Competition Music

[Gus]

rehashed thread number 4598

Is it just me or is there a real issue with some of the music played at some of the dance competitions? I remember my first visit to the LeRoc 2000 event, where they played 2 really fast RnR tracks for the advanced competition. Just been looking at the C2D 2004 vid and some of the music played for the advanced heats was absolutely souless and gave little room for expression and interpretation. Isnt the music for competitions supposed to both challenge and allow the dancers to perform and express themselves?

[steam_chilled]

course it is, keep the comptitors thinking and give the judges a chance to see the competitors at best. Having a good mix of music is the key, especially at advanced level, throw in a slow tune then shock them all with something funky n' new...

At beginer level it doesn't matter too much, just needs to be fairly easy to dance 2 n' have a little inspiration in there to keep them interested, as they won't have the skills the advanced dancers do to interpret music yet!!!

[jockey]

Originally Posted by Gus

rehashed thread number 4598

Is it just me or is there a real issue with some of the music played at some of the dance competitions? I remember my first visit to the LeRoc 2000 event, where they played 2 really fast RnR tracks for the advanced competition. Just been looking at the C2D 2004 vid and some of the music played for the advanced heats was absolutely souless and gave little room for expression and interpretation. Isnt the music for competitions supposed to both challenge and allow the dancers to perform and express themselves?

I think this is an excellent post.
In an ideal world all the competitors should get the same music and enter from a sounproof booth - otherwise the judges are judging a different test for each couple. BUt comps are commercial enterprises so that isn't going to happen (Oh for a muse of fire...(Henry V)) for reasons of time and space.
Some comps have one slow and one quick and you know which comes first.
Also I've noticed that faster and more 'demanding' music is saved for the advanced competitors (sometimes).
But as music is so important for us I would like more discussion (in the DJ Booth?) about proper tracks for the purpose; I was chatting to a judge after Blackpool once and she said that the intermediate was so hard to judge because she couldn't separate a lot of the dancers ('much ooof a muchness' - I was in that!); so maybe even in the Inter the music should be more challenging in order to stretch the field and identify the better dancers (a fast tempo and lots of breaks and no hints when the track is about to end).
Another thing is that if a couple get a track that is hard for them to interpret and it is sudden death knockout they may consider themselves hard done by if an inferior couple went thro cos it suited their style better; Janine (of Clayton and J) brought this up in a comp workshop in Hammersmith run by Amir; what if the comps were to be based more on a round robin system of scoring whereby you carried points thro rounds (with a threshold for deciding who goes thro to next heat)? Advantages include fairness, fewer nerves (each dance is not so crucial) and if the points were published more openness (taking in Andy Mac's gripe re Ceroc 2004).Also maybe the dancers themselves could have an input into a shortlisted number of suitable tracks and (more controversially) a representative present in the judges room? (One for a would be dancers' association?)