Dance as Competition – Varsity Education

Prior to the twentieth century, most dance was a social activity or was performance based. Dance as a competitive sport is fairly new. Competition dance today is a lucrative business for traveling dance competition companies. It is a widespread sport in which competitive teams from different dance studios or schools perform in styles such as tap, jazz, ballet, modern, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, acro, and musical theater before a common group of judges. Dance competition events bring dancers together to showcase their talents, receive feedback from judges, and compete to earn recognition, typically by awards. The number of national competitions has ballooned into the hundreds since the 1980s. For individual competitors, the costs can easily top $1,000 per month.

In 2005, a dance competition reality show called “So You Think You Can Dance” premiered and spurred a number of dance-themed competition reality shows such as “Dance Moms,” “Dancing With the Stars” and “World of Dance.” Shows like this were highly influential in both the dance industry and with aspiring dancers as well.

Dance as competition has changed the way many young dancers see dance. Dance as an art form or for personal expression is not as valued in the competition world which stresses dazzling technical feats, group precision, high energy, and over the top facial expressions to catch the eye of the judges. It is not until these dancers enter a college dance program or begin to audition for professional concert dance companies that they begin to understand the complexities of dance aesthetics. Fortunately, there seems to be a trend merging the two seemingly opposite camps. Dancers who understand the commercial world as well as the concert world and who are trained in a wide variety of styles are increasingly sought after by film directors, music artists, TV productions, Broadway shows, as well as by professional dance companies.