Disadvantages of Oriental Dance Competitions

As I promised in my last tip on the Advantages of Competition, here goes, in my opinion, its disadvantages:

1. We generally edit the songs as we have Limited Time, destroying the artistic work of the composer and sometimes destroying its storytelling (especially if we are talking about a classical/tarab piece), affecting the dancer’s own storytelling.

2. The judges tend to focus on Technique (hips, arms, posture, etc) which motivates the dancers to focus on that rather than on self-expression and the development of a UNIQUE STYLE. Competitions are promoting clone dancers, instead of artistical development.

3. In a small market with a small community like the one of Oriental Dance which needs to be together and helping each other in order to grow, competitions may create a competitive atmosphere and slow down the process of union and, consequently, harm the growth of Oriental Dance.

4. The results are subjective depending on what the judges like and their ability of analyzing, comparing and translating their thoughts to a number – it’s an art form, not a science, and doing all these during a 3 minutes piece… Naturally, there is a high probability that the results are not the most accurate. On top of this, the organization’s selected criteria for the competition will also highly influence the results, putting relevance in some aspects and disregarding others.

Even though these disadvantages exist, I still think there are more positive outcomes than negatives, as long as the dancer understands that the competitions in Oriental Dance are based on the subjective opinion of other dancers, and the result will not determine who she is as a dancer. Besides, I believe the dancer should always aim to develop her own unique style and choose whatever music style she wants instead of aiming to please the judge. Remember, the goal of a competition is to give your best and show your dance, not to win a prize. Keep loving you and your dance, if you win prizes on the way, better.