Watching the Olympics obsessively over the past two weeks has sparked many thought processes & conversations in our home.
I have loved hearing the commentators, athletes, coaches & fans firstly just celebrating the honour of reaching Olympic level competition- how this in itself is a huge achievement. The back stories of hurdles overcome & the hard work put in from the athlete & their team to reach such a level. Nothing is achieved alone.
I love that every time an Aussie athlete reaches a semi final, a final, achieves a PB or sets a record- it is celebrated.
I love that 8th place in a final is considered an honour, not a loss and never referred to as last or ‘8th out of 8’.
I love hearing the athletes appreciation of their coaches who have been their guiding lights- working with them through the good & bad. Who shared every ounce of their knowledge & supported them wholeheartedly from humble beginnings & along rocky roads.
I love hearing the athletes honour their parents, and the sacrifices they made to make their kids dreams come true.
I love the team spirit. Being part of something special & always supporting each other though thick & thin warms my heart. Human beings are community creatures- we do best when we work together- not alone. I get all teary watching team mates hanging medals around each other’s necks- years of working together culminating in shared success & respect.
I love the genuine camaraderie between the fellow athletes from all the nations who compete together at these world class events- the maturity of how they conduct themselves to get out there & do their personal best. No need for psych out tactics or dirty tricks. Just get out there & do your best, knowing there is someone out there who may be better than you, and by cheering them on & encouraging them to win, doesn’t dull your shine at all. It makes you a successful human being & an honorable competitor.
I love how athletes pick themselves up and keep going when things go wrong or not as planned & finish their event no matter what. They don’t give up.
I love the comeback stories- of those who didn’t quite achieve their hopes previously, and stick together to come back stronger & more united next time.
If only these principles could be applied to the world of amateur competitive dance, what a happier, more successful & united industry we might be part of.
I never competed as a dancer- ever. The studio I trained at were performance based, and I was lucky to perform in professional venues & shows regularly from the age of 7. We forged forward together, progressed as a group, and didn’t have competition between each other, or with any other dance studios. A large number of us are still in the entertainment industry today- as this is what we were training to do…not training to compete (as professional dancers perform not compete). Every time we performed it was fun. There were no disappointments, there were no winners or losers- just happy kids who had a great time doing what they loved together as a team. We worked hard, we were high level, and made lifelong friendships & memories together. I am so grateful this was my dance life.
So when I opened Plie 27 years ago, and eisteddfods were the done thing on the beaches- my mind was blown. It was a whole (and very different) new world.
Most dance can’t really be classified as competitive sport (other than disciplines such as ballroom with set competition criteria), yet dance competitions are run & ‘winners’ awarded following the 1st, 2nd, 3rd method as in sport.
Dance comps have absolutely no set criteria- there are no required skills that must be included, or any specified level of technique. Every element of a routine is 100% decided by the teacher/choreographer.
So essentially, the judge decides who wins based on the creativity & choices the teacher has made on concept, choreography, costuming, music choice, performance quality & difficulty & execution of technical content in their opinion. Other than no criteria for the performer, similarly there is no set judging criteria or formal training across the board or national/international standards set. Judges are free to 100% choose what they like/prefer. The same routine competed a week after with a different judge will most likely have a completely different result, as every person views art differently & is drawn to different elements of a creative piece.
My aim has always been to train dance at a high level, and enter comps for performance experience, without pressure to feel the need to always win (whatever win means in the complicated world of dance). We have been successful ‘competitors’ nonetheless, with judges enjoying our performances & selecting us to place countless times, whereas other times not placing at all.
As far as competitiveness is concerned, learning how to not win graciously is a valuable lesson. Learning how to win graciously is just as valuable. But understanding & explaining to kids why you have or have not won a dance comp is beyond impossible- because there is no reason. There is no specific training or skill you can refer to. The answer always is- the judge enjoyed another studios routine more than they enjoyed ours today. They may have enjoyed our routine very much, but someone else’s a little more.
An athlete can honestly claim to have run the fastest, jumped the highest, scored the most goals or performed their set criteria at a higher level than any other competitor on competition day.
In all honesty, by winning a dance comp, the dancer can simply say ‘The judge enjoyed my performance the most today out of a field of similarly skilled dancers all competing very different routines & skills’.
And as hard as this is to explain to kids, it is sometimes even harder to explain to parents. If parents have participated in sports themselves, they understand & relate to the sporting format- the best team wins. And then, sometimes, some parents might choose to move their kids to compete on the team that happened to win the most recent comp. This would never happen in sport.
Worryingly, by choosing to place too much focus on competition dancing results (which we have established cannot be fairly judged with the non-existence of criteria), is encouraging some teachers/choreographers to stray from the correct technical training & following safe practices in training young bodies, so they can produce what they believe to be winning skills, movements or routines. Much of this content is beginning to stray away from dance, and becoming a series of difficult skills linked together. Some content is too mature for young kids, both in theme, costuming & choreography. Why? To win.
Our art is disappearing with the dance industry so focused on replicating a sporting format of winning.
I miss the days of dancing solely to be active, creative, social & inventive. When movement & music were considered a marriage that consistently complimented each other. When a song ‘told’ your body to move a certain way & you did, without worrying if that movement would score high enough in a comp (with no criteria).
When dancers all chose to stick with their teams through thick and thin & work together. A sports team win & lose graciously together, feeling comfort from not standing alone. They don’t chose to compete with neighboring teams against their lifelong team mates- in dance- this happens often.
You know what happened to dance? Social media was invented & the world went crazy.!
Dance in its current format is not sport.
Our industry is in conflict because we are running unregulated competitions & expecting the wider dance community to understand, accept & embrace this as good enough.
It isn’t.