Did That Just Happen?
Competition judges see hundreds and sometimes thousands of routines every year. Some are brilliant, some are bad, and some are just downright bizarre! We’re often left scratching our heads asking, “Did that just happen?”
This past season I judged a young girl who kept running back and forth from stage right to stage left. She wasn’t really doing any choreography; she was just running with her arms stretched open and her head tilted back slightly. And the whole time she was shouting a bloodcurdling scream at the top of her lungs. She seemed to be expressing a lot of anger, but I couldn’t figure out why.
I spoke with three other professional judges who had similar experiences with wacky competition contestants. Here are their weird (but true!) stories:
“I saw a piece of choreography set to the music ‘Mercy’ where this girl danced the entire routine to a large teddy bear seated in a chair left of center stage. Then at the end of the piece, she picked up the teddy bear and gave it a dropkick sending it tumbling downstage. Not sure what that piece was trying to say.” – Sarah Turner
“The year that Christopher Reeve fell and became paralyzed, a young lady did a lyrical solo to ‘Through the Eyes of Love,’ which is the love theme from the original Superman movie. There was a wheelchair onstage with a Superman cape tied on the back of it. At one point the young lady placed herself across the arms of the chair itself and stretched her arms out in front, as if she was flying. It was supposed to be a very serious routine, but I found it a bit over-the-top…” - Jacqueline Baligian
“I was judging a dance competition a few years ago, and a pointe soloist came out and she started performing beautifully to the music of ‘Swan Lake.’ Gorgeous tutu, slick back bun, every detail and accessory was polished and perfect. In the middle of the performance—actually, mid-arabesque—a hip-hop song came on. She did a soutenu and then began doing the ‘booty shake’ facing upstage pointing both hands to her rear end, in her tutu. And then she commenced to perform a hip hop solo, and yes, she did it with her pointe shoes still on!” – Erin Lamont
“One time an older male dancer gave me a rose during a performance. It took all of us by surprise at the judges’ table.” - Kelly Kirkpatrick
Do you have a weird and wacky competition story? Email me at LindsayDreyer@dance.com!