Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / A Look At Competitive Dance in Other Countries

Transcript

A Look At Competitive Dance in Other Countries · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: It can be said that dance is the universal language, but dance competitions are another story entirely.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Making the Impact, we decided to bring together Peter Oxford, owner of Showcase Australian Dance Championship, and Jacob Devorek, owner of the Movement Factory in Cog, Czech Republic, for a conversation on competitive dance in other countries.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Making the Impact.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I'm here with my co-host Leslie Mueller.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Courtney.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Happy to be here today.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: First of all, good morning because it is so early for us.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I was up this early for anything.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: And this is probably at this point in my life one of the only things I would get up this early for is dance-related things.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I was gonna say you get up this early for competition.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: I do, but it feels like it was a lifetime ago because now it is not competition season.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, on those competition weekends, we are getting up early and we are our alarm is set for that 6 a.m.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: sometimes even sooner.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Usually even sooner.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So what's surprising is that I am usually today included, I I can get up, I can function, I can, you know, direct a whole event, I can come do a whole podcast, and like it's really fine.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: I just would rather not do that every day.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm glad it only happens on the weekends and on you know times like these where it's very important that we're here early, because if we weren't, we wouldn't be able to have these fantastic guests that we have on today.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: And why we're talking about why it's so early over here is because we're doing an episode today, as you know, as you can read from clicking the title.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: And it's all about a look and a glimpse into what competitive dance is like around the world in other countries.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: And obviously, to make this possible, it uh took a lot of research and it took a lot of preparation and planning on it on all of our schedules because we have very busy schedules in general, but then you add some time zones to the mix, and oh my gosh, it was very challenging to figure out w exactly what time we can all meet and record an episode.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's not in the middle of the night for any of us.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: So we somehow made it possible.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: So right now it is 7 a.m.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: New York City time for Leslie and I.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: We woke up bright and early, set our alarms for 6:30, we had a cup of coffee, and we're ready to be here and chat dance with our guests worldwide today.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: So exciting, and I cannot wait to get to know them.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: So let's jump into this episode.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: But before we jump in, I want to tell you about one of our brand new sponsors who are joining us for season four, and that is Liberate Artists.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Liberate Artists is a dance and performing arts organization that builds confidence and promotes social growth in young people.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: They create magical and momentous dance experiences and performances in brave, inclusive, non-competitive environments that remind everyone that you are enough, exactly as you are in the skin and body that you are in.
• 3:27
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• 3:30
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• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: Or head on over to the Big Apple to experience Phoenix Fire in the heart of New York City.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: At Liberate Artists Summer Experiences, you'll have the opportunity to perform on a film or in a professional music video and earn an IMDB credit.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Or hit the stage in a Broadway style production that's written specifically for dancers.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: Come be a part of the Liberation Nation, training with the renowned teaching artists, making lasting friendships, and take your skills and love of dance to the next level.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: Check them out at liberateartists.com for more information.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: And if you'd like to receive a$500 scholarship to a future Liberate Artists event, reach out to contact at liberateartists.com and mention Making the Impact Podcast to receive this special exclusive offer.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm excited to welcome another brand new sponsor to our podcast for season four, and that is Apollo Performance.
• 4:26
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• 4:28
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• 4:33
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• 4:39
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• 4:45
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• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: I love the arch support and compression they offer me while teaching.
• 4:51
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• 4:57
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• 5:01
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• 5:08
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• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Just a reminder to our dear listeners about our new Platinum Premium Podcast subscription, which is an exclusive members-only platform that you can join for only$5 a month.
• 5:21
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• 5:29
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• 5:32
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• 5:35
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• 5:38
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• 5:46
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• 5:53
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• 5:55
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• 5:56
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• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: So all of our subscribers have the option to receive a shout out on a future podcast episode.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that is going to happen right now because we have so many people who have signed up.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: We want to recognize them.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: We would love to say thank you and give a shout out to Ruthie Endicott, who is a dance parent from Star Dance Studio in Noonan, Georgia.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh hey, Noonan.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm from close to there.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: They say I am a fairly seasoned dance mom, but I always learn something valuable on every podcast.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: My 13-year-old dancer is planning a career in the dance industry.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So now we're trying to soak up as many nuggets as we can.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for all that you do.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome, Ruthie, and good luck to your dancer.
• 6:36
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• 6:41
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• 6:43
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• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Looking forward to this season and many more to come.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Carmen.
• 6:48
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• 6:52
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• 7:02
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• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Dance World.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: We are so, so, so excited to be jumping in to this week's episode.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: And like mentioned, we're talking about the international competitive dance scene.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, how cool is that?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_03: If you are listening, tuning in from the States, you've heard us talk about competitions over here for four seasons long, everybody.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: And now we are going to learn about what it's like elsewhere, what it's like around the world competing and participating in competitive dance, and what are competitions like all the way on the other side of the world.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I still cannot believe that we are making this podcast episode possible, Leslie.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, wow, it's so early for us, but we worked, guys, listeners, we worked really hard to get the perfect guests for this podcast.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we are so, so grateful that they figured it out and made it work on in such a short time span.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like we can't thank them enough.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, listeners, this is a really special episode.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for tuning in.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, thank you so much.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: And we have tons of time zones on this episode joining us, and we're all here at the same time.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: We made it work.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so excited.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_03: So we're gonna jump in and meet our two very special guests who are joining us internationally today.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: And the first guest that I would like to welcome is a studio owner, and they are coming to us from the Czech Republic, all the way in the Czech Republic.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm uh Leslie discovered their studio via social media, yay for social media.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: And we have been admiring them from a distance and just cannot wait to hear more about what their world is like in the competition scene.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm really excited to welcome the owner of the movement factory in the Czech Republic, Jacob Dvorak.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, everybody.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: Hi, Jacob.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks so much for joining us.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: I know it's like about one one o'clock or yeah, exactly.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's one one o'clock.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: Perfect.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: Amazing.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: So thanks for squeezing us into your schedule.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'm pretty sure you guys told me you're currently filming a television show.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: Is that true?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: We are now on the latest seasons of Czechoslovakia Got Talent.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't say where we are in the stage, but we are getting through.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's exciting.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe maybe we'll know by um release.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: By release date.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we've got another month.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think you'll be we'll know by then?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you will know for sure because there are some pretty exciting news coming soon into the TV and then we can speak about it.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Exciting.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we got our fingers crossed for you.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, absolutely.