Frustrated with Dance Competitions?

Competition. Complaint. Complacent.

It's that time of year: dance competition season, which means there’s a lot of competition, complaining, and complacency within the dance education industry.

I’m not judging because several years ago, that was me. I wasn’t publicly sharing my feelings, but I was frustrated, exhausted, and felt like something was majorly off.

After having quite the tenure in competitive dance as a dancer, instructor, choreographer, studio owner, and judge, I haven't set foot in a dance competition since 2016.

Since publishing my book Trash The Trophies in 2020, I've heard countless amounts of feedback about the continued toxicity and burden it places upon our dance studios.

I see the complaints suffocating online forums nearly every Thursday through Tuesday (I’m pretty sure I’ve seen at least 50 threads about levels in the past 2 weeks).

People share concerns and dread going into a weekend, during the weekend, and after the weekend. Many of these concerns are referenced in the book, which means the competitive dance industry isn't changing.

A complaint is a grievance.

Grievances deserve to be heard.

In fact, even when people say they're presenting the concerns to the competitions, the majority of them aren't being addressed or fixed.

In dance studios, our clients rely on the leadership of the dance studio to best navigate and determine the investment required for a dancer's training. If studios endorse and funnel money to competitions and conventions, the client is going to view this as an endorsement or alignment with the company. When the competitions are misaligned from our studio's purpose and vision, that's a major problem.

I beg you to avoid complacency.

I cheer for you to step away from the fear of making this change if and when it is needed for your program. I’m not anti-competition, but I am pro-dance education. As we continue our recovery from the pandemic, we must take into account how people’s priorities and needs (including our own) have continued to change and evolve.

The people that feel alone, isolated, and fearful about making a change away from this standardized trandition need to know that you can take back the energy, time, stress, and resources this involvement costs you. You can re-invest that space into something equally meaningful but more and powerful and purposeful to your brand (and bottom line). You can still train incredible dancers, and your peers will still respect you.

Your separation will distance you from a third party industry that you have no control over. In creating this boundary, you will no longer allow it to impact the perception of your company's valuation or brand (something I discuss in my TEDx talk “You Weren’t Built to Break”).

Over the past 2 years, I've had the privilege of working with several studios to convert their competition programs into more meaningful heightened dance education programs. All are uniquely designed to match the studio, and every studio that has made the shift is thriving.

So, before you write that next frustration or complaint, think about how much momentum you could gain if you could focus solely on (a) technical excellence, (b) performance for the sake of performance, and (c) experiences that develop great dancers and exceptional humans.

How much purpose would you have if you fully leaned in to serving your clients as their advocate as well as advocating for yourself and your business's interests?

If the past 2 years have taught us anything, it is that dance studios are highly innovative and have the power to shape an incredible number of resilient, determined, and successful youth leaders.

We have the power to positively change the world.

Let's not throw that opportunity to organizations that are unwilling to make a much-needed shift for our business and our dancers' well being.

Dance competitions only exist because we choose to give them our dollars.

Once you shift, you won't be thinking about Competition, Complaints, or Complacency.

You'll be too busy being a Creative and Confident Changemaker that your community respects and admires.

Need to bounce some ideas around?

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