1. Know the competition rules criteria and judges.

All competitions in the UK follow a similar format. Their regulations and judging criteria can be very different so knowing the differences can literally determine 1st place or not. Usually this information can be found on the organisers website, if not just fire them an email and they will send it across to you. Find out which is more important to them is it creativity, musicality or the number of styles you have in one set?
Judges are always announced before the event so why not do a background check on them? The more you know the better off you’ll be in your performance on the day using the knowledge you’ve gained before the music starts.

2. Have something set, but not set in stone.

This point is referring to competing in the solo category. Having a piece of choreography set is great as it allows you to perform with most certainty, confidence and power – all these things are very attractive in performance but it doesn’t give you the freedom to be versatile. You can also set yourself up for a fail if you create movement to the wrong type of song i.e your choreo is House dance based but then a slow tempo Hip Hop beat is played which makes it harder to dance to. Try having 4 or 5 sets of 3 x ‘8 counts’ of movement, practice them to different types of music, slow and fast tempo. Try to freestyle for 2 x 8 counts in between your set pieces of choreography.

3. Ask for feedback

Whether you got the place you were hoping for or not, it’s always a good idea to ask for some feedback. At the end of the day try and get a brief moment with a judge and find out what was good, bad and how you can be improved. Most judges love to show that they know what they’re talking about and genuinely want to help out and make you the best you could possibly be! Don’t forget to collect your crew/team score sheets from your group performance, this will give you a good insight to how you were marked and can be good reference when asking for feedback.

So there you have it! Have a think about those points and try putting them into action. Please comment below if this helped you or you can offer any further advise for others reading this post!
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