Today I would like to address all teachers, choreographers and dance groups with a very serious and brief statement.
The news is full of reports of escalating “games” based on the Netflix series “Squid Game”. Scenes from the series are sometimes being re-enacted in elementary schools, and pedagogues often hear terrifying sayings from kids in schoolyards.
Like everything that’s trending right now, it can be assumed that Squid Game will also be a topic for some dance groups in the coming tournament season.
Today I talked to various jury members from different European dance competitions and they all agreed that this should not be a topic for choreographies at children’s and youth competitions.
Especially if it is not a critical discussion of the issue of violence.
Almost all competitions have regulations stating that the representation of violence is not allowed and that costumes, movements and dance themes must be age-appropriate. In this context, the judges would even have the opportunity to disqualify routines. Of course, we don’t want to do that, as I’ve only done it 3 times in my entire 30-year judging career. But we also have the possibility to deduct points in the evaluation sections choreography and presentation and we agree that we will consider this with this topic.
There are limits to what should be shown on stage in the children’s and youth categories. As already written above, a critical examination of the topic could be choreographically and pedagogically okay.
The request of my colleagues and me: Please consider exactly which topics you choose as the choreography topic and ask whether it has a message or just showmanship.
picture: pixabay