The Negative Effects of Competitive Dance
I want to start by saying that I am not against competitions. I have noticed over the last 25 years that the students who participate in competitive dance actually progress farther in one year than those that don't. But I have also noticed that sometime in the last 20 years some people discovered that there was a lot of money to be made in the business of competitive dance.
I don't have problems with the companies that tour around bringing their competitions to various communities. Even though some companies are obviously more interested in their bottom line than the competitive experience of the dancers. My issue is this - with the abundance of competitions traveling to nearby communities, more and more studios are adopting a team sports model for running their studios. These studios then treat these travelling competitions like sports tournaments trying to attend as many as they can during the prime competition season. Competitive based studios then begin to focus on competitions and competitions routines rather than teaching the art of dance. They try to convince parents that the more competitions and competition routines their child is in it will make them better and more successful as a dancer. In reality studios have discovered that they can generate more income per hour by giving private, semi-private classes that focus only on competition routines than teaching group technique classes. One teacher told me I was crazy not to charge students for competition. She told me that competition routine classes made up more than half of the studio's revenue.
Now making money is not my issue. If an artist can make money at something they love to do, yeah, that's a win! But here's what bothers me. Studios that focus on entering as many routines as they can, in order to make more money, often resort to formula choreography. That's the only way to create 100's of routines every year. They grab a piece of music, come up with an opening that fits the music, then put in trick lines and combinations to fill the music and then put an ending on the routine. This is what skating and gymnastics has evolved into. And it's becoming very evident in dance competition. It is, also, the formula most of the choreographers of So You Think You Can Dance use. Which I also have some issues with. SYTYCD does promote dance and feature some very talented dancers. But, they compromise dance as an art form in favour of routines that generate ratings.
Another problem I have with competition based studios is a byproduct of formula choreography. The top 1 or 2 students in each studio are often singled out and not given the usual formula routines. They are given the best routines the choreographer can create. Unfortunately, based on choreography, you can tell which students the studio believes will be winners versus those that have routines just to earn the studio money. And unfortunately, you can definitely see it backstage at competitions. Teachers who have banked on a few students or routines to be winners will stand in the wings and watch and cheer those routines. But these same teachers will chat with other teachers, eat a snack, rearrange their belongings or sit back in a chair during students who they don't believe are their top winners. That can't be good on the self-esteem of teens who are already dealing with other hormonal issues.
The next related problem is the resultant new teachers. We are now seeing young teachers that learned to dance through these studio that create dances that rely heavily on tricks and standard combination sequences rather than dance artistry. They don't see the value of an aesthetically choreographed piece by The Joffrey Ballet because that style of choreography won't win competitions.
Another issue is that some students who train in competition based studios often struggle in the professional world of dance. Not because they aren't good or great dancers. They often have to be retrained to remove stylized dance steps and combinations because their abilities and style don't match the company they hope to dance with. They often become frustrated because even though they may dance better than others, they are given smaller chorus roles or incidental parts that can hide their inability to break old habits. They then become disillusioned and don't see the merits of a 'simple looking' 30 minute piece. They long to be jumping, leaping, spinning, sliding, and doing the tricks they were rewarded with in competition.
I believe that over the last few decades some studio owners saw the monetary advantage the soccer and hockey clubs had. These clubs put together teams with the sole purpose of traveling to other centres to play in tournaments. They charged parents to join the team. They charged parents to practise. They charged parents for team uniforms, pictures, and socials. They make parents fundraise to allow them to travel farther and help pay for entry fees and replace uniforms. This model has been a trend in many of the competitive studios. Parents end up paying or raising thousands of dollars for entry fees, costumes, travel, routines, and rehearsals. But unlike sports clubs that play 2 to 8 games each lasting about 40 minutes which makes the cost of travel and participating somewhat worth it, dance routines last from 2 - 5 minutes. I am willing to bet that there would be very few soccer moms willing to pack up the family, travel to another city, eat at the restaurant, buy treats, etc. just to watch their child receive a medal for playing for 5 minutes. But for some reason dance studios have convinced dance moms this is the way dance should be done now.