Celebrity Dance Competitions are a fantastic platform for dancers to showcase their talent, receive valuable feedback, and compete at regional and national levels. Whether you’re a studio owner, dance teacher, or a passionate dancer, understanding the competition guidelines is crucial for a successful and enjoyable experience. This guide breaks down everything you need to know about participating in Celebrity Dance Competitions, ensuring you’re well-prepared for your next event.
Understanding the Competition Essentials
Celebrity Dance Competitions are designed to be inclusive and family-friendly events. Admission is free for audiences at all regional competitions, making it accessible for families and friends to support their dancers. To ensure fair play and a positive environment for everyone, several key rules are in place.
Key Competition Rules
- Unlimited Entries: Dance studios can enter as many routines as they wish, providing ample opportunity for all dancers to participate.
- Family-Friendly Content: All routines must be suitable for family viewing. Costumes, music, and choreography should be appropriate for minors. Inappropriate content may lead to point deductions.
- Teacher Participation: Teachers can participate in the Showcase category but are not allowed to compete in regular categories to maintain fairness.
- Multiple City Participation: Dancers are welcome to compete in more than one regional event, offering more chances to perform and gain experience.
- Prop Guidelines: While general props are allowed to enhance performances, dangerous props like fire, glass, or swords are strictly prohibited. Live animals and scenery are also not permitted to ensure safety and stage efficiency. Helium balloons, loose feathers, and loose glitter are also prohibited due to venue restrictions and clean-up concerns.
- Stage Etiquette: Studios are responsible for leaving the stage clean after their performance. Dancers must enter and exit the stage from the wings, not from the front or back, to maintain stage flow.
- No Coaching from Audience: To minimize distractions and ensure fairness, coaching from the audience during performances is not allowed.
- Scheduled Performances: Routines must perform in the order they are scheduled unless prior permission is granted, helping to keep the competition running smoothly.
Venues and Performance Environment
Celebrity Dance Competitions prioritize professional setups at all venues. While stage and venue sizes may vary depending on the location, Celebrity uses professional equipment to ensure high-quality events. It’s advisable to contact Celebrity directly for specific stage measurements at your chosen event, especially if venue is in a hotel which may involve stairs for stage access.
Be aware that Celebrity events often use lighting effects, including strobes and smoke. If you or your dancers are sensitive to these effects, it’s important to consider this before attending.
Judging, Critiques, and Awards
Performances at Celebrity Dance Competitions are evaluated by a panel of three judges. After the performance, score sheets and routine critiques are available for pickup at the Celebrity & Company booth, exclusively for teachers or studio owners. It’s important to note that all judges’ decisions are final, emphasizing the subjective nature of dance competition judging.
Awards are presented based on scoring tiers: Platinum, High Gold, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Platinum, High Gold, Gold, and Silver award winners qualify for Celebrity Nationals, while Bronze award winners can perform at Nationals for critiques only, providing a pathway for dancers at all levels to participate and improve.
Acrobatic Skills and Category Limitations
Celebrity Dance Competitions have specific rules regarding acrobatic skills to ensure fair categorization across different dance styles. An acrobatic skill is defined as any gymnastic-based exercise, including handstands, cartwheels, walkovers, handsprings, aerials, and flips. Partner lifts, illusions, and floor rolls are not considered acrobatic skills.
- Ballet: No acrobatic skills are allowed in ballet routines, maintaining the classical purity of the genre.
- Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, and Contemporary: These categories are limited to three (3) acrobatic skills per routine, encouraging a balance between dance technique and acrobatic elements.
- All Other Categories: Categories outside of ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, and contemporary have no limitations on acrobatic skills, allowing for more dynamic and acrobatic-focused performances.
Tumbling passes are counted as a single acrobatic skill. For example, a continuous running roundoff back handspring into a back tuck counts as one skill.
Music and Sound Guidelines for Celebrity Dance
Embracing eco-friendliness, Celebrity Dance Competitions operate with a “Go GREEN” music policy. All music must be uploaded online at least 5 days prior to the event through your Celebrity Online Account. It’s essential to bring backup music on a USB drive as a precaution.
- Music Format: Music must be uploaded online and backup USB drives are required. CDs, phones, tablets, or computers are not accepted for music submission during the event.
- Music Cueing: All music tracks must be cued up to the beginning and ready to play.
- Music Delays: Technical issues with music can cause delays and may result in a 5-point deduction, so thorough music checks are crucial before the competition.
Live singing is permitted in all categories where appropriate, but microphone usage is restricted. Live microphones are only allowed in the Song & Dance and Production categories. Celebrity provides up to two handheld wireless microphones for these categories only. Using personal microphones or tapping into the venue’s sound system is not permitted in other categories.
Schedule, Venue Adjustments, and Important Information
Celebrity Dance Competitions reserves the right to modify the tour schedule, including dates, times, and venues, as needed. Regional competitions can start as early as 8:00 AM on Friday and may run until 9:30 PM on Sunday. While Celebrity strives to accommodate studio time constraints, the final schedule depends on the event size.
The final schedule and Welcome Packet are accessible through your Celebrity Online Account (powered by DanceEra) at least 10 days before the event. Email notifications are sent to dancers who have previously attended or have an existing account. New participants can create an account by registering on the Celebrity website to access schedules, download complimentary photos and videos, and view medal rankings post-event.
Celebrity often secures preferred rates at select hotels for participants. Hotel options can be found under each event location on the Celebrity website, and some rates may include a rebate for Celebrity.
Conduct, Photo & Video Policy, and Registration
Appropriate conduct is expected from all dancers and audience members at all times, whether in dressing rooms, backstage, onstage, or in the audience.
To protect performers’ privacy and the professional video services provided, guests are not allowed to take photos or videos during routines at regional events. Celebrity provides complimentary photos and videos for download through dancer accounts approximately 5 days after the event. These media files are only accessible for the routines the dancer is registered in. No photos or videos are available for pickup at the event itself.
Online registration is streamlined through the Celebrity website. Through your online account, you can enter routines, make payments, access welcome packets and schedules, and upload music. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, and early registration is recommended to secure your spot. Entry fees and pricing details are available in studio accounts under the pricing tab. Note that all entries are final and nonrefundable. Changes within 10 days of the event may incur a fee.
Payments can be made by check (accepted if received 35 days prior to the event) or credit card. Checks should be made payable to Celebrity Dance Competitions, LLC.
Liability and General Release
By participating in Celebrity Dance Competitions, it’s understood that Celebrity Dance Competitions, LLC, and its affiliates are not responsible for any injury, accident, or financial liabilities. Participants’ own insurance policies are the primary source of reimbursement. This applies to all attendees, including dancers, audience members, studio owners, and teachers. Celebrity reserves the right to use photos and videos from events for promotional purposes indefinitely.
By registering for and attending Celebrity Dance Competitions, you acknowledge and agree to release Celebrity Competitions and all associated entities from any claims or liabilities arising from event participation or attendance. You also agree to abide by all rules and regulations set forth by Celebrity Competitions. Violation of policies may result in being asked to leave the premises. Celebrity may modify rules and policies at any time, and all rules and policies are governed by Arizona law.
Celebrity Dance Competitions offers a structured, exciting, and rewarding environment for dancers to grow and shine. By understanding and adhering to these guidelines, participants can ensure a positive and successful competition experience.