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: That is so cool.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: I hope that we're able to see some clips.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe we can link some clips uh for all of our fans once things are officially live.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: And that's really exciting.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: So congrats on that.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: And thanks for again for squeezing us in.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we're obviously not as important as uh um, you know, a TV show.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: But thank you very much for having me on party.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: Of course.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: So happy we found you.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: And like I mentioned, you're a studio owner, you have a competitive studio, and it sounds like you do a lot of other things as well over there in the dance scene.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: So if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about you for your intro, where you are originally from, where you trained, how you got into uh the competition dance world, and a little bit about your studio before we jump into our episode.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I started dancing when I was four years old in a little city with 7,000 inhabitants.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And my mom wanted to go uh and I would play football, but there was no slots uh available, and the only spots where were uh which were available were in the dance studio.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So she got me in and I fell in love uh like immediately and wanted to continue dancing.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when I was 18, uh I uh was asked to uh run the studio.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I rebranded the whole studio where I started.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then we opened the next one, which is Movement Factory here in Prague, and last year we opened another one, which is in the second biggest city in Czech Republic, and that's called Movement Company.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And both of them, uh like all of all three of them are under the umbrella of movement studios, and we are competing, we are shooting videos, we do video clips, concerts, events, all kinds of stuff.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: We are trying to link our kids to professional dance world, as I also own a dance agency, so basically, in a really young age, they can you know get into a professional dance world and try out things uh which are not possible for most of the young dancers.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_03: So you run you also run a talent or dance agency?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: A dance agency which uh provides uh dancers for concerts, video clips, events, and all kinds of happenings where dancers are needed.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Our kids were just now shooting a film for Amazon Prime.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, cool.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_03: So what an awesome opportunity.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: I think everyone, I mean, I don't know if everyone, but I'm sure a lot of people would love that their studio owner was also a talent scout or a talent agent to give them opportunities like here, my like my studio is going to be on Amazon Prime commercial.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know, like those opportunities would never happen if you didn't have the connection of being a talent agent at the same time.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: That's better.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's what we are trying to communicate with uh Czech Dance World that we are the only studio which can provide this, and that's like the uniqueness which we found in this.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, cool.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's that is a really great uh niche to be in because that that seems like a lot of work too.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of work, but as I love dance, like I never imagined that I can earn from dancing.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: So so I'm pretty happy I can uh you know uh make a living from it because not much dancers here in Czech can make a living from dancing because the scene is you know not that developed as in as uh in the US.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm sure.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: That's really interesting.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: I love hearing that.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: And wow, you have so many, you're in so many avenues of this this small dance world in your country.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I I think that's really impressive to see how far you've come.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: And like I said, everybody go check, check them out on Instagram because they are doing some awesome things over there, such beautiful talent.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll dive in even more to learn more about your studio and competition scene.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_03: But we are really grateful to have you here today.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: Our next guest is joining us all the way from Sydney, Australia.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's super late over there.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's around 9 p.m.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: recording time.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: Pretty crazy.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like I said, we are making it work with our time zones for this recording.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, this guest is the owner of one of the first ever national dance competitions in Australia, y'all.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, how cool is that?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: So, we are gonna have a competition owner on the podcast for this episode.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: I'm very excited to welcome Peter Oxford to the podcast.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome, Peter.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: Good evening, good afternoon, and good day, everybody from Sydney's.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_06: I'm very, very excited to be here and thank you so much for inviting me onto the podcast.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: We're really, really excited.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: And uh like I mentioned uh before we started recording, we don't have competition owners on the pod often on our podcast.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: We have a lot of dance teachers, we have a lot of judges, but not many competition owners join us.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: Occasionally we have some, Leslie, like season two, we had some.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's been a while.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe we need to do this more often.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I've done all three.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_06: I've been a studio owner and a judge as well.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Perfect.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: There we go.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: So you're covering it all.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I can't wait to hear about how you've started this competition.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: So if you wouldn't mind telling the world out there a little bit more about you, where you grew up, how you got into dance, and then what how you started this competition.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, so I started dance at the age of four years of age, and there's a reason with the uh why I started dancing because I have cystic fibrosis.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_06: So that was good for me, for my clearing my lungs.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_06: So I started at the age of four for exercise, and then all the way, you know, continued my dancing all the way through till I was 18.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_06: Then I was teaching for a dance studio, and the teacher didn't want the studio anymore.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_06: Gave me the studio overnight.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_06: I ended up teaching having my own studio for 12 years.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_06: Uh during that time, um, I actually early before that, I actually went to the States in my late teens and took part in an American dance competition.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, really?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_06: Uh yes, I did in Chicago.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_06: Um Chicago.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_06: And I actually won the competition, which I was sort of blown away doing a tap solo.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_06: Then I went back again and did two more.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_04: You couldn't get enough.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I okay, let's go do this.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_06: And I actually saw the concept and how they ran the competition over there and the whole national concept, regional finals, which we did not have in Australia at that stage.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_06: But a few years after that, I actually started the concept here in Australia on a very, very small scale, like with my friends who owned dance schools.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_06: We got together and trialed it out because it was a totally different concept to what the normalist evidence are in Australia.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_06: It's sort of people like, oh, we don't like the American idea.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_06: So then I just put the Peter Oxford touch on it.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_06: I told them that, but it was still the same.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_06: And it just took off.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_06: And 28 years later, I'm still here producing the Australian Dance Championships and Hollywood Bound.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_06: I actually have two competitions.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, nice.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: So cool.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm it's it's quite bizarre how it did actually start.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and I was actually the first three, the first way I found out about a dance competition in the US was I was actually at a friend's family friends' place in Dubuque, Iowa, and they introduced me to the local dance school.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_06: And I ended up teaching there.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_06: And that's that's right.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_06: And then she gave me a video of a competition promo and I took it back to the house and watched it.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_06: That's how I found out about dance competitions.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_06: Called them up, said I might enter.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_06: And then came back and did it.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's like that that was the story.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_06: So if I hadn't have gone to this little dance school into be a guy who doesn't do dance competitions, I would never have found out because we didn't wow, we didn't have the exposure in Australia to find out about it because right to even know.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_06: There's no internet, no email, nothing back then.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: So what year what year did it start?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: 28 years ago.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_06: I started showcase in 1994.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, okay.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_06: But it was back in 1991 or 92 that I discovered the American Dance Competitions.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm curious.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: I want to do you remember what the competition was that you attended in the stadium.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, do you want me to name it?