As an adjudicator for many years in America, I'm often asked, "What are you looking for when you judge/adjudicate a dance competition?" As each person who is assigned the role of 'judge' may have different answers for that question, here are mine. In this world of glamorizing sports, sometimes the 'art' of what dance is all about can get lost to the highly technical and stylized dance we see today. I believe we are seeing less and less of creative artistic expression in the

To Be or Not to Be in the dance competitions? That is the question that many parents, students and dance teachers are currently asking themselves. Quite frankly, many are viewing the upcoming season with a quietly concealed feeling of dread, as artistry and integrity, grace and manners disappear out of many studio windows to be replaced by dance tricks, flashy cheap moves and tantrums galore or glorious - depending on your opinion, of course. Competitions can bring out the

As a performer, stage presence is a must! You want to keep your audience interested in what you are doing up there on the stage, so it is important to be aware of your face. Some dancers are natural performers. They dance with energy, and seem to move like they love being up there on the stage. Experience in performance, of course, plays a big factor in how you keep an audience interested. Make eye contact with your audience and members of your group. Don’t ignore your the