What The Sloth Are You Talking About?

Dance competition season starts Saturday for Sydney and her dance team.
I"m writing this post for the few of you who 1) care enough to wonder* and 2) well, there is no 2. 

This probably means I'll be tweeting things like "high gold, 3rd place"  and most of you will say, "yay!" while you're secretly thinking, "I have no clue what that means."

And I'll be honest with you, she was probably on the team a good year or two before *I* figured it out. ;-)

So, here's the breakdown:

Say, I tweet "high gold, small group teen, 3rd place" This means that her score (think of it as a grade) was enough to get a high gold, her division was small group, age division was teen, and of those small group teens, her group placed 3rd.

First, the adjudication.  This is the "grade" on a particular dance.  Of course, every competition host is different - if they were the same, it would make things...easier.  But...  Dances are scored by 3 judges, each starting with 100 points - so best possible score = 300 (ftr, I've never seen that happen)

Scoring is based on technique, performance, choreography, and appearance. The percentages and specific criteria also vary from comp to comp, but technique is usually the highest.

The "grades" are:

• Platinum
• High Gold
• Gold
• High Silver
• Silver

Obviously, the girls are shooting for platinum.  However, high gold is not too shabby.

Ages are generally split up 8 and under, 9-12, 13-15, and 15-18/19.  However, groups are often averaged, so depending on who she's dancing with, she may be in a senior group, even though she's a teen.

Finally, they are split into different groups:

• solos
• duet/trio
• small groups
• large groups
• production 

That's about it.  Good luck this weekend, girls!

*her grandparents