The sport of dance has many stereotypes. When people think about it, they may think that it’s only performances and taking class, but in reality there is a whole other side of the artistic sport. This side contains long hours spent rehearsing and preparing for competitions. Taking class in a crowded hotel ballroom at conventions. Performing in front of hundreds of people you don’t know, but know that you’re being judged. All this only to get that feeling of tired satisfaction of surviving another weekend at a dance competition.
“I like that we get to dance in front of more people, and when we go, we get to do classes with people that we never met before,” junior Malina Space said.
Space dances at Design Dance Company, which goes to around two or three competitions and conventions each year. Competitions are when the dancers only perform in front of the judges, and conventions include classes and the competition.
“This year, we’re going to two of them. In the past, we’ve gone to three, but we hosted one of them, so we usually only travel with two of them,” Space said.
Competitions and conventions happen all year round, but many companies wait until the end of the fall or winter to start traveling to them.
“It’s usually spread out; we usually start in January with our first one, and that kind of goes through April and May,” sophomore Katie Lamphere said.
Lamphere dances at Dance Arts Academy, a studio that has a heavier focus on ballet. Because they focus more on ballet, competitions center around that style of dance.
“A few weeks ago we went to UBC (Universal Ballet Competition). We go to YAGP (Youth America Grand Prix), it’s another ballet one, and then we go to Headliners, sometimes,” Lamphere said.
Conventions and competitions both have aspects of judging and competing, but at conventions, students can learn from professional dancers alongside other studios.
“Fridays are like Friday night sessions, so you can take a class. On Saturday, we have some convention classes, and then later we have the competition, so it’s like now [we] compete all our dances. On Sunday, we have convention classes again, and then they do awards,” freshman Mackenzie Schwandt, another dancer at Dance Arts, said.
The classes take place in large hotel ballrooms or convention centers. Dancers dance shoulder-to-shoulder with people from other studios and sometimes other states. The rooms are always very crowded and loud.
“I definitely prefer the small studio atmosphere because it’s a lot more comfortable, and it’s just more in my comfort zone, but I think it’s good that [the large areas] are out of our comfort zone,” Space said.
After a long day of taking class after class, studios regroup to go on stage and perform. Sometimes, the competition aspect lasts until the middle of the night. Dancers have opportunities to compete in solos and group pieces in front of an audience of different studios and judges.
“We have variations from ballets that we do, which you work on throughout the year and then we have group pieces that change each year, so it changes, like, from year to year, but it stays the same each competition,” Lamphere said.