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm curious.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: I just I want to know.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_06: I was it was it was Dance Olympus.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Old school.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: So interesting.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that takes that takes everybody back, Dance Olympus.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: Early 90s.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, so cool.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I can't wait to learn more about both both of y'all and this whole beautiful competitive dance world that has blossomed all across the world, it sounds like.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: I wonder, like, I mean, I don't think.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: Did the states start competition dance?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: Do we think that that we kicked it off over here?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_06: I think the British did.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_06: I think the British.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, probably.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_06: You know, with like syllabuses and you know like RAD, yeah, all those ones started them.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_06: And then I mean, we've always had competitions here, which were like a Stanford's, which is the British way.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we'll learn even more.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm I'm so intrigued that both of your stories sound kind of similar.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: You both started dance at four because you saw your mom needed to give you something to do, and it happened to be dance.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then at 18, you were like, I guess I'm taking over my own my studio that I've been at.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's that's really unique, and but like just kind of goes to show that there's a community everywhere.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like y'all have the same story and you're completely in different countries, and you know, the way that it blossomed out is different, but I just think that's a really neat similarity.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, super cool.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: So let's jump in.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_03: Let's talk competition for like kicking things off right off the bat.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: So, Jacob, you took over the studio, you've rebranded the studio.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Was your studio doing competitions at the time when you took it over?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_03: Or did is that something that you introduced into your new rebranded studio atmosphere?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: So uh the studio was competitive since the beginning.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I uh started competing when I was six, and by the time we were doing really great because there was not much studios in Czech, and the standard which we had was really high.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: But when I got to own the studio when I was 18, it was kind of one of the worst ones in the country.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: And when they were giving it to me, they were like, you will never make it.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is a lost case, and I was like, okay, watch me.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of a challenge.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of a challenge because, as I said, you know, it's a small, small city with 7,000 people in it.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so we started, you know, I invited my friends uh who I worked in the industry with in theaters and events, uh, and they started teaching there also.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the studio took off, and after the first year, we became national champions.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And by now, the studios are like more than 100 times in different categories champions of Czech Republic, and we also do worlds, so they're like 40 times world champions, which I would love to you know speak with you about because we do worlds, but we don't include US into the world.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, well, that's I was wondering what because I found you guys and I was like, well, I wonder what competitions they go to.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started looking at your social media, and so you go to the go to Czech Dance Masters, exactly, Czech Dance Masters, and we do best dance group, and then the international ones, it's international dance organization, but basically they do world finals, but there is no US, like there's mostly Canada, but not US.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Never.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: What's up with that?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know anything about that?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think like I don't know exactly why US is not attending those competitions.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think because Europe is really really far though.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: But we also do Dance World Cup, but also US is like super like few studios, the most in Canada and Britain.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know because I think your competition dance world is really developed in your country and you have so much to offer, so you don't have to really go out to you know become champions.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because there there is lots of competition and lots of other, you know, organizations which do competitions.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: We have just three of them and we attend two of them.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: So wow.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, which, you know, and we talk about this a lot.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like that, what you guys do is a real competition because there's fewer of you.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's hard.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's like the best people in in Europe are going to these competitions.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas in the states, it's like everybody, everybody's going everywhere.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: Like, there's like, you know, a hundred studios in one town competing.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's just oversaturated here.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I it just sounds like the best of the best go to your competitions.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: And not saying that everyone that competes in the states aren't great, but I think that like everyone competes now in the states, and then there's over like close to 300 competition companies out here, which is crazy.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy, yeah.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because what we do with the international dance organization is that only the best six or five formations, solos, small groups, and stuff go to the to the European.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: So there is really, you know, the clash of really the best of the best of each country.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: So so that's really cool.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because also we do regionals and then we do nationals, and I'm also judging, so I saw all the regionals, and it's like lots of choreographies which you need to cut out until the very best.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: So cool.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: Wow I wish we did stuff like that.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: I know because our I mean, I know I don't know, nationals exist, but like for the states.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know if you guys have heard about you know how nationals, but I judge I judge dance world cup.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, oh nice, no way.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_05: I did um Braga.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_05: I judge Braga.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so yeah, that's the one we where we not attended.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: We attended this year in Spain, and next year is again in Braga.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, well I used to take I used to take Team Australia and Team New Zealand.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_06: I I only did it once.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_06: We we do world dance movement now in Italy.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know also this one.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: I won a scholarship for that event.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so I take it.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: Wait, we're gonna be able to do that.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: We need to come to World Dance Movement.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: World Dance Movement was Michelle ASAP.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_06: There we go.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know that was still happening.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_03: Is it still a thing?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_06: I've been every year, like since 2017.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_06: Except COVID.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's where I fell in.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_06: I got I actually got COVID there this year.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_06: Me and Michelle ASAP got it together.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: Oh good.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_06: It actually showed the picture of me getting it to her and me giving it to each other.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no, no.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: Is world dance movement is it more of like convention or is it a competition?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_06: So it's a conventional week, and then at the end of it, we do a gala.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_06: And then on it's it's so it's so Italian.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_06: It's like amazing.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_06: And it's in an Italian village in Castellano Grotte.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_06: Now I every time I take Australians over, they're just blown away, like about the whole rawness of it and how it's put together.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_06: And then on the last, it's most of it's outdoors when they do performances, they start with steak, the piazza, and and then the last night, the last day we do a competition, but it's all at night, and all the locals come and watch it.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_06: It's so European Italian, it's amazing.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that sounds awesome.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_04: I want to experience that.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, that's really cool.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_06: She does like such a great job with it, and like the scholarship she gives out, and like kids come away changed from it all.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I used to take my winners to the American competitions, and and then I and then to one day someone said, Look, why are we doing this?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_06: We're not we why do we have to go win another trophy?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_06: Then I found Michelle Asaf and what she put together, and I was like, I can take these dance of your winners there.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_06: They're not happening to win a trophy.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_06: They this is their prize going to do this uh convention.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and we did remote, we threw Dance World Cup in as well.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_06: So I took Team Australia, Team New Zealand.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_06: I didn't judge any of those.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_06: And then yeah, we just decided we'll just stick to all dance movements.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_06: Nice.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: I think that Dance World Cup is is making an appearance in the US.