I dance at Westside Dance Academy, and I enjoy it. I like that it allows me to make friends outside of my school, the teachers we have are really good, and the team environment at the studio is great.
Dancing at Westside is much more difficult than dancing at the school because it’s more competitive. There are more styles to choose from and therefore more dances.
The dance team at the school is a lot different because it is less competitive and there are fewer options for what you can do.
Competitions go by quickly, but there’s a lot of waiting. For example, we will have dances every 15 minutes or so, and so we’ll have to change quickly, and then when you get off stage, you have to wait forever until the awards.
Every time you get on stage to dance, it’s always difficult because the dances are hard, and there’s no easy dance.
At my studio, Jazz and musical theater qualified for Nationals.
For different competitions, it depends on your scoring, but for the past competition that we were just at, if you please, the top 10 qualify for Nationals, which are in July in Nashville.
Nationals are very intense because you get called back after doing your dance, into a bash or battle, like a dance battle against other dancers.
Basically, when you get on stage for the award, they say the people who are back in the battle, and then you have to change quickly back into the costume you were in and be ready for the dance. You don’t get any time to practice or change anything about the dance because you’re not allowed to. You have to go straight backstage, and they follow you on stage where you dance again, and you have to prove to the judges why you should take the trophy.
The scoring for most competitions is out of 300, and there are three judges; they can all give up to 100 points. And they score based on technique, style, costumes, choreography and facials, which is your energy and presentation on stage.
If you dance in a group, you are judged on the cleanliness and conformity of your dance group.
Each category is worth 20 points, or 10 depending on how many categories they have, but it all adds up to 100. Then they add all the judges’ scores together. You generally want to have 280 to 300 points.
