Disappointed with dd's dance exam result.

Have you personally had a bad experience in dance or something like it? There seems to be a lot of projection and catastrophising in your post.
Taking it at face value:

1. Lack of spatial awareness and set works is very common for very young children taking their first exams. The teacher will see those comments - and whatever has been written about her classmates - and will incorporate those learnings in to their lessons. So absolutely nothing to worry about right now.
2. If she was taking singing exams and the feedback was that she was completely tone deaf and couldn't get one note in time then that would be tricky. But she didn't have any negative feedback about her actual dance. The 'performance' comment is likely to be because she either made some teeny mistakes or because the examiner was looking for something neutral to say. Honestly, it isn't that deep at this stage and level.
3. Yes, some dance schools will play favourites. That isn't likely to start yet and they are much more likely to look favourably on kids who give everything a go and enjoy themselves and are teachable. She sounds like that.
4. A great teacher will bring out the best in every child. They can't do that if a parent is making the child doubt themselves.
5. If she is in a dance school that is very focused on festivals and competitions then she will soon be grouped with others of her standard and experience. If you genuinely feel she will be left out and made to feel like she is a terrible dancer then that is absolutely not the right school for her, or you.
6. She is 6. Gently, please let her enjoy herself and learn new things in a fun environment. That will build her confidence in itself.

yes, eventually she will discover she's not the centre of the world and everyone's favourite. The sooner the better frankly!

That's life. And an essential skill to become a bearable person.

Nellie Oleson was funny in a TV show, in real life she would be universally hated 😂

Life lessons!
She learns/you teach her ... that it is okay not to be the best at EVERYTHING in life.
That not being the best is okay.. the important thing is to enjoy and have fun... its a hobby.. not a career...
Learning this... resilience... will help her ALL her life... and kids these days need resilience...

If she wants to be healthy I wouldn’t suggest dance. I know a few ‘failed’ dancers and they are massively scarred

But what is the alternative OP? What would cut your losses even mean? She enjoys dancing so if you pull her out now what reason will you give her? If she enjoys it right now surely that's all that matters and if in the future it stops being fun she can leave?

It's the perfect opportunity to teach her that things can be done for fun and not because you're the best at it. She can learn that no matter how good you are there's always someone better. That in the end the race is only with yourself.

A mark on an exam is nowhere near as important as how she feels when dancing and if she enjoys it. If teachers show a preference for the best kids then so what? They're just people like her.

Her value as a person is not at all tied to whether some judges think she used the space well or not. At best the feedback is just direction to improve. Take what you can from it and leave the rest.

I know you'll be reading this thinking I'm being obtuse or unrealistic but it feels like you're projecting feelings you have and experiences from your own life. Some people really are confident and resilient enough that they can perceive the world this way.

Confidence doesn't come from being told how good you are by a dance teacher or getting the best marks. That's a very flimsy kind of confidence that can be taken away as easily as it is given. The intrinsic reward of doing something you enjoy can just be enough for some people.

If it stops being fun then she can do something else but why be so sure it's going to play out a certain way before it has?

She's 6. Please keep it fun and praise her, genuinely, for the effort she put in. She passed, she enjoys it. Anything else is your ambition not hers.

@User860131 " I hope I don't sound really awful saying this."

Oh. I'm afraid you do.

I would just let her enjoy having fun and doing something healthy. She doesn't need to be great at it - I don't see why kids have to be assessed and examined in things from so early on anyway.

So what do you need? Ways to manage her expectations or ways to make her a better dancer? It’s not clear (to me at least)

She's six! It's meant to be fun.

Does she enjoy the class? That's all that matters. You can boost her confidence by not focusing on exams and getting top marks and instead thinking about enjoyment of dance or having fun doing something in a group.

If you're that keen on grades.and exams and self improvement why don't you enrol in adult classes and do the exams yourself?

So why borrow trouble? She doesn't feel like that now. She may never feel like that. DS isn't particularly good at football, but he enjoys the teamwork and camaraderie -- he's certainly not tormenting himself with not getting scouted for an academy.

Respectfully, you sound incredibly insecure and anxious. Are you seriously asking whether you should pull a six-year-old out of an activity she enjoys in case in the future she might come to be heart-broken because she isn't as good as some of her peers?

I wouldn’t see dance as a confidence boosting activity at all. Quite the opposite - dance culture is brutal.

Facial expressions aren't really relevant in exams. As long as she's passed then it's fine, don't put so much pressure on her.

Your daughter is young, let her enjoy the dancing. Her enjoyment should come first, not the exam results. You have no idea if your daughter is going 'to be taking dancing more and more seriously as she becomes older'. It seems to me that this is what you want! You want her to dance, take it seriously, obtain excellent grades and probably attend dance school in the future. What if this, isn't something she wants?! At the moment, you are coming across as a 'pushy Mum', who is trying to live her childhood dreams by pushing them onto your daughter. Let her enjoy the dancing, and see how it pans out. You can't map everything out.

Say and do absolutely nothing but praise her to the skies. She is six. She has turned up and done her best! You risk spoiling her enjoyment by making her feel she needs your approval, and being one of ‘those’ awful parents living vicariously that other parents and teachers can sense a mile away. Dancing is her thing, not yours.

What are you hoping to get from this post? No one knows how good your daughter is or how much potential she has. What kind of advice would be useful to you?

This is what the dance world is like, OP, particularly for the RAD exams - and it gets tougher as they get older. The examiners are absolutely brutal!

It’s you that will knock her confidence. She is happy. My children’s interests and activities changed often at that age until they settled on something. Just leave things and see how it goes.

Just let her enjoy it. DD1 dances for hours each week, she has no intention of doing it as a professional, just loves it as a hobby. She sometimes does the exams and sometimes doesn’t bother. If the dance school are pushy with exams, then simply find one that is less serious. 6.5 is on the young side for grade 1 modern which probably explains the mark, DD2 who is a reasonable dancer is 8 and will take it later this year if she wants to. DD1 who is 14 is doing grade 5 modern this term to give you some context.

A low merit is good.

you need to stop living your life through her and let her be. You need to stop being a pushy parent!

She lost marks mostly on her set dances and 'sense of performance' and 'use of space' Tbh I'm worried that these are things that aren't really easy to fix or to explain to a young child especially when she seems to really be trying.

isn't that why you pay for a professional dance teacher to .. teach, and you stay out of it?

Is the dance school making her feel like that? You seem to be projecting a lot of things here that haven’t actually happened, do you have direct experience of this happening?

However dancing is something she is probably going to get more and more serious about and I am really worried that the whole culture is just going to end up swallowing her whole and knocking her confidence.

In order to prevent this, when she’s 6 and gets a low merit you go ‘Oh my god!! You got a merit!! I am SO proud of you, that’s absolutely amazing. That’s even better than a pass!’. Confudence and enjoyment is everything at that age.