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: I think they tried to last year, actually.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_03: I was in contact with them because they were interested in using IDA or having a judge, at least a judge from my organization, because we staff judges for competitions out here, and uh they we were chatting.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think they were able to run their event last year, and I think I haven't touched base with them yet.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: But I hope that they are able to break into the world of in the states, you know.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, it's very oversaturated and competitive, competitive.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_06: There's no Americans, no Americans go to it.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_03: And I it's because there's no event here, so and Canadians will go, yeah.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, but there's there's no representation here in Australia anymore for Jazz World Cup either, because I'm I franchised to it and I didn't sign on again.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_06: That's another story.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Peter, tell us a little bit about.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you've had your competition for 28 years.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: When you started, how did how did you structure it?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Did you what were there levels at the time?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have levels now?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us a little bit about how it's structured.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_06: When we started, we didn't do levels.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_06: We in Australia we have levels, like we have like special restricted restricted open.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_06: So I got rid of all that, didn't have levels, just had everyone compete in the same level at a regional, then qualify for a final.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_06: Then moving on over the years, I actually did introduce levels, um, Ruby, Diamond, and Elite, which we still have now.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_06: So our elite dancers would be our dance of the year kids, uh, Diamond would be the mid-range, Ruby were the ones who's starting out.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_06: So if you're a Ruby level, you're only allowed to enter a maximum three solos, and we only do it for the ages seven to ten.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_06: Cool, interesting six and under will compete in their own level altogether, and then seven to ten, which is two age groups in their junior and petite, they'll compete on Ruby, but then everyone else is either Diamond or Elite.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: Can you be like a seven or ten but not be in Ruby?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, you go Diamond.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I got it.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_06: Got it.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_03: I like that.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_06: Or Elite.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_06: We can go elite as well.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you were like that serious.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, which is our dance of the year kids.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_06: So we'll have about 200 of those who'll go for dance of the year, soloist, and that's four age groups, junior, pre-teen, teen, and senior, which is the trips to Italy.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, cool.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_06: But you've got to go elite.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_06: You can't go against the diamond kids or the rubies.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_03: Incentive, I like that.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to go to Italy, then you need to compete in the highest level.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_06: In the elite, yes.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: See, we need more things like that over here.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_03: I know, right?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_06: And we do have people out of that mid-level.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, we do have top tens in the diamond and elite as well in each age group.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: And would you say, I'm just curious.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I direct a competition and just looking at like the entries and the percentages of who's entering what.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: We I think mostly in the States, it's mostly solos.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: How like would you say in Australia it's the same?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I'd say about 70% now.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_06: Wow.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_06: Post COVID, post-COVID.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Is that the same for you, Jacob?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have the different situation.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: We do like mostly formations and small groups, is the most popular thing.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and our competition season is uh divided into autumn one and spring one.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: The autumn one is basically solo is do improvisation battles.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when you judge this, uh you have five people in the judging panel, which are sitting next to the dance floor, and you have 30 released songs which can play, and they play, you know, randomly, and eight people are on the dance floor, and you as a judge, like you take for the next round like half of it and then half, and the starting number is like 100 people, and you cut it on uh until six in the finals, and then you have uh the same with duos, you have a uh given music, and all the studios have to choreograph to the music a duo, and then the duels perform at the same time.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, interesting.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: The only one which is you know, your own music is small groups where you can do like whatever, and then in the spring season we do formations.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: So basically we are not divided as you are, like Ruby, Diamond and stuff, but we have a hobby league, which is the beginners, then we have uh like a basic league, which is the the ones which have like trainings, I don't know, one, two times a week, and then there is an extra league, which means uh it's the like most professional ones.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, for example, we are competing in this kind of league because we have trainings four times a week.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really different.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: And when we were uh during COVID competing on one of the US competitions, I was like, what the heck is this?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like team line, whatever.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I couldn't I I was like, I was happy that the system chosen be uh instead of me where I where I should put the the choreography because I didn't know because it's totally different.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have anything like line, small groups, you know, and then you have like you also have like quartets and stuff.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: We don't do this.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's interesting.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: So when you say when you say formation, like how many people is in that size group?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can be up to 24 dancers.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so large like a large line for you.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then we have production, which which is uh 25 plus.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's interesting.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_03: So we actually ran a virtual competition through my business during COVID.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: And it's actually we eight of them.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm glad you counted because I obviously I always count.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: I like the numbers.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: I hate numbers.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: I hate math, but like the numbers are important.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: We did eight of these virtual events.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: Eight of them.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: They were they were six very successful.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: We it was really eye-opening for us.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: It was actually kind of what sparked this idea for this podcast episode because we were so intrigued by seeing so many different studios from around the world.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I didn't even think about the whole, you know, adjustment of categories.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like they were probably feeling the exact same when they were registering for our event because it was like yeah, like what are where do I put this?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: And and there were times when we would get registrations in and we would be like, this person is not supposed to be, you know, we would and we'd have to like re put the put them in the right spot, but it's probably just because it's so different, it's different everywhere.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it's totally different for us.
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• 33:50
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's how we had to do it here because we went our competition season's the opposite to yours.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_06: So we started taking entries in the February, March.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_06: Obviously, the first lockdown happened.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_06: It was like, oh my God, so we all you know, everyone was shut down.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_06: And then I used Dance Comp Genie.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_06: So then they switched everything over to online video.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_06: So we obviously shut down for two months, and then we came back and said, Okay, we're gonna qualify the kids for the finals in January by video.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, and then as that started happening in Australia, all our states closed.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_06: So we were borderlocked in our states, right?
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_06: We weren't allowed to leave our state.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_06: So we usually have our finals on the Gold Coast in Queensland where everyone converges.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_06: So I had to say, okay, we're just gonna have a final in Sydney with just Sydney kids.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_06: So that's how we we're changing, we're constantly changing throughout the whole year of like how we're going to do it.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_06: And then I had a final in the January, then we were ready to go again.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_06: Now, last season, last year, we got shut down again for 15 weeks.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_06: And what so I was booked and contracted to do my finals January 2021 on the Gold Coast.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_06: I was selling a dance competition to people all around Australia when there was no flights going, borders were locked, we were in lockdown, saying it's be fine, you'll be able to come, it's okay.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_06: And I did it.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_06: We did 1700 acts and people came, but then as the finals are happening in January, Omicron hit everywhere.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_06: So people just didn't turn up.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_06: And uh so we call it the Omicron final.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm fine back on track now.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_06: Wow, yeah.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: So what so this is September?
