I own and run a competition. This is our 5th season, and I am so proud of myself and my staff! We started small (1 for the first season) and have built to 5 venues and a first Championship this summer season. When I started, I wanted to be as fair as possible... for example, we handed out HM, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum...and we ACTUALLY handed out all of them. Not too many platinum the first year, and a couple HM. I got soooo much slack from a FEW studios for the HM AND the bronzes. So, I dropped the HM the following year, AND still got slack for giving out bronze! Not everyone, there are just a select few studio owners that don't BELIEVE in this. When I competed, the competition system was at the end of doing JUST 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and moved into adjudicating! I get so upset, and I shouldn't, but what do some teachers think? When kids play soccer they don't win every game. When they have tests in school they don't get an A every time. But because dance is an extra activity, dance schools AND competitions are expected to always reward students...either by putting them in ALL the dance numbers or giving them gold and platinum EVERY time, regardless of if they deserve it. What does that teach them? I can tell you that judging competitions is an opinion first off, and my judges back up their opinions with positive critiques and suggestions. I just don't want to jump on the Competition Bandwagon that some competitions are on by giving out a bazillion platinum to get teams to return. I want to be seen as fair, fun, and educational...not "mean" or "killing self esteem" by god forbid, giving out a silver or (gasp) bronze!!!! As teachers, what are your opinions (and please be nice....

I honestly commend you for still handing out bronze and silver. It is rare to go to a competition that hands out anything less than gold anymore, and that is exactly the reason that I dispise going. Students think that everytime they dance they deserve a gold or platinum, and we all know thats not the case. There are studio's that only compete to win, which are the studio's that complain about getting lower scores. The real purpose of competing isn't to win(even though its always nice). The purpose is to get the opinion of a professional, to get both positive and negative feedback about your routine, and to perform in front of an audience. So many people have forgotten whats most important about competition. I think alot more studio's will want to attend a competition that actually hands out something lower than a gold-I know for a fact that we have had numerous threads discussing this and teachers and owners are looking for competitions like this. Please keep doing what your doing. If you are honest about your scoring, you will get a good base of honest and dedicated studio's. You will get people to attend your competition who actually care about the real meaning on competition and want real scores-not mass amounts of platinum on the stage.

Good luck in everything and I hope you succeed.

Thank you so much for that supportive answer! It means so much, as I am heading into that 5th season with tremendous nerves building!!LOL

We have ad this conversation many times on this site and I will tell you that most of the owners/instructors say that what you offer is what they want. I am not sure how many really feel that way, but speaking for myself.. I really appreciate you and what you are doing with your competition. You should stand by your belief and your business will continue to grow. You will get the over flow of studios that say they want to see true rewards at competitions. Good for you!!

I am a former competition dancer and now a teacher. I prefer competitions that don't just give away awards. As a dancer it meant so much more to get a platnium from a compeition that did not give them away then everybody and their brother getting a platnium. As a teacher I only teach recreational but if they did compete I would prefer taking them somewhere like your competition. Keep up with what you are doing. It means more to the dancers that work hard to get those higher medals

I think one of the biggest problems, and I think that if you remind people, it will help, is that people seem to have forgotten that an honorable mention or a bronze is still a reward! The older kids I used to teach always got bummed, but if you start young, they need to remind these students that just being a part of it is an honor, and the reality is that if they want to do better, they need to work harder and train harder.

It is more important to me that my students learn a good work ethic, support for everyone (including other studios), and that they have fun. Winning doesn't always mean having fun. I see studio that win platinum after platinum and don't even clap when they get one! I don't see the fun or learning experience in that.

Personally i think the kids and parents are all very confused about just what place they are getting...At some competitions a Gold is 1st place, at some it is like third, when you consider Platinum and High gold are above it.If you give a kid a bronze at 1 competition that may be the eqivalent of a gold somewhere else. I think we should do away with all of it and go back to 1st 2nd and 3rd. Adjudication has been used as nothing but an excuse to make sure everyone gets a trophy. If you want to give more placements add 4th and 5th or more depending on the number of entries. I personally think that the award is worth a heck of alot more if they aren't handing them out like candy.

You've been around for five years and have grown, so you must be doing something right. I believe that the type of competition that you offer will attract the type of schools that participate. If you change your standards then you will be attracting schools that have "must win" philosophy. Is that what you want? Offer the product/service that you support and like people will follow.

Competition: The act of competing, as for profit or a prize; rivalry.
If everyone gets a gold or silver than that's not really competing. They should get what they earn and not complain about it. Those who get a bronze should be happy with what they did and see it as having room to improve.

Absolutely stay true to your mission. I have only competed a few times as the teacher of an SO. The competitions that I most enjoyed were the ones that awarded Special Awards. I took a beginning pointe class to a comp and they recieved a Silver Award for their work which was totally fair as they were still a bit new to dancing on pointe on stage. Imagine their delight (and mine!) when they were awarded a special award for their ethereal quality and costumes that matched the dance's theme perfectly ( I made the costumes) We also recieved well thought out critique from each judge which I know can be hard to do when watching dances that seem to come at you like they're on a conveyor belt!

