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Dance Comp From the FCN Organizer
12 years ago
Let me open by saying I –hate- taking requests to write opinion pieces. I write opinion pieces on here or on my Facebook when I feel strongly enough about an issue that I think it needs to be addressed. However, over the past two days, I’ve gotten a lot of, “Huscoon, did you see this post about dance competitions? What are your thoughts on it?” However, having experience of running the FCN dance competition during its final two years and having tried out as well (that was a disaster), I have an insider’s and outsider’s view on fursuit dance competitions. This is something very few people in the fandom can claim. I will also not claim, “This is just my opinion” because damnit, I’ve been around the block with dance competitions more than once.
As an old, overweight fursuiter, I can say that the dancer community is filled with some of the kindest, most accepting individuals I have ever met. This idea that the dancer fur group is a bunch of elitist pricks could not be more far off. I’ve been to enough tryouts and I see how the dance veterans interact with the newcomers: with open arms. They cheer them, they applaud their performance, they give friendly advice, they WANT more people to enjoy dancing the way they do. The biggest obstacle is not the acceptance of veteran dancers; the biggest obstacle is the limited entries at any dance competition. And unless you want a 6-hour long dance comp, there will always been limited entries at dance competition. But that doesn’t mean that the dancer community is a niche group; far from it. However, I understand that dance competitions are not for everybody.
First off, dance competitions are a competition. You will get judged and you will get scored, that is how competitions work. Different fursuiters go into these competitions with different mindsets. Some dancers are there to win; some are there to entertain; some are there just to get feedback and improve for the next con. There is no right way to approach these competitions, but there are wrong ways. The wrong way is taking a dance competition so seriously that you become toxic backstage and kill the mood for everybody else. I have NEVER seen someone do this. So, when people complain about how other dancers approach a competition, I want to ask them, “Well, how SHOULD they approach it?”
As someone who makes it a point to go to fursuit games at every con, I know that every fursuiter approaches those differently. Some people see them as fun and games, some see them are a chance to be silly, and some want to win. Until you are destroying the fun for other people, none of these approaches are incorrect. If your complaint is that too many people take the dance competition too seriously, well, maybe YOU are the one taking it too seriously.
Someday, a con will see over 100 fursuiters try out for its dance competition. In fact, it could be AC 2014. Tryouts are brutal, but that is because they have to be. As an organizer of a smaller sized dance competition, I understand how tough the nature of tryouts are in general. But, to multiple the time of entries by 3 or 4, I cannot imagine what organizers like Theome and JD Puppy go through for the larger cons. Kudos to them. That being said, they are very open minded individuals and want to hear ideas on how to improve the tryout process. That being said, it is the biggest obstacle that organizers deal with.
The idea that the same people win every year is absolute horseshit. There are people you will see near the top year-in and year-out, but that is because they are damn good at what they do, not because they are popular. Or, how about this? Maybe they are popular because they are so good at dancing? If there is a correlation there, it involves their dancing ability making them more popular, not the other way around. It would be like saying, “The only reason people think Yippee Coyote is a good performer is because he’s popular.” Are you fucking kidding me?
Now, there are people you will see near the top at every competition they enter. However, it’s because they are very good at dancing, not because they are super popular. Having been on that side of the table, I can tell you that the judges have it tougher than the organizers (when they aren’t one in the same.) I got to MC at FCN, I get to stand up on the dance floor with a little microphone and spout nonsense while these ladies and gentlemen have to critique people who’ve put hours upon hours into practice for 2 minutes of glory.
But, we can fix this nonexistent problem by replacing the judges with people who don’t know a thing about dancing? This is a terrible idea. Imagine tomorrow, you go into work and your boss has just been fired. He’s been replaced with someone from a different company who worked in a department that has nothing to do with yours. (For me, it would be like if a random fur was evaluating my sports officiating performance.) How does this make any sense?
This may sound hypocritical of me since I had the GOH be a judge at both FCN dance competitions. However, they made up one spot on the judge’s panel. Just one. The remaining spots were given to individuals who knew dancing because if you’re going up there for fun and critique, what good is it to be judged by people who don’t know what to look for? Imagine if you had to critique my sports officiating. Would you even know where to begin? Probably not outside of the, “You blew that call!”
By large, dancers just want judges who know how to judge them. If you brought it instructors from a local dance studio, the dancers would welcome them with open arms. But, nobody is going to pay the money needed to hire them.
I’m amused by the idea that organizers will judge because it lets them get more involved. Organizers are already heavily involved. Anyone who pays attention knows that in most cases, the organizer is not judging. I judged at the prelims at FCN because I had the “it’s my dance competition” mentality. I know Malo judges at the prelims for FWA, but he doesn’t judge during the actual competition. I didn’t judge at the FCN Finals because I knew I wasn’t qualified to. I was more qualified to be the host. Also, when people want to promote entertainment, but then suggest the Olympic judging style (no talking, low ratings) vs. the X-Factor judging style (more talking, stupid high ratings), it makes me question their motivation. That being said, there is something to be said about moderation, and even the biggest and best dance comps have their issues with that, but not necessarily from the judges.
As someone who has ran dance competitions before, I know who to listen to. If you were in the audience, if you were a judge, if you were a dancer, your word means the world to me. Between FCN’s 1st and 2nd dance competitions, I consulted the judges on how to talk and how much to talk, I gave preferential treatment to better photographers and videographers to get them the best seats for the best pictures/videos after the con, I limited my own role as MC, I encouraged fursuiters to actively watch their comrades from “the best seats in the house.” However, don’t not attend a con, and then go on a 5,000-word rant about how YOU would improve a dance competition that you didn’t even go to. It makes you look like a selfish prick who is still upset over not making the finals two years ago. If you want your suggestions to be taken seriously, show up first.
