"Mommy, I want to win an Overall." - These words were spoken by M2 about 7 or 8 years ago. YC replied, "Just work hard, practise hard, and you'll have a chance one day. Different judges look for different things. Some like your technique, some look for a certain style, some look for stage presence ... you never know. If you don't win, it doesn't mean you're a bad dancer. Different dancers develop at different times. If you don't win this year, maybe you'll win next year. You never know when you will have your breakout year." Then she named several dancers at our studio who didn't become really good until they were older.
Later YC said to me, "I know M2 will have a breakout year one of these days. She tries so hard. She deserves it. And she'll be so happy when it happens."
Well, I guess I should first explain what an "Overall" is, in case some of you are thinking it's an article of clothing and I forgot to put an "s" at the end.
In dance competitions, the dancers compete in a category such as "age 12 ballet" or "age 13 hip-hop". Then the scores are compared in (usually) 4 categories: Mini (Under 8), Junior (8-10), Teen (12-14), Senior (15-17). They will give an "Overall" award to the top 5 in each category - so for example you can win 1st Overall in the "Teen" category. To do so, the "age 13 hip-hop" dancer needs to win his/her own category and also beat all other 12, 13, and 14 year-olds in all the other dance styles: Jazz, Acro, Tap, Ballet, Lyrical, Contemporary, etc. It's not easy. There could be over 50 dancers in one Overall category. But then the competition might award top 10 - depends how big the competition is. Some competitions only have two divisions for Overalls - "13 and over" and "12 and under".
Up until age 15, M2 may have won only three or four Overalls while competing in 4-6 competitions a year. Most of them were at the back end - she may have been #5 when they awarded top 5 or #10 when they awarded top 10. M2's dance style that she specializes in is Acro. There's a popular view (urban myth/excuse/fact?) that it's harder to win an Overall with an Acro, Ballet, or Tap dance as judges mark those styles harder. There's another belief that judges tend to mark harder on the first day of the competition (Thursday) and then easier at the end (Saturday/Sunday). Well, the luck of the draw had M2 dancing on the first day for most competitions. I don't know if these are the reasons that she didn't win or just excuses, but I (biased father) felt that she did dance better than others who placed higher than her. Sometimes other parents would mention that M2 should have scored higher as well. All this really hurt me because I knew how much M2 wanted it and I really felt she was robbed sometimes.
Well, this year, age 16, M2 had her breakout year! (I'm sure you guessed this was coming or else this would have been a pretty pointless blog.) Since COVID hit, she began training her acro technique at a second dance studio and it greatly improved her skills. (The way she found this studio will be the subject of future blog.) She participated in 5 competitions and won first overall in 3 of them and second overall in the other two. Not only that, she was a fan favourite as the audience cheered loudly for her and could not stop talking about how awestruck they were about some of her moves. Dancers from other studios complimented her and judges gave her special mentions. I was thinking, "Finally, some judges that can appreciate real talent!"
Now, M2 is not the most talented all-around dancer at the competitions. She's not even that in her studio or her own age group. She would likely not place if she did a solo in another dance style. But this year, for her Acro solo she delivered a breakout performance. And YC called it. YC, I know you enjoyed watching M2's performances this year. M2, Mommy and Daddy are really proud of you!
Big Oh
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