Check out our podcast episode on this hot topic! Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Picture this: it’s the middle of dance class and the time has finally come to go across the floor. The teacher says, “Okay dancers, let’s improvise!” For half of the dancers in the room, this is the best news they’ve heard all day and they are thrilled by the opportunity to showcase their personal style, while the other half become paralyzed by the sheer thought of moving without pre

Lace up jazz boots. Body glitter. Dabbing. Bun mohawks. Trends are ubiquitous in our world, and especially in the dance competition world! From song choice, to tricks, to hairstyles, what is trending will always show up at events whether we love them or not. For judges who see hundreds if not thousands of routines per season, seeing the same trends over and over can be tiring, and actually make it difficult to judge a routine well (how many ways can you say, “Make sure you wh

Check out our podcast episode on this topic! If you are a dance teacher, chances are you fall into one of two categories - you are either the dance teacher with a seemingly endless supply of choreographic ideas, costume designs, and song choices, or, more likely, you sometimes find yourself stuck for an original concept, passing on every costume you see, and hoping that Dance Teacher Network will come through with a song suggestion you haven’t thought of yet! The IDA judges i

Check out our podcast episode on this topic! Choreography can make or break a competition routine. No matter how precisely a dancer executes a technical step, or how well a group dances in unison, if the choreography is uninspiring or confusing, chances are the routine will not score the top award. Featured on the IDA Blog this week are IDA judges Kelly, Patch, KT, and James, chiming in with their opinions and thoughts about choreography for competitions. The vote was unanimo