As an old, overweight fursuiter, I can say that the dancer community is filled with some of the kindest, most accepting individuals I have ever met. This idea that the dancer fur group is a bunch of elitist pricks could not be more far off. I’ve been to enough tryouts and I see how the dance veterans interact with the newcomers: with open arms. They cheer them, they applaud their performance, they give friendly advice, they WANT more people to enjoy dancing the way they do. The biggest obstacle is not the acceptance of veteran dancers; the biggest obstacle is the limited entries at any dance competition. And unless you want a 6-hour long dance comp, there will always been limited entries at dance competition. But that doesn’t mean that the dancer community is a niche group; far from it. However, I understand that dance competitions are not for everybody.
First off, dance competitions are a competition. You will get judged and you will get scored, that is how competitions work. Different fursuiters go into these competitions with different mindsets. Some dancers are there to win; some are there to entertain; some are there just to get feedback and improve for the next con. There is no right way to approach these competitions, but there are wrong ways. The wrong way is taking a dance competition so seriously that you become toxic backstage and kill the mood for everybody else. I have NEVER seen someone do this. So, when people complain about how other dancers approach a competition, I want to ask them, “Well, how SHOULD they approach it?”
As someone who makes it a point to go to fursuit games at every con, I know that every fursuiter approaches those differently. Some people see them as fun and games, some see them are a chance to be silly, and some want to win. Until you are destroying the fun for other people, none of these approaches are incorrect. If your complaint is that too many people take the dance competition too seriously, well, maybe YOU are the one taking it too seriously.
Someday, a con will see over 100 fursuiters try out for its dance competition. In fact, it could be AC 2014. Tryouts are brutal, but that is because they have to be. As an organizer of a smaller sized dance competition, I understand how tough the nature of tryouts are in general. But, to multiple the time of entries by 3 or 4, I cannot imagine what organizers like Theome and JD Puppy go through for the larger cons. Kudos to them. That being said, they are very open minded individuals and want to hear ideas on how to improve the tryout process. That being said, it is the biggest obstacle that organizers deal with.
The idea that the same people win every year is absolute horseshit. There are people you will see near the top year-in and year-out, but that is because they are damn good at what they do, not because they are popular. Or, how about this? Maybe they are popular because they are so good at dancing? If there is a correlation there, it involves their dancing ability making them more popular, not the other way around. It would be like saying, “The only reason people think Yippee Coyote is a good performer is because he’s popular.” Are you fucking kidding me?
Now, there are people you will see near the top at every competition they enter. However, it’s because they are very good at dancing, not because they are super popular. Having been on that side of the table, I can tell you that the judges have it tougher than the organizers (when they aren’t one in the same.) I got to MC at FCN, I get to stand up on the dance floor with a little microphone and spout nonsense while these ladies and gentlemen have to critique people who’ve put hours upon hours into practice for 2 minutes of glory.
But, we can fix this nonexistent problem by replacing the judges with people who don’t know a thing about dancing? This is a terrible idea. Imagine tomorrow, you go into work and your boss has just been fired. He’s been replaced with someone from a different company who worked in a department that has nothing to do with yours. (For me, it would be like if a random fur was evaluating my sports officiating performance.) How does this make any sense?
This may sound hypocritical of me since I had the GOH be a judge at both FCN dance competitions. However, they made up one spot on the judge’s panel. Just one. The remaining spots were given to individuals who knew dancing because if you’re going up there for fun and critique, what good is it to be judged by people who don’t know what to look for? Imagine if you had to critique my sports officiating. Would you even know where to begin? Probably not outside of the, “You blew that call!”
By large, dancers just want judges who know how to judge them. If you brought it instructors from a local dance studio, the dancers would welcome them with open arms. But, nobody is going to pay the money needed to hire them.
I’m amused by the idea that organizers will judge because it lets them get more involved. Organizers are already heavily involved. Anyone who pays attention knows that in most cases, the organizer is not judging. I judged at the prelims at FCN because I had the “it’s my dance competition” mentality. I know Malo judges at the prelims for FWA, but he doesn’t judge during the actual competition. I didn’t judge at the FCN Finals because I knew I wasn’t qualified to. I was more qualified to be the host. Also, when people want to promote entertainment, but then suggest the Olympic judging style (no talking, low ratings) vs. the X-Factor judging style (more talking, stupid high ratings), it makes me question their motivation. That being said, there is something to be said about moderation, and even the biggest and best dance comps have their issues with that, but not necessarily from the judges.
As someone who has ran dance competitions before, I know who to listen to. If you were in the audience, if you were a judge, if you were a dancer, your word means the world to me. Between FCN’s 1st and 2nd dance competitions, I consulted the judges on how to talk and how much to talk, I gave preferential treatment to better photographers and videographers to get them the best seats for the best pictures/videos after the con, I limited my own role as MC, I encouraged fursuiters to actively watch their comrades from “the best seats in the house.” However, don’t not attend a con, and then go on a 5,000-word rant about how YOU would improve a dance competition that you didn’t even go to. It makes you look like a selfish prick who is still upset over not making the finals two years ago. If you want your suggestions to be taken seriously, show up first.
This is the first thing I have read from an organizers' point of view about dance competitions. Thank-you for the insight, it has given me lots to think about .