazz.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_05: It was a huge section, which I was so impressed with, and I love that.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_05: But there were so many different songs, right?
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_05: There were fast songs, there were more like a nightclub theme song, there were slower, you know, had some sort of that kind of vibe behind it.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_05: So you really should be feeding off of the dance.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_05: The dance should really, or the choreography should be feeding off of the song that you're dancing to.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_05: Musical theater for me is really only based around a character, right?
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_05: So you're just thinking about, and it never has to be representative of the show that it's from.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_05: I love seeing um songs done in a different interpretation, even songs that aren't from musical theater productions or book musicals, that they uh someone comes up with something really cool.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_05: So if you're talking about your face in general in that moment, it's really about making sure that you're selling what you're giving and what you've been given.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_05: But musical theater is always going to be based around some sort of character.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_05: And it can be a character that is from the show or something that you decide with your choreographer of how to tell that story.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_05: That's a great question, though.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I think also with jazz specifically, really paying close, closer attention to your technique and the your choreography and how you're presenting that from a technical standpoint versus a musical theater, where if you're doing a jazz solo and a musical theater solo, we're gonna look at your jazz solo as like, are you doing direction changes?
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_04: How are your potabres, your pirouettes, your technical stuff versus a musical theater?
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, of course, your technique is still important, but what are you doing with this?
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_04: And what is your body saying and what is your story?
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_04: And are you connecting to it?
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_04: And are you projecting out and you're loud and you're big with your movement versus your jazz piece, where we're gonna look at that with a more critical technical eye versus exactly like Rob was saying, your musical theater is gonna be solely story-based.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_04: But there's also, you know, some lyrical pieces.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_04: She used to be mine, I'll always bring it up.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, people will do lyrical dances to that.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm always like, all right, so I would love to still see this in the musical theater category because it's from a musical.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_04: So also just thinking about where your where your song is coming from, what it is from, what the story is in any regard, but specifically when it's in that musical theater category, all about story, all about character.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I feel like I love this question and I love that we had a dancer question.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_02: I love that we have a dancer here at the live.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_02: So exciting.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely agree with Rob and Sam.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think that jazz still has performance.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_02: I think especially certain styles of jazz have a confidence to it in your expression.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_02: You want to know that you are the best thing on the stage and you can't take your eyes off of me.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's what it should feel like.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's different styles of jazz, like Rob was saying, you know, there's all there's so many different you want your personality and your performance to match with the style of the music.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_02: But when it comes to musical theater, I feel like the bigger, the better.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like I always tell dancers, you want to perform like you are performing for the cheap seats all the way in the back of the theater.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_02: And that means the nosebleed ones where you look like a little tiny ant on the stage when you sit there.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_02: But that person in that seat needs to still be able to see how animated and expressive and explosive your personality and character is all the way to the back.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_02: And the same thing should be applied to competition.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_02: Though another thing that I uh wish we didn't have a competition where the judge is sitting at the front, because I feel like that everyone just performs for the judges and forgets about the whole beautiful audience that's happening back.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_02: There, you know, you as a dancer want to perform for everyone on the floor, and that even means the cheap seats, even if there aren't cheap seats at a dance competition.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, but the bigger the better, the more animated, expressive if you're lip syncing, even how animated I'm talking right now, like just over the top for musical theater.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_02: Jazz can be a little bit more pulled back, but it has that nice confidence about it.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_04: And challenge yourself if you are lip-syncing, don't try not to do it and really challenge yourself to just tell the story through your acting choices, through those acting beats.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_04: And don't lip sync and don't rely on just the words and the intonation of the song to really drive your performance forward.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_04: But take yourself, remove the lip syncing from it and just put yourself into it and really come up with your own how this story's making you feel, what what you're telling, and don't do the lip sync and just challenge yourself to really dive into the character and what you're feeling and allow that expression to come through without just relying on the song.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_03: All of those things.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_03: Plus, if you are if you are choosing to do a musical theater piece in the context of the musical, right?
