My Thoughts on Competitive Dance

A topic that has come up in my circles is dance competitions: should I do one, or are they the wrong environment? For some who have grown up dancing in competitions as a child, you may think the question is silly. Of course dance competitions are a must - they are an opportunity to perform and show the world your talents! While I did not grow up in competitive dance, I recently took part in my very first dance competition as an adult (it was a pole dance competition called Pole Theatre Canada) and I've also held pretty strong beliefs about the place that competition has in the dance world. So I'm gonna unpack some of the thoughts I have around mixing dance and a competitive atmosphere.

Dance is an art... or a sport?

Let me start off by telling you all a little story from high school. When I was in grade 11 me and a few friends started up my schools very first cheerleading team. I spear-headed the dance training and choreography while my friends organized, consulted with school staff, used their gymnastics background, took stunting coaching workshops, etc. I was also an athlete in a number of other school sports and had a pretty tight relationship with my gym teacher for this reason. One day the topic of cheerleading came up in a discussion about what should be considered a "sport" and what shouldn't be. I was appalled to hear that my gym teacher did not consider cheerleading to be a sport! However, I continued to listen to his argument where he went on to say "Look, I am not denying that cheerleading is incredibly challenging physically and that people who cheerlead don't deserve to be labelled as athletes. I also feel this way about dance, gymnastics and figure skating. They are all challenging and take a great deal of physical training and exercise to accomplish... but in all of these so-called sports, there is no clear winner or loser. It's up for interpretation by a panel of judges with their own tastes that are subjective. So while I do believe these activities deserve praise and recognition, a sport is a game where there is a clear, objective winner." Over the years I have really come to appreciate this perspective. Theres no denying that dance (and the other activities) requires a level of physical strength that would put a lot of other athletes to shame (because darts are considered a sport too under these stipulations and you don't need much athletic ability to play darts). But dance to me is so much more than just the physical appearance of it. It is art - it's expression and creativity and innovation and so many more things that I could list that make arts a beautiful and moving thing. Dance does more than train your body physically - it challenges your soul, your spirit and gives you the opportunity to express feelings that sometimes can't even be expressed through verbal language. My opinion - dance should always be considered an art before a sport.

Should something so subjective be judged by others?

There is no right or wrong way to make art - it is subjective rather than objective. And this is something that has made me apprehensive about entering dance competitions before. In my younger years I was a writer for a children's dance competition where I would write the thoughts of a judge I was assigned to to give to the competitors afterwards. While I listened to my assigned judges critiques, I couldn't help but both disagree with some of the things I was hearing, and also continuously ask (in my head of course) who are you to say these things? I mean no offence to anyone who has ever judged a dance competition before, but who are you to really say if someone's lines are perfect because their toes are pointed (maybe a flexed foot is visually appealing to them) or someone's facial expression is not appropriate for their piece (maybe they are releasing some major emotions during their piece that are authentically theirs). This experience really reaffirmed my belief that there is no "good" or "bad" dancing - only individual tastes and a visual appeal that is entirely personal. So you can understand my apprehension with participating in events that score and rank people based on their own personal expression.

But what about the opportunity to perform?

This is the factor that finally gave me the urge to participate in a dance competition. I applied for PTC with some pieces that I thought were really incredible and showcased my range of movement quality and choreographic repertoire. I performed them on a big stage, was a part of a pretty advanced level production and danced in front of a crowd that was bigger than I was used to performing in front of in a long time. I was nervous as hell, and I didn't "win"... except to me, I did. I won first place in the heart of my loved ones who watched from the audience and from the online live stream, who had never seen me perform in such a way, with two of my first original works. The nerves turned into the most incredible adrenaline rush (anyone who performs in front of a live audience gets how addicting that feeling is!) But most of all, I committed to something, worked my ass off to create pieces I was truly proud of and met some other incredible pole dancers that inspired the hell out of me. Those were the true gifts that this dance competition gave me, and they had nothing to do with what the judges thought or what my ranking was. Do I think the same could have been accomplished in a non-competitive environment? For me yes, but the point is that I went in treating it like a performance opportunity rather than a sport that I wanted to win (I mean winning is always cool of course, but not my reason for participating). I guess what I am trying to say in conclusion is that dance competitions don't have to be a negative experience and can truly empower you in ways that any live performance opportunity does. You just need to continuously connect to your "why"

If you are a dancer, have you ever been in a competition? What was your experience like sharing your creativity in a competitive nature?