Spring into Confoundedness

Every year at this time I am just astonished. . .no shocked . . .no stunned by what I see at local dance competitions.

No that's not it.

I am confounded at what is deemed appropriate by the judging panel. Every year choreographers push the boundaries a little farther and are being rewarded for doing it.

Boundaries of what? Boundaries of costumes, music, and movement themes performed by children. Now I am neither a prude or closed minded when it comes to ethics. I am not so naive to think that children should never and will never be exposed to sexual or violent subjects. Or that most teens will remain celibate until they choose a life partner.

But I do believe that children (and I will refer to teens as children too) should not be encouraged to act out or display sexual or violent themes in a public forum. Let's just take a moment . . . and think. Let say --you have a very talented daughter. She has impressed judges, teachers and choreographers. She wins gold medal after gold medal at dance competitions. Now let's bring all of your golf buddies over to your house for a little back yard party. Then, after they've had a few drinks, bring out your daughter in her costume and have her dance her routine. Would you do it? If you would, then perhaps her teachers and choreographers are on the right track. If you wouldn't, then why is it OK for her to dance or dress that way in front of 2 or 3 hundred strangers.

This is what bothers me. If it's inappropriate for home and your friends then it must be inappropriate for an audience of strangers. In that case, who's at fault? Well, maybe it's the teacher/choreographer's. But. . . . it's human nature to want to win. So, if past experience demonstrates that provocative dances and dance movement wins dance competition, then perhaps it's not the teacher/choreographer's fault. They only want to win. So, perhaps the blame falls on the student or parent. But again, it's human nature to want to win. So, if winning means compromising a little on the costume or dance moves, then perhaps it's not their fault either.

Then maybe blame should rest with the organizers or owners of dance competitions. They set the rules and policies that govern their competitions. But then, if the owners changed the decisions made by their selected panel of adjudicators, they may appear to be impartial. They would lose business the following year from studios who felt discriminated against. So, in the interest of good business it may not be their fault.

So, who's to blame? The adjudicators/judges themselves? Hummm, let's see. They are the ones who, without question, can penalize or reward the dancer or dance for the performance. They are the ones that can say, "Wait a minute, should I be seeing a young teen or child dance in this costume, or to this music, or about this theme?" They are the ones that can say, "Hey you have lovely dance technique but your movement theme is a little questionable." Why don't they do that? They have the undisputed power to even disqualify anything they deem inappropriate.

Again, why don't they do that? Let me speculate. First, many adjudicators are currently training and choreographing their own students for competitions. They know that a winning dance often contains provocative themes, moves or costumes. So, how can they penalize something they may create themselves?

Some of today's dance adjudicators have tried to dance professionally, some have succeeded with pop singers, cruise lines, holiday resorts, touring musicals, etc. They, in an effort to get work, had to compromise. By the way, don't let anyone fool you. Dancers who are or have worked "in the business", will tell you that those years were often the hardest, most deprived, ego-bursting, period of their entire career. When you're paying hundreds of dollars a month in dance training, it become easy to compromise just to get paid to dance. So, now they may be numb to what is inappropriate because, "Hey, at least they are not dancing in a thong like I was during my last video shoot."

Adjudicators appear to have an aura of "coolness" and knowledge. It is acceptable to dissect a dancer's technique, but criticize a choreographer's theme, costume or movement choice could make them look "uncool" and "unfashionable".

Or they could just be afraid to say anything. It's unfortunate but often the best dancers are put in these inappropriate routines. Adjudicators may be torn between rewarding the dance ability of the performer and penalizing the poorly chosen theme or costume. They realize that to chastise the child for something they had little control over is unfair, and chose to reward the dancer. They just want to appear to be fair.

So, who's at fault? Even though teachers, choreographers, parents, students, competitions and even the audience need to take some blame, I put the responsibility squarely on the adjudicators. They have the most power to affect change. Score inappropriate routines poorly and eventually most will go away.

Now you may say that I'm displaying all the classic signs of "Sour Grapes" syndrome. But I'm really not. Our routines are judged fairly, receive very respectable marks, and some even receive high score awards. Did we compromise our choice to get good marks? I don't think we did. Our goal is to cause an esthetic reaction rather than to titillate or shock. Am I over protecting students from a world of themes and costumes they will eventually be exposed to anyway? You betcha. Our children passively watch inappropriate movies, commercials, television shows, websites, and such. I refuse to make them active participants through dance. So, I guess I am stuck with being confounded every Spring. Damn!!!!

#competitivedance #dance #Danceteaching