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: What's coming up for you, Peter?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_06: In the middle of our season of qualifiers now.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_06: And my finals are in January.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_06: But what I've had to do is I stopped traveling all over Australia when COVID hit, obviously.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_06: And a friend of mine who runs a dance competition, she said, why don't you look at other people qualifying the kids in other parts of Australia?
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_06: So I've now bought on partner competitions.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, mmm.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_06: Who are not who are their own competitions.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_06: So they actually qualify the kids for me to come to mine.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: Huh, interesting.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_06: Fly final.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: Are you reciprocating?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_06: No, because they don't do finals.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_06: They just have local companies.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_06: I might just have local competitions around Australia.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_06: So I used to run probably 35 regionals at my peak.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_06: I now have only had to do 10 myself, and everyone is doing them for the other everyone else is doing them for me around Australia, and I've got to 60 qualifiers.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, cool.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're really so busy.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being here.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_06: No, I don't do the 60.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_06: I stick up doing it and I look on Instagram and go, oh, someone's doing a qualifier for me somewhere at their competition.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_06: So, oh, that's good.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_06: That's great.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll see them in January.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and then the entries are coming in.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_06: So we have a zone closing date.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_06: So if you close, if you competed between January and March, you were zone one, you had to have entries in by May.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_06: Zone two was April, May, you had to have them by June.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_06: So we've been doing that.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_06: So I've been closing off a zone every month, the part where you qualified.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_06: So I I'm only doing mine now.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was looking at your Instagram and wondering what that was because I saw, you know, as as time went on, the zones were you know closing.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: So okay, that makes sense.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_06: I'm over 2,000 acts now for our January finals as of now.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm only just starting mine.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_06: So we wouldn't be getting entries for finals yet for mine.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_06: So we're hoping to get back to our 3,000 entries for finals.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_04: See that the finals now.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, three finals.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_06: That's three rooms running at once.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: And that exists here, but you know.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_06: So I had to remodel my whole business because of COVID.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_06: Because Australia is such a spread-out country.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_06: We can't fly everywhere.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_06: Some of our airlines aren't flying still to some places.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_06: So I've just had to get these other people to qualify the kids for me.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's smart.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't, that's I had not heard of anything like that in the States.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_06: Nobody's been the first one to do it.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, nobody.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, and that's really great because that at least shows that the community in Australia is willing to work together in a way that I don't know that's.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there there's competitions here that are friendly or that own each other, you know, or like that have, you know, four competitions under an umbrella that would probably do that.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I I wouldn't guess that would be widespread here.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_06: I think in Australia, because of you know who I am and I've been around so long.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_06: They people do respect me and what I what I achieved and what I've done with all the kids.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_06: And I've never been out to squash other dance competitions because we do need the local ones.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm very much finding into finding talent in the country areas.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_06: Because remember, Australia has a lot of outback.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_06: So we all live on the East Coast, and we only have a population of 25 million in our country.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_06: So the dance population isn't massive compared to what your countries are or Europe.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_06: We we're at a very much smaller scale.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_06: So showcase has always been the dance, the national dance competition that everyone's always gone to.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_06: So these other local competitions are actually saying they're honored to be a qualifier.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_03: That makes sense.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_03: So all right.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_03: So you kind of touched on this a little bit, uh, Peter and Jacob, because something that I thought was interesting.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_03: I had the opportunity to literally right before the world shut down, I went to like literally.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_03: I had the opportunity to teach in Dubai.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_03: And there was a new competition that was a convention and competition that was starting.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: And uh hopefully they come back.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_03: They haven't had an opportunity to come back yet, but it was an eye-opening experience for me because obviously there were studios that were from the Dubai and the Abu Dhabi area coming to this, but they were telling me about competitive dance for them, and they're used to traveling.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_03: They're like, we have to go to Spain, we have to go to the UK, we have to go here because there's no competitions.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_03: So, and you kind of mentioned that a little bit, Jacob, because you were saying, Oh, well, we did the Spain competition, and you know, but it then Peter, you're saying that like the dancers don't really travel around Australia, they go to their local events.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_06: So Yeah, and then they'll come to my nationals, they'll do that.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_06: But I I also take in New Zealand as well.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_06: So I've got the New Zealand, but then they're coming back to us for the first time in three years.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_06: Because we've been closed, we've had our borders closed.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: So like in Australia, they can the dance scene can kind of stay within Australia boundaries and get what they need as far as events and local comps and national comps.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, but then about oh 25 years ago, I started bringing kids to the States to the US competitions.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_06: So we we do see a lot of kids who will sort of travel like you know, we've been to European ones.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_06: But yeah, kids will go to New Zealand as well, and vice versa.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_06: And then they're still traveling to the US.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_06: I I've I've judged in the I've judged in Canada.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_06: So I've I've sent kids to Canada as well as dance of the year winners.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_06: So I've been the one that's been like, right, let's go here, let's do that, let's you know, get your you know, stick with me, I'll take your places.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: Italy.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_06: Spain, Portugal.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: Jacob, how far have your kids gone typically to compete?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like we usually do these two kinds of competitions here in Czech, which is like regionals, then country, and then nationals.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like three of them.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then we do the do the bigger organizations.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we went to uh Croatia, we went to Spain two times already, Croatia like four times, and we are now planning to uh go to Egypt, where the finals for international dance uh organization is, but we will see because also as COVID was and we are competing during COVID uh on online competitions, we are sticking with the same choreos for more than two years, and I'm really you know done with them.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to you know uh switch and create a new one.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let's see if we do Egypt because like we would have to compete with the ones which we want nationals with.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: So everybody's bored of those.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: Even the kids, even uh, even the kids, they are like, okay, I I know this dance, you know.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you wake me up in 5 a.m.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: you I can dance this for you.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to know, Jacob.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I you guys have all ages at your studio, right?
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: From like little biddies all the way up.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: Is every is everybody competing, even the the tiny kids?