I am also a competition owner that still awards bronze medals. I find that although comps like mine are applauded in print, when those bronzes go out they are never appreciated by anyone. I think a lot of teachers agree with not everyone gets to win until they are the one not winning or getting the silvers & bronzes...hmmm what's up with that?

Anyhow, you can't please everyone danceteach101, stay the course if you truly believe in what you're doing:)

I've bene involved in comps for 25 years or so- as a dancer, teacher, judge and studio owner. People may SAY they want you to hand out Bronzes and Silvers until you hand one to THEIR student. Then watch how quick the story changes.

At the end of the day, the kids know what it means. They figure it out REAL quick. Even the ones who win Platinum aren't happy if they don't win high score of the day.

Just keep on doing what you know in your gut is the right thing to do. Have integrity and don't cowtow to anyone , no matter HOW many numbers they bring to your comp.

Best of luck.

Here in Sydney Australia it's still the good old "1st, 2nd, 3rd, Highly Commended".

Why give kids a false sense of god-ness... awards are meant to be earnt.

Wow, as I sit here this Christmas Eve and read all the wonderfully supportive and motivational comments on my post, I look more forward to my 5th competition season! Thank you all!

Stick to your philosophy and give out bronzes when they're deserved. I recently attended a comp and there were no silvers...trust me, there WERE silvers but just no silver awards given.

Good luck on your 5th year! Are you in N.E.?

We are base dout of NJ but hold competitions in NJ, NY, and PA. If you would like more info, send me a PM. Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.

I personally love that you are still giving out bronze! I hate that now a gold is like getting a bronze because there are platinum,emerald, extreme platinum, diamond etc. I think honourable mention is a little harsh...just in terms of building kids confidence. So I understand why you got rid of that, but I would stick to your guns and keep the platinum, gold, silver, bronze!

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I hope things continue to go well for you. Please stay the course in this. My girls just competed and did nto place ( groug gives 1st, 2nd, 3rd) in one of their dances. We did NOT do our best and the girls knew it and all of our parents. This we use and take the critiques and improve and work on the items. They did okay in other areas and this is life. Sometimes you do Platnimum work and other times Bronze. This gives them the push and drive to really learn and work harder. i think that is one of the best lessons we can teach them. As well as - especially for those who want to do this as a profession - that judging is subjective and folks who are evaluating you AND offering guidence should be listened to if you eer want to go somewhere.

I knwo it is hard but there are those of us who really do appreciate this both in writing and in person. I think everyone should be recognized for participating but not everyone can be first.

Keep up the good work and when you expand to the southeast I hope our team can gie your event a try.

i personally stay away from competitions that give out plat.,gold,hs ect. I like my children to get the real feeling of winning 1st,2nd,3rd ect. I agree with you that giving many trophies defeats the idea of competing!! Not every and all children should win that is the idea of competiting against other children. Keep what your doing if you like it, you can not and will not please everyone all the time. run you competition the way you want and in your heart you'll know if its right. Good luck and i hope you keep growing!!!!

I think it is great to give out Silver and Bronze awards. The first few years I took kids to comps, they got 3rd/bronze awards. They saw the difference between their dancing and the other studios. They worked hard, the next year they did better. Then they asked - "how do those other girls dance like that, we want the high awards!" We told them that those other kids dance a lot more than one day a week, so our girls started taking mroe classes. After 4 years we took them to their first national competition and they made it into the dance off! They did not win, but the were in the top 7, they felt GREAT about themselves because their hard work was paying off!

Keep giving out all the awards, how can dancers see their growth, or what they need to work on if they get high scores from the first time out!

I also think what you are doing is great! I used to compete and many schools used to receive HM and Bronze and that was that...when my school received the golds and platinum we deserved it and hard work pays off!
Schools that get upset are just worried that the parents are going to take there kids out and go somewhere else. With that being said, they need to take those critiques and learn from them to make their kids better!

What's the fun in competing if you already know what you're going to get? You might as well stay home and string loonies on a ribbon if all you want is something shiny! The knowledge that you might get a bronze or not place is what makes you work harder! My kids don't breathe easy until we get the papers back and have a look at the marks and comments. A good, thoughtful critique is what we pay our money for, that's what helps the dancers improve, not gratuitous hardware.

I give props to everyone who agrees with me! Thank you-

my season starts on Feb 8 and I can take a little sigh of relief....

Stick to your guns.
I'm so tired of sitting thru awards and listening a slew of High Golds and knowing that the lowest will be a Gold. Did they all forget there was Silver and Bronze on the program.

It's one thing if they all deserved the HG, but who are we kidding.

I personally miss the old days of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd etc, places being given out for awards. That was alot more exciting than waiting for everyone to get their gold, high gold or platinum. the truth of the matter is those places are nothing more than bronze, silver, and gold. In the "old days" if my students didn't win they went back to the studio with determination to get better and win next time. Many times we would place low at the regional event and through lots of hard work we would go to the national level and beat the same dancers that were against us regionals! What a great feeling of accomplishment that was!! I miss those days!