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_03: So you're doing Amazing Maisie from Seusical.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_03: What happened to her before the song and what happened after, right?
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_03: Because when you're acting, you need to know there's there's a point to doing that piece.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_03: Something happened to her before to make her do that piece, and something's about to happen.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I need you to remember the beginning and the end of both of those things to really make that piece super well-rounded.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_04: Great question.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_02: Great question.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_02: We should have done a podcast on the first day of national.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then you could have missed that.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_02: Next year.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_02: Next year.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_06: We'll be back next year to say it worked.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_02: Or you can send it in for online critique and then we'll give you that feedback before you hit the stage.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_02: Even better.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_02: People do that all the time too.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_02: They want to actually, we've had multiple people that send in an online critique at the top of the season get feedback.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_02: Then they go to competition, they send in another one and say, I've worked so hard on my feedback.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_02: Has have I improved?
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_02: Can I have the same judge that critiqued my dance before?
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_02: Because I want to see if they recognize that I've improved my dance and I've really put the time and effort in.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like we get that all the time.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_02: So you can send to us.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_02: We'll let you know how your performance is looking.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_02: That could be our final question, unless anyone has a final question.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_02: And yes.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_02: Come on down.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, come on down.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_02: Final, final question.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we could, but we can because I have a flight to catch.
• 1:08:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's true.
• 1:08:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh, I forgot about that.
• 1:08:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I have to check out on my room.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, here we go.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_09: I'll make it quick.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_09: Um I do come from that very precise world, that gymnastics world, like the figure skating, where you have levels and you have skill levels in each category.
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_09: So when I come to being new to dance competition, you have novice, intermediate, and advanced level.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_06: Here we go.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_09: There's also I'm a I'm a I read things and I know there's there's rules about if you compete in a certain level that you then don't compete in another level.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_09: And I just I feel like it's very loosey-goosey.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_09: And I'm just clarification.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_09: Because when you do have lower level children, it can be very frustrating when you see very skilled, higher level also competing in those lower categories.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, levels is one of the biggest conversation points, even when we're at dinner and not at a personal lives.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_05: We talk about levels a lot outside of dance competitions, but around dance competitions.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_05: I I completely understand the frustration, of course.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that that's also uh feedback for the competitions that you're going to.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_05: And when I say that there's no rubric, of course, I don't mean that there are actually, you know, policies that that are in the book in the beginning and that we hope that everybody's holding true to.
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_05: But also in the same breath, unfortunately, you know, dance competition owners, it's still a business, right?
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_05: And so, you know, they they need those, they need those checks to keep the doors open and to pay their judges and everything.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_05: Uh absolutely.
• 1:09:45
  SPEAKER_05: I think as it it starts with a change from us and from everyone else, you know, if there's an opportunity for feedback to the competitions and saying, I just want to make sure that we're, you know, we're reading this correctly.
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_05: It is that a specificity that we really need to focus in on, of course.
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um, if the judges, if we're doing our job correctly, we're also reading through those policies and procedure packets before we get to the competition.
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_05: And then we're holding people accountable as well.
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_05: Age appropriateness is a really huge opportunity as well, of course, in that holding people accountable, which I was on that podcast as well.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you were.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_05: I either listened to it or I talked on it.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_05: You were on it.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_05: There's quite a few.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, I I I know what that frustration and levels.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_05: And just like Leslie was saying, when we were kids, because Leslie and I are almost the exact same age, this when they first invented those levels, because uh before that, previously, it was dance.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_03: It was dance.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_03: Just go dance.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_03: You're either getting anything or you won.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you get a purple, a purple ribbon that said thank you for being at this competition.
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_03: Honorable mention.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, I still have the little ribbon from headliners.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_04: But I think also as judges, we clearly know when your dancer should be in the advance, but you're putting them an intermediate, like or novice, whatever it may be.
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_04: We know it.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_04: I'll always call it out on my critique and be like, this dance should absolutely be an X category.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_04: But if it is something that is so brilliantly placed and it is, you know, a recreational dancer, but they are doing their pivot turns, they are doing their pot burays, and they are really selling their performance, but it is so well choreographed to them, and there's nothing in their piece that is above their skill set, and it's exactly within the range of where they should be with their technique, it's perfect.