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are a selective studio though, so not everybody can enter.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we do castings every year, and even our kids, which are already in the studio, do casting to you know, be again in the group.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we have like in each age division, uh we have like 50 competition dancers in two leagues, in the basic one and in the elite.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: So but we are now as we are getting bigger, we uh we want to offer also you know, like non-competent competitive kind of groups where you know you can just dance for fun and like come one, two times a week.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now we are really orientated onto the competition world because the kids they love it, they love to win, yeah, they uh love together with the other studios, the atmosphere is really great.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: And as we are a small, small industry, uh there's like I don't know, like 20,000 competition dancers in the whole Czech Republic.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: So basically they they enjoy the the time when we come together, and also one of the organizations uh they do record the finals for the TV, so the kids can watch them close in the TV, which is really nice.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I think the the small market you know allows you to do like kind of experiments with it because you don't have to reach out to that many people, and we all know each other.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: We basically like are one community, it's not like US that you have different communities in different kind of parts of the uh of the states, but here we are one community, so it's really easy also for me as a you know business owner to reach to the uh to the community because once you are known somehow, it's really easy to promote things and like you know, we we launched educational programs for kids, we are bringing people in.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have a like a summer camp where Sabrina Philip, I hope you know her, she comes from US, from LA to teach our kids.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: And also I'm like working on, you know, opening more the boundaries of Czech industry.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think there are great dancers in in the country and really interesting.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: But nobody sees them because everybody sees, you know, Otom Miller, Jojo Gomez, and all these like big big names in the US industry.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm bringing, you know, international teachers to see.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: And uh every time they come, they are like, what?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: They are so you know hungry for experience.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: They want to learn.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like last time Lucas McFerlane was here, and he was like, Wow, you know, they are so focused.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like they they listen to every word you say.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: Different than US, you know, when they have that much opportunities to, you know, learn from the best.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think they will kind of stop cherishing it, you know.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, I have a question because over here in the States, contemporary dance is like the most popular thing ever in the competition scene.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone loves contemporary, contemporary contemporary.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: Where is jazz dance?
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, uh that I'm a jazz teacher, so obviously I'm asking where is jazz dance?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_03: I just have to know is is contemporary dance ruling the the international dance world as well?
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, and I've had to create contemporary traditional, contemporary commercial.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_06: Ooh, for your so cool, so smart.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_06: So lyrical, and now I've created contemporary commercial, contemporary traditional, because I was I was in New Zealand running the finals, and I'm looking at kids going, what is this?
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: What is this?
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_06: And I go, What are they doing?
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_06: Like in all the contemporary, they go, Oh, that's what they're learning in the schools now.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_06: It's like part of an education contemporary.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_06: So I said we need to talk about this because it's different.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_06: So we came up with contemporary traditional, which is what we're all used to, you know, like what we've all grown up with, and this contemporary commercial, which is the new type of contemporary coming out.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_03: So, like more like art like I want version contemporary, like with hip hop elements, or like how would you describe the commercial?
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_06: That's what I'm saying.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_06: It's faster, it's more jazz-like.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_06: And I was judging on Sunday, some all these groups on Sunday, and I was actually saying my critiques, I'm saying, look, if you ever enter showcase, this would be definitely a contemporary commercial.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_06: This would be a contemporary commercial commercial.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_06: I was actually telling them, you know, to say, you know, just so it's easy because people are like, what is it?
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_06: What are we trying?
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_06: So we're not penalizing anyone at the moment because we're still getting through through it all, but yeah, totally different.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_06: So these so it's actually increased the solos more because they're entering both.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh god.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but we have the uh the exact same problem that uh contemporary is huge now in Czech Republic and everybody wants to dance contemporary.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we have the same problem then in the category, they clash the commercial hip hop kind of vibe.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: And my kids who who are you know like techniqueally kind of based, you know, like I still think contemporary is based on technique.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: They look at me and they are like, What the this is competing against us?
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like they are they are having a rap song, they they do isolation, but they don't have any you know foundation, they they don't they don't start with any technique.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: So then they are like, I we didn't have to have that much hours of ballet, or we could just do whatever else.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_06: And now everybody out there in the competition world, it's contemporary commercial and contemporary traditional.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you, Peter Oxford.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, thank you, Peter Oxford.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody we one of our or not one of our the most popular episode of our podcast is one called Lyrical versus contemporary to like explain the differences.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: And now I'm like, Courtney, this is the 2.0 lyrical versus traditional contemporary versus commercial contemporary, because I I think you're right.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, again, looking at like the entries, it's like contemporary goes on for pages and pages and pages, and then you have lyrical and I'm still finding we're getting the 22 kids in a category for lyrical, still.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_06: I I've noticed that's still picked up.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_06: But then I'm still I'm I was judging lyrical on Sunday and going, This is not lyrical.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's contemporary.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_03: What about like the the hip-hop?
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_03: Do you guys do like like I think that's hip-hop could be split too, like traditional hip-hop, commercial hip-hop?
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, see, I'm not hip-hop trained, so I'd have to have someone who's expert on the hip-hop because I'm seeing like amazing hip-hop routines.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_06: So someone who's more hip-hop trained would have to say, Yeah, that's hip-hop traditional, hip-hop commercial, which if that's where we have to go to.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, it's also like we had to split up years ago the Broadway jazz and the jazz.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_03: Well, they need to do that here, and they still have it.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_06: And it and Well I split that up.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_06: I split that up a long time ago.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_06: And now I've just changed it from Broadway jazz just to be show dance.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_06: Oh.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_06: So there's show dance, which is more like the traditional jazz, which is more like you know, you can do your car, right?
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_06: You can do your for musicals, and then you've got your jazz.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_06: So I split that.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_03: So you don't have musical theater then?
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_06: It's called show dance.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_03: So I want we have musical theater.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, show dance.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right, tell us totally different.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, tell us about that.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I look at show dance Europe and go, that's not showdance.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: Showdance for us is contemporary with props, with like huge props.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: So this is showdance for us.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we just won the category now in check, and we had a big, big URAM from way uh from which the kids were sliding down and you know, doing tricks on it.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: So this is showdance for us.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_00: Our showdance is not like, but it's like a contemporary with like a huge, huge prop, and you know, like a kind of a storytelling thing.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, usually sometimes the stories are really like wake, I would say, you know, they they're like a girl died in a car accident, you know, everybody dies, and you know, she she reincarnates and you know, and starts a whole new life.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we've got showdance with a giant prop.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so then do you have a jazz category?
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what would you like?
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do you do a musical theater category or a Broadway category?
