Master Your Dance Competition Calendar
If you want to supercharge your dance progress, you’ve got to follow one simple phrase:
It takes pressure to turn coal into a diamond.
It’s not comfortable, your heart may beat a little faster, and you can’t assign this to your executive assistant – but the goal is to travel far outside your comfort zone, learn, grow, and return to laugh at what used to hold you back.
The last thing we’d want is for your family, work, or personal calendar to interfere with your quest for dance improvement. So let’s get smart, let’s get strategic, and let’s get a better idea behind the rhyme and reason of the dance events that may be in your future.
3 Types of Dance Events
Large Events (Dance-O-Rama): A 2-5 day dance vacation with multiple competitions, performances, and social dancing opportunities.
Medium Events (Showcase): A one-day Dance-O-Rama simulation with freestyles and/or routines.
Small Events (In-Studio): Demonstrations, Extravaganzas, Spotlight performances at your home studio.
Four Dance Competition Calendar Strategies to Try
Strategy 1: Steady Growth
Approach: Small, Medium, then Large
When it comes to any dance event, from a dance party in your studio to a large competition, waiting until you feel “ready” is completely overrated.
That would be like waiting until you knew all the lights were simultaneously green before you drove to work. The sooner you dive in, the sooner you’ll begin to change for the better.
In fact, most students who take the “steady growth” approach report that each event feels significantly less intimidating than the one before. Why? Because you’re building on previous experience rather than jumping into the deep end.
Taking this approach means you’ll be attending events in chronological order based on their scale:
- August: Medal Ball [Small]
- September: District Showcase [Medium]
- October: Superama [Large]
- February: Medal Ball [Small]
- March: District Showcase [Medium]
- July: Unique Dance-O-Rama [Large]
Strategy 2: The Catalyst
Approach: Build up confidence, and then capitalize on it
You’ve done it all in the studio, but haven’t taken it on the road yet.
Are the local events fun and beneficial? Absolutely.
Are the events challenging enough to give you a surge of dance confidence? Perhaps. For more on this topic, check out The Benefits of a Digital Dance Event.
If you’ve been zigging and zagging between small and medium events, it may be time to add that multi-day, total immersion dance catalyst to your calendar. Think of it as the event that changes everything – the one that separates “before” and “after” in your dance journey.
Dance Calendar Example:
- January: Spotlight performance in studio [Small]
- March: District Showcase [Medium]
- April: Guest Party Demonstration [Small]
- August: Northstar Dance-O-Rama [Large]
Strategy 3: Start Big
Approach: Go to something Large as soon as possible
Large events have a way of putting smaller events in perspective. Think about this like a theme park. If you start with the biggest roller coaster at the beginning of the day, you’ve already won. Every ride after that has been unlocked because you took the road less traveled.
Dance wise, it’s no different. Your goal with events is to accumulate confidence dancing in front of people. The more minutes you log, the more relaxed you become. Starting your calendar with a multi-day event will put single day events into better perspective.
They’ll be easy to walk into, and to prepare for. You may even start using the small and medium events as dress rehearsals for your large ones.
Dance Calendar Example:
- January: Hularama [Large]
- February: Medal Ball [Small]
- March: District Showcase [Medium]
Strategy 4: Strategic Insulation
Approach: Pinpoint times of the year where motivation may be lacking, and place a large event there instead
Consider your current level, comfort zone, and waist size officially obliterated with this approach. The goal is to keep at least one medium-large event in your calendar pipeline per quarter.
Sure, it may sound demanding, but it will drastically reduce the chances that you’ll get complacent. When that occurs, your progress and motivation can flat line, and that isn’t good.
Having a broad, and carefully mapped out, plan like this one will keep your improvement steady, your spirits lifted, and your waistline shrinking. Safe to say this is the approach for dancers who are serious about transformation.
Dance Calendar Example:
- January: Hularama [Large]
- February: Medal Ball [Small]
- March: District Showcase [Medium]
- July: Unique Dance-O-Rama [Large]
- August: Medal Ball [Small]
- September: District Showcase [Medium]
- October: Superama [Large]
Plan Your Bonus Objectives
You don’t need a strong desire to compete, win, and destroy the competition to attend a dance competition. Dancing is a sport, but it’s more like golf than football. You’re only competing against your own best efforts, nothing else.
Now that that’s out of the way, we recommend that you go into each event with a bonus objective in mind:
- Visiting a location you’ve always dreamed of: Hawaii, New York, Italy, Las Vegas
- Meeting more Arthur Murray students from around the world: The World-O-Rama, Ciao Amore, and Superama are great options
- Utilizing your dance vacation as the starting point for some much needed time off
- Building a new level of dance confidence to eliminate performance anxiety
- Performing in a theatrical show with costumes, props, theatrical lighting, and a theme: Unique DOR
- Developing a stronger bond with the other Arthur Murray students and staff in your studio
- Watching the top Arthur Murray professionals in the world compete at the highest levels
- Returning home with a dance experience that you could never simulate in your studio, or recreate in your living room
Final Thought
Hopefully by now you’ve gathered that a competition doesn’t have to be the only agenda item on your dance calendar. There are plenty of activities to help keep you motivated, having fun, and seeing improvement.
Unfortunately, we can’t create the free time for you if you don’t have it.
Our goal is to give you the tools to plan effectively, and to understand the thought behind each invitation you receive. This way, if everything goes right, you’ve got the first right of refusal, and understand why your teacher would present the idea.
Your comfort zone voice will try to convince you that you’re not ready. But here’s the truth – you become ready by showing up. The calendar is just a roadmap. You’re the one who decides to take the journey.
For more competition preparation tips, check out 22 Dance Competition Strategies and learn about 31 Things Dance Judges Want to See You Do.