• 1:11:29
  SPEAKER_04: It's when you have the other dancers, unfortunately, that are doing 19 turns in second sequences that are in intermediate, and I'm like, I call you know what, and that's strategic, and I don't like that.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_04: And apologies.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_04: For me, right, yes.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_04: If it's something that is so well done and it's really, you know, it's where it should be 100%.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_04: But if it is something that should not be in that, I will call it out and I'll I'll probably take some stuff out because it's that's not fair.
• 1:11:55
  SPEAKER_05: I think we also have to be careful in those situations, like what you're saying, if it's reflective in that moment, because you could have a dancer that is out of this world and they do only dance for two hours per week.
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_05: And for some reason there's something, you know, the the stars aligned and this dancer is is there, but they but they don't dance that much during at the studio or or you know in their technique classes.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_05: And so you have to, it is a little bit of a of a challenge.
• 1:12:21
  SPEAKER_05: You know, there's there's a salsa dance going on at all times in our heads when we're at that table to make sure that we're not in any way offending anyone, but we're still getting our our points across, of course.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_05: So you you know, I I hear that question absolutely and thinking, you know, well, what if what if Daisy May doesn't actually dance for 18 hours per week, but she dances as if she does, you know, and the quality of her five hours of training is just that good.
• 1:12:48
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 1:12:48
  SPEAKER_03: And that you Courtney made a very good point the other day on some post somewhere about the quality of your training.
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_03: You could you could train for 20 hours a week.
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_03: And if it's not good training, you're not really that advanced.
• 1:13:00
  SPEAKER_03: But if it's five hours a week and it's excellent training, do they belong in novice because it's only five hours?
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's the quality of it.
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's where it's very difficult for us because we don't know.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_03: We see you for three minutes, and I don't, you know, over the week we see you for hours, obviously.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, I don't know your studio, I don't come to your studio, I don't know your teachers, we don't know what that kid does at home because now there's there's the world is at your fingertips in terms of training.
• 1:13:24
  SPEAKER_03: If you have a kid who's very, very dedicated, the internet is right there.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_04: And so sometimes it's years if you've been dancing for like five years based on the level in advanced, or if you've only been dancing for, you know, less than five years and recreational, and it's that's where like where it gets tricky.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's such a good, difficult, sticky question.
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_05: But we hope that the studio directors then are doing their job correctly and placing where they need to go.
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_05: And we have to in that point just have faith that that they're doing their job, so then that we can do ours seamlessly as well.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because I feel like, and going off of that point that you just made that I mentioned on a post somewhere recently, and it made me think about episode that we just had uh with the owners of Club Dance, and they're based in Arizona.
• 1:14:07
  SPEAKER_02: They were saying how large their studio was, and they were saying that they have like a pre-professional, super, super advanced, train like 20 plus hours a week team.
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_02: And then they have their competitive team, which is training a little bit less, but still technically advanced, if you go by the rule book of a competition.
• 1:14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yet they put them in two separate categories at competition, intermediate and advanced, because that is our intermediate team, and this is our advanced team.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how a lot of people structure their decision on where they put it.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Then on top of that, when you look at those intermediate kids from Club Dance, they're probably blowing everybody away.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_02: And there's somebody better than that in advance, you know, and in a perfect world, yes, they should probably be competing against each other in the advanced category.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_02: But the studio owners, and no offense to anybody, but I'm sure a lot of people do this.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_02: If you have an A and a B team type of scenario, you're like, well, my B team will get crushed by my A team, so I'm gonna put them in a separate level.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't that what levels are for?
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Instead of following the guideline and the str and the rules and saying, well, technically they train enough to be in advance, so sorry.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_02: B team's gonna get crushed.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_02: But you're gonna get crushed no matter what if people just don't follow the rules anyway.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_02: And isn't it a competition?
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've if you listen to the pod, you've heard me talk about levels.