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing at all.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, we have contemporary, jazz, and show show art.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's called art show, kind of.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's like the three main, like contemporary and like the classic technique base, but also the other organization organization has it the opposite way around.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like they have a dance art, which means contemporary versus jazz, like both you can enter.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: So they do this, but we are now fighting for splitting, as Peter said, to have the comp commercial part and the traditional, because like it's really like you you are judging apples and you know, like grab fruits together.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: What so Jacob, does do people in the Czech Republic do tap at all?
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have few, few studios, but they are really uh doing great in Europeans uh kind of championship.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: They are really good.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, but we have like four or five of them in the whole country.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like not a lot at all, so they're nobody's competing.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, okay.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting, interesting.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I know Australia's got great tap.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, do you see a lot of tap over there?
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and I'll and I'm tap trained.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_06: I was known from my tap.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_06: That's what I was doing at the American competition.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna say that's what you won in in in the 90s in the America competition.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_05: Like, oh my god, what is this?
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's cool.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_05: Spinning around the stuff.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_03: I really love the separation of some of the styles.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_03: I think we have to evolve uh over here in the states.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_03: So I hope some states' competitions are taken a hint because separating that contemporary style because it's so saturated, even for us over here, would just be so helpful on the judge's end, it would be helpful for clarification.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_03: I think that kind of the Broadway, I like I thought you were talking, Peter, originally the Broadway jazz category, not as musical theater, because I personally think there should be like a jazz jazz and then like a more stylized like theater jazz, Broadway jazz.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_03: And then we Right.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then like separate musical theater, because like musical theater for us is more like the character and the there might be some props, and you're telling the story from the musical and it's a show tune and yeah, and that's our show dance.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_06: That's what we've just thrown on to show dance now.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_06: Because we used to have Broadway jazz, and then it was like, okay, we got Hollywood jazz, and then we'd be like, Oh no, we'll just make it show dance.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_06: Just musical theater, everything, all that, which is not jazz, but in that sort of yeah.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's so interesting.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_06: I really anyone out there in competition land who runs a competition, you're more than welcome to jump on my website and take out what it means for each category.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_06: So we're all uniform.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_06: I'm very much into that.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_06: Like, yeah, let's all just be the same, like especially with age groups and all that sort of thing.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_06: It's a lot easier for teachers.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_06: That's something I've always been pushing for over 20 years.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_06: Like, let's just all be the same.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so speaking to that, so in the states, there's no kind of governing body over competitions.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like any Joe Schmoe from the side of the road can say, I own a competition and decide what they want to do.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is that the same in Australia?
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, any dance mom can run a dance competition in Australia.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_01: What about you, Jacob?
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: In in Tech Republic, anybody can just open one.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: Man, come on, guys.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_03: We gotta do better than that.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_03: At least there's like international comp I don't know.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_03: It still feels a little bit more controlled when you have like an international competition that's going to all these different countries that's saying these are the rules for if you want to compete at this event, and feels a little bit more prestigious and like, you know, you can really say, I am a world champion at that point.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas like you know, people in the states have there's competitions that quote unquote say world champions, and it's like you just competed against everybody in New Jersey, like this not even everybody, yeah.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like that how are you a world champion?
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I just don't understand how we can even say those things.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas like y'all can actually say we are.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_03: We competed against international studios.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like it, I don't know.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_06: Look, I've thought about it over the years and I've thought, you know, where could we host it?
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_06: Could we all go to Hawaii?
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_06: Could we go, you know?
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_06: A nice middle point.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, where would you go?
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I I I have thought about it.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_06: I have investigated and thought, oh, should I do this?
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_06: Well, then I just went down the track, I just run dance competitions on cruise ships.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_03: I was doing it.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_03: Who does that here?
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_03: Someone does that there right now.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_03: Before COVID celebrity, I think, maybe does like a comedy Carnival World Caribbean.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_06: I did.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you should, yeah.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_03: That would be fun.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_03: That'd be epic.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_06: So we we are thinking of doing something maybe in Fiji.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, sign me up.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_03: You need a judge, we can help.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_06: Parents just want a holiday.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, we say it's a holiday.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, and there's some dancing.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_06: That's why the crew, the dance cruises work so well when I take my competition on the ship because we just it's a seven-night cruise.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_06: We do a few mornings, we get the showroom.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_06: In the afternoons, we get another room, and then we and port days is nothing.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_06: Then we do like some workshops, and then we have our big battle of stars.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_06: Cool.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_06: At the end of it.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_06: That's the best, that's the best week.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, yeah.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_04: Found like a dream.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_06: And I literally just get on the ship down here in Sydney and take the trophies on.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_06: We've even had to take our target floor.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_06: Like it was kind of all like you can't tap on the floor.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_06: And I had a whole studio coming and we did tap.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_06: Oh gosh.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_06: So we had to get our target floor on the ship.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, and it was like getting pulled up, laid down all wait for these tappers.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_06: I had to clear it through customs back in Sydney and get it back to my storage unit.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_06: So I say, this dance floor has been through the South Pacific.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_06: Wow.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I have one kind of final question before we wrap up.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel like it's a hot question.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_03: Winners and overalls and first places and things like that.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh over here in the States, it's gotten excessive with how many winners there are.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_03: And and like we've already talked about, there's how many competitions now in the state companies.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_03: So then there's that.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_03: Plus they have 30 regionals a s uh a season, then they have seven nationals events, and then times that by you know 100.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_03: And everyone's a winner.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_03: And with the addition of levels, which we talked about, and it sounds like you all have something kind of similar to levels.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe there's only three and not five or six, like some comps out here have.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_03: So how how how do overalls work?
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_03: How are you go only doing like first, second, third, or are you doing top tens?
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_03: Are are there ties?
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like, is everyone walking away a winner, or are there only a handful of winners at your events?
