The dance industry is rife with competitive events where performers face off in hopes of winning coveted trophies and potentially life-changing scholarships. But judging dance is a daunting task. Though athletic, dance is an art, not a sport. And because every competition’s scoring rubric is slightly different, dancers may not always understand why they received a certain score or ranking—or whether that number is relevant to their ongoing training. What do competitors and coaches need to know about the competitive-dance world’s many judging systems, and how can they glean useful information from the often-mysterious numerical scores?
What’s in a Score?
“Judging art is always going to be a challenge,” says Ivan Koumaev, managing director of Monsters Dance, a hip-hop competition under the umbrella of Amplified Productions. Having a clear rubric in place helps judges “put all contestants on a level playing field,” Koumaev says.
At Amplified, which also runs Adrenaline Dance and Revive Dance Convention, judges rate dancers in four categories: technical execution (maximum of 30 points), choreographic execution (maximum of 30 points), performance quality (maximum of 20 points), and overall impression (maximum of 20 points). With three judges, the cumulative score will be out of 300; in order to receive the top adjudication, a routine must secure at least 291 points.
The ballet competition Youth America Grand Prix also uses a 100-point scoring system, with dancers rated in two categories: technique and artistry. Those two scores (each out of 100) are averaged together, and then the judges’ scores are all averaged together. “We designed it like the American school system,” says Larissa Saveliev, founder and artistic director of YAGP. “You can think of 96–100 as an A+, 93–95 as an A, and so forth.” For regional events, YAGP has a panel of four to six judges. For the international finals, there are typically 10 to 12 adjudicators, and the highest and lowest scores are dropped. “When you have more people, you have more variety of opinions,” which can result in outliers, Saveliev explains.
Crystal Huang competing at Youth America Grand Prix. Photo by LK Studio, Courtesy YAGP.
Some dance competitions have significantly more structured scoring systems, with dancers graded on specific required elements. World DanceSport Federation, which runs competitions worldwide in ballroom, breaking, and other categories, sets strict boundaries in terms of music, choreography, and technique. For example, in its Caribbean Dance competitions, “missing or incorrectly executed fundamental steps, violating structural salsa/bachata requirements, (and) using non-authentic music” can have a significant negative impact on scoring, the WDSF wrote in a statement to Dance Magazine. “The system is rule-driven and discipline-specific, not purely aesthetic”—designed to reduce subjectivity while still allowing room for artistry.
While many competitions feature wide scoring ranges, judges may be instructed not to rate dancers below a minimum number. That’s something that longtime judge Nina Hudson wrestled with when she co-founded her own competition and convention, DEViATE: The Process. “If the range is between 1 and 30 in a category, but you can’t score anyone lower than 20, that’s really only a range of 1 to 10,” she points out. At DEViATE, routines are scored from 1 to 10 in three categories—routine (choreography, costumes, music, props); execution of routine (technique, musicality, energy); and overall impression—adding up to a total potential score of 30 from each judge. “Our judges are allowed and encouraged to use the full range,” Hudson says. “If a dancer’s technique was a 3, we think it’s helpful for them to know that.”
The Matter of Taste
Whatever a competition’s rubric, there’s no question that personal taste does come into play. “That’s why it’s important to have a wide lens of expertise on every judging panel,” says Mikeal Knight, creative director at Amplified Productions. “Casting for judging needs to align with the genres competing during that segment, including the most unique genre being presented.”
Saveliev says YAGP always aims for a diverse panel of judges, representing not only different ballet styles but also different roles in the dance world: “Current dancers might focus on technical elements, like number of pirouettes, while a school director might be looking at quality of execution, like clean transitions.” She recommends viewing judges’ diverging tastes as a feature, rather than a bug. “If you get a high score from someone with a Balanchine background and a low score from somebody European, that can give you direction,” she says.
Dancers competing at National Dance Honors. Photo by Vern Lazar, Courtesy Amplified Productions.
A routine that works artistically for one judge might fall flat for another. Competitions can navigate that gray area via “overall impression” or a similar category, where a judge’s personal response to the choreography, music, costume choice, or even level of age-appropriateness can be quantified, separate from elements like technique and musicality. Rubrics may also distinguish between aspects of a performance that young dancers do and do not control. For instance, within Amplified’s family of events, “We don’t critique how well the art is created, because we don’t want to penalize studios that may not have the resources to hire professional choreographers,” Koumaev says. “It’s about the execution of the work.”
While the math might change from event to event, for most dance judges, the goal remains the same. “I want the number that I’m assigning to reflect what I’m seeing,” says Allie Kronick, a dance teacher who is also a competition judge. “Every judge comes in with their own training background and set of values, but we all want to get it right.”
Interpreting Results
How can teachers make the most of the feedback their dancers receive at a competition? After the event, studios often receive judges’ written or recorded comments along with each entry’s numerical score breakdown. “Hearing what the judges were looking for and seeing what they saw helps the dancers understand their scores,” says competition judge Allie Kronick, who teaches at Ella Marie School of Dance in Hicksville, New York, as well as guest-teaching and choreographing for studios across the country. “The critiques are more valuable than the numbers.”
One way to put those numbers to use is to look for trends. “If there’s a pattern to the scoring, that tells us something,” says Marthavan McKeon, owner and artistic director of South Shore Ballet Theatre in Hingham, Massachusetts. Consistently lower technique scores, for example, may mean there’s an issue that needs to be addressed in class. “Or if artistry is lower overall, is it a matter of artistic development?” McKeon asks. In short, “What can we work on?”
Dancers at the WDSF DanceSport Festival in Blackpool, England: Rares Cojoc and Andreea Matei in the Standard competition.
Alexandru Miculescu and Andra Pacurar in the Latin competition. Photos by Hery Deslandes, Courtesy WDSF (2).
Even if there is a pattern to the scores at one event, results can vary widely across a competition season. “I’ve seen students place first or second one weekend and 15th the next, with the same routine,” says Jenny Hogan, owner of Brava Dance Center in Rye and Port Chester, New York. Meanwhile, some events’ scoring systems result in frequent ties. “I’ve had a bunch of dancers all receive a 90, but that doesn’t make them equal 90s,” McKeon says. “It’s more challenging to explain how they compare to their peers when they all scored the same.”
That’s why the judges’ critiques are the real take-home tool. “We’ll listen to critiques together as a team,” says Hogan, “and we’ll mention the scores—but we explain that this is just the opinion of a few people at one particular moment in time. What matters is the work we’re putting in in the studio. At the end of the day, it’s process over prize.”
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