• 1:15:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think we're I think we're gonna have a not me.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Did we talk about a level 2.0.0 episode because you know this is like the hottest topic ever.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that yes, there are recreational dancers that deserve to compete against dancers that don't train 20 plus hours a week.
• 1:15:33
  SPEAKER_02: I totally understand that.
• 1:15:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's where that's all it should be, though.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think it should be, you know, maybe like six to two hours a week as recreational.
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Everything above, you are a competitive dancer.
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Let's compete against each other and let's have an actual competition.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't train as much, again, that's the argument that I have.
• 1:15:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, it's not about how much you train, it's how you're taking class, it's the quality of training that you're doing.
• 1:15:57
  SPEAKER_02: You could invest tons of money into this.
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_02: And if you just don't have great teachers, maybe find a new studio.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds horrible.
• 1:16:04
  SPEAKER_02: But like, you know, make make sure you're putting every the same amount of time and energy into every single class that you take if you want to improve to get to that next level, instead of just taking a bunch of mediocre, you know, classes where you're like, I'm here, I showed up, you know, do my demi plies.
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you're not gonna progress if that's how you're approaching class for any dancer, any age.
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_02: So it it's a tough, it's a tough one.
• 1:16:25
  SPEAKER_02: I get it.
• 1:16:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think there should be two levels.
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's just me.
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Just that's my personal perspective on it.
• 1:16:32
  SPEAKER_02: There, yeah, there's I saw the competition actually advertised recently and they said new levels added.
• 1:16:37
  SPEAKER_02: And my mind was blown because I already knew they had four levels or five levels as it is now.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_02: So now, like when we were growing up, when it was just dance, remember, we used to just dance against your age division.
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_02: And even the age divisions have gotten smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller through the years.
• 1:16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like I remember when it was 12 and under, 13 and over.
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_02: And if you were eight, you're competing against a 12-year-old, all same levels, and maybe the eight-year-old would dominate because they were a sensational eight-year-old against a 12-year-old.
• 1:17:07
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's just what it is.
• 1:17:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's a competition.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like it, you know, but that's not fair.
• 1:17:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's not it's not fair sometimes, but hey, you know, and sometimes Leslie Miller, who won nothing, still books a job.
• 1:17:18
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's just it's once you get past competition, and listen, we all make our living from competitions.
• 1:17:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's a big portion of our income for the year.
• 1:17:26
  SPEAKER_03: So we are clearly not knocking this business.
• 1:17:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's just all businesses have issues.
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_03: And this is one of the major ones, obviously, from hearing from parents, studio owners, teachers, judges.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like we're all in it, kind of like, how do we fix this so that kids don't feel terrible, you know?
• 1:17:41
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what that's we want to feel good here.
• 1:17:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's just dance.
• 1:17:44
  SPEAKER_03: It's fun.
• 1:17:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think, you know, for anybody out there teaching kids, remind them of that.
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like we are here to have fun.
• 1:17:51
  SPEAKER_03: And and for many of them, they're gonna graduate at age 18, even if they were phenomenal, they're never gonna set foot in a studio again.
• 1:17:58
  SPEAKER_03: So, what are those lessons we're teaching them about how to be a good person, how to be a good teammate, how to be, you know, somebody who shows up on time to a commitment.
• 1:18:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like that, those are the skills that I think are way more important than a million fouate turns.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_02: And how to face rejection if you don't always win.
• 1:18:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's really important.
• 1:18:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's a life skill you're gonna learn.
• 1:18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're not always gonna apply for the first job you get and get it.
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_02: You're not.
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I tell dancers all the time when I'm teaching that I don't consider myself a professional dancer.
• 1:18:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a professional auditioner because I audition more than I dance.
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_02: And that's just the reality.
• 1:18:29
  SPEAKER_02: And that's life.
• 1:18:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like when you're looking for a new job, you're not gonna get that first job that you apply for.
• 1:18:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's just life.
• 1:18:35
  SPEAKER_02: So facing rejection and understanding what that feels like and not always being the winner, you have to have those personal goals.