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_06: I need top ten.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_06: Top ten top ten each age group.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_06: But we give first, second, third, fourth, fifth each category, depending on how many is in it.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_06: Every act gets an award according to their score, which would be a high silver, a gold, platinum, gold, or gold, whatever.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_06: And then top 10 each age group.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_06: That's it.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_03: So very much like what we do.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and it's based on that.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we are totally different.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: We don't do any overalls and anything like that.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: We don't do points.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: So basically the final note, it's one to whatever number is in the category of the routines.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so basically it's called skating system.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so if you have, I would go like one, one, two, three, three, so they will cut out three and one and just do the just do the math from the from the numbers which are more even together.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you cut out the worst note and the best note, and then you see who is the winner.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't have any kind of uh like pointing and kind of uh that thing.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_00: We just uh do if they come, we write like technique one to ten, like what ten is the best, one is the worst, then choreography and then costume and like overall expression, but it's not seen anywhere.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: They have to come to get the uh the feedback, otherwise we don't say anything, and even on regionals, we lift the marks up.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the worst part of my job because the moms are watching, you know, that everybody wants their kid to win, and I'm you know pointing out five, and they are like, okay, this young guy is a real yeah.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, happened to me that uh I was judging seniors category, which is like mom's dancing, which I love it, it's ridiculous.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um but they were trying, you know, to do like a whole contemporary piece, you know, and they were they were picturing a book about mice, and they had they had these slat kind of colors on them, and they were, you know, like doing a real real contemporary.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, You are making fun of contemporary.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is not contemporary.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like either you know, you make fun, you know, you do salsa or whatever, but don't do contemporary when you are you know like 50 and you don't have any basics.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I left four, which was the worst in the category, and then I was sitting in a judging room, and the lady came in, she started screaming at me like, What you are thinking?
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_00: You are you know evolutionary.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like I thought you would you would love this, you know, you are young and you would you would know what's great.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so so it's interesting and it's really tricky because like the note defines a lot.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think the the scoring system which you have, it's uh it's better because it has uh more range, you know.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it has more range of like uh somebody can be 99 and some guns somebody can be 98, and still they will see, you know, they are really great.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_00: But if you give somebody one and somebody two, they they don't know what's the difference between them.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: If it was hard to choose or it it was easy, you know.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: And and so in the Czech Republic, you as a judge, you don't you say nothing, you you don't have any critiques that you give verbally, so you suggest a number?
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can come as a studio owner, you can come and get the critiques, but it's not not mandatory.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can come and ask, but most of the studios they don't come and ask.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: So they don't they don't want to know.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they don't want to know.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_00: But some of them they won't, and they you know they and it's really nice to see when they implement the things you say uh into the next round, and it's really helping them.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_00: So so I think that more people in Czech would, you know, uh would I would love them to start coming more to the feedbacks because like we are not mean people, you know, we want to help, uh we want to help the industry to grow and to be better.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you say when they come to you, so does that mean like I'm you know, studio owner A and I come up to you, Judge Jacob, and I say, Hi, I was number 472.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell me what I can do better?
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's oh wow, smart.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_01: How do you remember?
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_00: They lined up, they lined up.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_00: So basically we have a papers and we write everything down.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you do write, yeah.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_00: We write everything down during the choreo, and it's like super hard because you have to watch and write at the same time.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love American kind of style where you say it into the mic, which is really cool, I think.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because like the the judge basically reacts right away to what's happening, which is really good.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like I would introduce this also in Czech because like it's really cool.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's easier on the judge.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_06: You know, Dance Comp Genie.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Dance Comp Genie or everybody else.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's cool.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know Dance Comp Genie was was international, so that's cool.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I was the first one in Australia.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, actually, I think there's three of us in Australia.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_06: Two of us in Australia using it now.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_06: I I was the first, I brought it in 12, 10, 11 years ago, I started using it.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_01: Cool, nice, yeah.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so Peter and in Australia, I think it's similar to US where they're the judges are speaking now on the mic for critiques.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I I was the first one to do that.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_06: But there's another there's another program out there now which does that as well, which they're just using.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_06: But we can do the you can do video as well.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, a video critique.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_06: But we still aren't using yeah, we don't we're not using video critique at the moment.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_06: It's just my laptops are playing up and the cameras are playing up, so I'll just oh forget it.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_03: You make it work.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_06: Just do the audio.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's enough.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_03: I love hearing that.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_03: I it is interesting how it's you know all evolved throughout the years, because I'm sure that uh Peter, it's evolved for you as far as how your awards have changed and how your, you know, obviously your categories have changed and and things like that, but it it seems like that uh Australia's right on par with what we kind of do over here.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we've seen uh on forums and stuff, people talking and uh people might be venting about the American competition, and then someone from Australia will chime in and be like, oh, that's so not what it's like over here for us, or you know, so I was always like, I wanna know if it's the same, but it sounds pretty similar.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_03: And it sounds like, and like you said, uh Jacob, it it it is kind of nice to have our scoring range how we have it.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_03: I do think that it makes sense.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_03: It also I mean, it sounds like you are the bad guy for sure when you hand when you hold up those numbers, but I also think that's different and cool too.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like I think there's benefit to all different ways of judging.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_03: I I or maybe you don't hold up the number, or it's just like more like posted, like the final score is posted instead of like each individual holding up could be like an alternative method for that.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know, so you're not the the me the main judge all the time.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not all the time.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_00: When it's really good, I put one, so it's yeah, it's okay.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there you go.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_03: Fun.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_06: I think because it brings out confidence in dances, uh brings out the craziness in dances, but I also think it like I say don't go out there and perform for the judges, go there, perform for the audience, but treat it like a show because that's what you're working towards performing in shows.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_06: A competition is just one stepping stone to get to professional career.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_00: I love about competition, the inspirational aspect of it, that you get to see what everybody was doing the whole year and what they prepared, and the different style you get you can, you know, like pinch this one out, and like I like this bit, like I will get inspired.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think the inspiration really like drones all the way in the competitions, and it's really amazing to see all the people and the community getting together.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_03: We would like to send a huge thank you to our international guests for joining us on our podcast and telling us a little bit more about competitive dance in their country.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_03: Be sure to follow our guests on social media.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_03: You can follow Jacob at Davora underscore Koopa and follow his studio at movement.factory on Instagram.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_03: And you can find Peter at PeterOxford underscore official and follow his dance competition at ShowcaseDance on Instagram.
• 1:04:39
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• 1:04:48
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• 1:04:54
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• 1:05:02
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• 1:05:09
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• 1:05:15
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• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_03: Experience the DECA difference with top-notch teacher and studio owner care in a faculty lounge, skill-based levels, an emphasis on age appropriateness as part of every routine's overall score, and so much more.
• 1:05:36
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• 1:05:40
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• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us in season four of Making the Impact.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_01: We're excited to bring you new topics this season.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_01: And coming up in the next few weeks, you can look forward to a breakdown of tap dance styles, why dancers need a proper warm up, and our next spotlight feature.