Dance festival awards

[tensmum1964]

Hi. Can any of you parents who,s children do dance and compete at festivals help with a question please. My daughter attends several dance festivals and dances in a variety of genres including ballet, tap, national, lyrical and modern. Some of the festivals and competitions are all England qualifying festivals and others are not. Whilst I know that different ones sometimes have different rules I find the way they award certain trophys a bit confusing. Does anyone know what the all England rules are for receiving the aggregate award per section. For example, it based on gaining the most first place in certain genres or are all genres included. I was told by one dance teacher that the aggregate award could only be awarded for first places in ballet, tap and modern but another said it can be awarded for the most first places in any genre. Anyone know who is right?

[ideasofmarch]

All England Dance has a website, there might be some information on there.

[tensmum1964]

Thanks, ive had a look on there but couldn't find anything that specific. Maybe it is just a case of different festivals making up their own rules.

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

I think it depends on the festival. We have been to All England festivals which do things really quite differently. Some have classical sections rather than different genres, some have combined age groups and others don't. As for championship awards etc I think that is entirely up to the festival organisers. I am not sure how they are assessed for being All England ones and there are obviously some rules they have to follow for that but I think they have quite a lot of leeway to award what they want, how they want when it comes to trophies. I think the All England bit is really down to marking.

[tensmum1964]

Yes I think I am coming to that conclusion. Its all a bit confusing. I,m a person that likes rules lol.

[PaquitaVariation]

Rules seem to be subjective and not set in stone when it comes to dance festivals!

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

I think you have to view each festival as an entirely different experience to be honest. We have tried 5 different ones I think and a couple of more American style competitions. They are all really quite different. One festival isn't an All England one but I think that was our favourite to be honest. It seemed to have a nicer atmosphere, less competitive as people weren't chasing qualifications. Funny though, my kids have qualified for regionals but don't want to do them. I can't imagine being driven by a desire to get to them, we do festivals just for fun.

[tensmum1964]

Yes I agree. It should be about fun and participation but the more I do it the competitive it seems to be getting. My Dd,s dance school isnt too bad but some of the ones that we compete against can be very medal focused so it puts the kids under pressure. I saw a dance teacher from another school totally berate a child because they didnt win. Also some of the parents are very competitive.

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

yes it is a pity. Don't get me wrong, my girls do love medals and would dearly love to win more of them, but they are realistic about their ability and they know I would stop them doing things if they got really obsessive about it all. They don't have regular private lessons, they have learned their dances very quickly (we don't have the money for them to have lots of extra lessons) and they either put the effort in to practice themselves or they go out and compete without practicing (most usual) and hope for the best! I am not going to remind them to practice. I will say things like "x is only 3 weeks away" and leave them to it. they chose if they want to work hard enough to give themselves a chance of a medal or not.