Green Way Dance Festival (GWDF) was in hiatus in 2019, this gave us the opportunity to take time to rethink, re plan and reinvent our festival. As we enter a new decade, GWDF is introducing a new format and a new approach to competitive dancing in North Queensland.
This year GWDF has a new system to challenge our adjudicator to seek and find different qualities that can make a performer stand out to them. Gone are the tradition 1st, 2nd, 3rd placings our dancers are accustom to and entering is a unique concept that our adjudicator and performers will experience at GWDF in 2020.
“Just try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right!”
Michelle Obama
Before we explain how GWDF will work in 2020, we also understand that this new approach will not suit all. But we are taking a leap of faith that our new take on dance competitions will be embraced by the brave, the ones who like thinking outside the box or even the curious who might be seeking something a little different.
Over the decade of hosting GWDF, many adjudicators voiced that our encouraging ruling to find a 1st, 2nd and 3rd placing in every event forces them to comply with our wishes, regardless if they felt there was in fact enough deserving performances to receive such placings. Taking this on board and also that our performers do need incentive to work towards high goals, we have designed a format to give our adjudicator more freedom when selecting “their” stand out performers.
Intrigued? Then read on …..
Green Way Dance Festival Performances begin in….
Using as an example 12yrs & under Open Jazz Solo. The dancers will perform their solos in their event, half way through the following event a small selection of names of the competitors from 12yrs & under Open Jazz Solo (in random order) will appear on LED Screens situated around the venue. If a dancers name does not appear on the screen, they are then free to leave or welcome to stay to support their dance friends and see what “Adjudicators Choice” awards they are going to receive.
Fast forward to awards…
The dancers whose names do appear on the screens, throughout the session, are encouraged to stay and join the other recipients receiving ” Adjudicators Choice” awards. Those dancers will gather near the front of stage area and then discover what award they will receive. There are all sorts of awards like “Potential Plus”, “Technician”, “Charisma”, “Stage Craft” to name a few. The award that will be seen to some as the top award will be “You Have It All”. Our adjudicator is not honor bound to select a recipient for this award in every event unless the adjudicator feels that a performer or performers really do “Have It All”.
This gives our adjudicator the freedom to select dancers on qualities or attributes that make them stand out as performers. There might be 3 “Technician” awards and 1 “Potential Plus” in one event or 2 “Stage Crafts” awards and 1 “You Have It All” award in another. The performers will receive audio critiques recorded they will be rerecorded whist they are performing, as a wonderful reference to hear which parts of their performance that might need enhancing or which parts they look fantastic doing.
In forcing our Adjudicator to find a definite and deserving 1st, 2nd or 3rd placing in each event, sometimes can mislead our young performers. Our hope is to introduce a system that will encourage our performers to strive for the “You Have It All” award. And that can take years of hard work, put in by the performer and their teacher to be at that level as a performer. A child can be mislead to think 1st place in a small group of 5 means they are the best, when they might not be close to having all the attributes that 1st place should really mean.
If this new awards concept does not appeal to you or your soloist dancer, then GWDF 2020 might not be the right fit for you.
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is a process, working together is success.”
Henry Ford
2020 GWDF Troupe, Trio & Duo Day is on Sunday 14th June. The adjudicating format will change on this day to knowledge the work, effort, time, process and journey it is to enter items of the collective.
With this in mind, all events regarding the collective performed on the 14th June will be adjudicated differently to the previous solo event days. The dynamic of the collective (especially troupes) is exhilarating for all concerned; audience members as well as the performers, and behind every troupe performance is another collective; the studio owners, principals, teachers and studio staff. Each plays their part in bringing to life these incredible collective stage moments; however the audience only gets to see minutes of what took months to accomplish.
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
Voltaire.
Awards for 14th June will work like this; The adjudicator will select her top 2 or 3 (depending on event size) to be given awards like Overall, Runner-up , 1st Runner up, from there the adjudicator will then bestow the other performances in the event awards like “Choreography”, “Unity”, “Originality”, “Technicians”, “Creativity”, “Artistry”…..
We at Green Way appreciate the Far Nth Qld Dance Schools studios that have helped us build our festival, and our new format allows us to knowledge each and every performance that will take to the stage on the 14th June.
Everyone gets a prize on the 14th June; in short – yes. The adjudicator will still be doing her job and finding her stand out performances, but also bestow each performance an award aligning with the special quality that makes them unique, and more importantly acknowledges the effort behind each performance .
We are excited to try something new, something to challenge our performers, and see GWDF strive to be a leader in a new approach to dance competitions.
If you’d like to experience GWDF 2020 then go to our entries page and enter whichever events suit your dancer or studio. You can find the dates for each age groups appearance at the festival at the top of their age groups page.
Thank you for your time, and hope to see you in June at GWDF 2020.
“Competition is healthy for mankind, providing the results are honorable and deserving”
Edmund Husserl.
Ready to enter the 2020 Green Way Dance Festival?