• 1:18:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think we talked about this in one of our episodes.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Goal setting, like a goal setting type of episode, or we've done so many, I can't remember them all at this point.
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_04: But also, like if you're going for, if you're auditioning for something, they're not gonna be like, Well, did you get a platinum?
• 1:18:53
  SPEAKER_04: Did you did you get Did you win title?
• 1:18:55
  SPEAKER_04: Where's your trophy?
• 1:18:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, did you?
• 1:18:57
  SPEAKER_03: Can you bring your trophy to the audition?
• 1:18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Where's your where's your crown?
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_03: Where's your band?
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like, no, that's not a thing.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_04: So at the end of the day, it's three people's opinion.
• 1:19:04
  SPEAKER_03: And even if you don't get first place, second place is real good.
• 1:19:07
  SPEAKER_03: Third place is real good.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_03: If you got to title, period, you're real good.
• 1:19:11
  SPEAKER_04: I did a solo to Footloose when I was 14.
• 1:19:15
  SPEAKER_04: I was competing at Nationals in New York City.
• 1:19:17
  SPEAKER_04: There were 23 other gentlemen against me, and I was 22nd.
• 1:19:22
  SPEAKER_06: I wish I was.
• 1:19:23
  SPEAKER_06: It was great.
• 1:19:24
  SPEAKER_04: You don't want it.
• 1:19:24
  SPEAKER_04: There's a video.
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_04: There's a video, lots of knee slides.
• 1:19:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but like I still had a career after that.
• 1:19:30
  SPEAKER_04: And it's not because I didn't win.
• 1:19:33
  SPEAKER_04: I got, you know, I was second to last place.
• 1:19:36
  SPEAKER_04: And it was great because I was like, oh wow, I thought I did really good and I did really bad.
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_04: So it fueled me to work harder and figure out like, what are these other people doing and why did they score so well to make me like think back of like how can I change my training and how can I just better myself?
• 1:19:52
  SPEAKER_04: And at the end of the day, that's what this all is is how can we be better the next time we step out on stage?
• 1:19:56
  SPEAKER_04: And sometimes, you know, those moments are like the best moments because you're like, oh, okay, this all makes sense now.
• 1:20:02
  SPEAKER_04: And seeing these people dance from all over the country, there's so many different genres, so many different styles, so many different ways to approach your choreography.
• 1:20:09
  SPEAKER_04: We got so far off from levels, but the end, that's it.
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_02: We can talk about it all day, y'all.
• 1:20:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, this is a sharpie.
• 1:20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:20:16
  SPEAKER_02: So sadly, we're gonna have to end our awesome QA podcast.
• 1:20:21
  SPEAKER_02: We've had such a blast being here and making this possible.
• 1:20:24
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks to everybody that came and you know, popped in and out and asked questions.
• 1:20:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, so grateful for the questions.
• 1:20:30
  SPEAKER_02: It, you know, it I knew y'all would find some questions.
• 1:20:34
  SPEAKER_02: I knew you would.
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I hope you enjoyed it.
• 1:20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like like I said at the beginning, this is gonna turn into an actual podcast episode.
• 1:20:40
  SPEAKER_02: So stay tuned for that.
• 1:20:42
  SPEAKER_02: If you are subscribed, uh you'll get a notification on your phone.
• 1:20:45
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're not subscribed, you can follow us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
• 1:20:49
  SPEAKER_02: And starting September 1st, we have weekly episodes in our fourth season, which is really exciting.
• 1:20:55
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, everybody, that is a wrap on this podcast.
• 1:20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 1:20:59
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you again to Chris at Clear Line Technologies for being here and helping us with all of our sounds.
• 1:21:06
  SPEAKER_02: And uh thank you to Spirit Advance Awards for hosting this awesome live event.
• 1:21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Stay tuned for next season coming soon, and we will stick around and say hey to anybody if you want to chat and get a good photo or buy some merch.
• 1:21:19
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, y'all!
• 1:21:21
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you, guys.