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Dance Festivals adjudication


Balletmum22

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Wow! The dance world expands exponentially before pv's eyes. So you could have a dance that was pretending to be sprinters at the ancient Olympics or you're a faun etc and not because your dance school is bonkers (my first thought) but because this is A THING and goes back actually quite a long way..but not quite as far as you think but still..quite far? I've learnt something today.

Yes, it's all a bit Isadora Duncan/free movement kind of thing. I'm not sure how much it really has to do with ancient Greece to be honest - probably more a 1920s re imagination than actual authentic ancient Greek dance, but it's pretty. (Well I like it anyway!).
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There is a classical Greek society and it has its own festival (check out the ISTD website if you are interested) as well as being a genre at general dance festivals. It is very pretty to look at and relatively safe if you stick to scarves rather than spears or tridents. Also the costumes are easy to make being mainly bits of chiffon that can be tacked onto a leotard.

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Dd’s Greek props include a big piece of voile, a clothes rail, tinsel and a bag of feathers. It is actually a very pretty dance - I like it! But the adjudicators, on the whole, are fairly critical of technical shortfalls about which we know woefully little. Having said that, last time out it won the section, largely because apparently we were all in the same boat of ignorance - a score of 83 doesn’t usually win a section when you’re 14! The adjudicator said lots of ‘stuff’ to them all when they were lined up on stage, they all smiled, we’re none the wiser. 

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'Make sure your komats circle underneath you', 'ensure your frieze lines are accurate' are 2 that I have written for adjudicators recently. I don't know Greek at all and had to ask 'frieze or freeze?'

Don't get me on to Scottish - told an adjudicator that I knew nothing about it and she snorted and said, 'What makes you think I do?' We had a joke that the nicest kilts should win! (To be fair, she knew a lot more than she was letting on!)

Was impressed with another adjudicator recently who pulled out her national folder with notes on costumes, steps, music and other points all neatly laid out country by country with pictures.

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Well all I know is that it takes an incredible amount of focus and attention to make it through hundreds of dances each day and critique them all. I only had to witness three or four sections and my komats were feeling distinctly numb.

Edited by Petalviolet
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Well all I know is that it takes an incredible amount of focus and attention to make it through hundreds of dances each day and critique them all. I only had to witness three or four sections and my komats were feeling distinctly numb.

As are mine (and a few other bits too) when I have been writing reports through a 9 hour day! Lots of fun with some highly professional on the surface but rather naughty underneath adjudicators though!

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Talking of Greek - my daughter got a gold for her classical Greek solo and on the feedback form it says "lovely choton and good poise in 3rd". I have talked to her teacher and asked her to help me understand what that means but she wasn't sure herself. All she could think was that the adjudicator meant "chiton" which appears to be a style of classical Greek dress...I also found in the Greek syllabus on the ISTD site a reference to "10 Chiton positions with 6 walks". Does anyone know what the Chiton positions are?

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Talking of Greek - my daughter got a gold for her classical Greek solo and on the feedback form it says "lovely choton and good poise in 3rd". I have talked to her teacher and asked her to help me understand what that means but she wasn't sure herself. All she could think was that the adjudicator meant "chiton" which appears to be a style of classical Greek dress...I also found in the Greek syllabus on the ISTD site a reference to "10 Chiton positions with 6 walks". Does anyone know what the Chiton positions are?

Got to be careful telling people about your ‘chiton’  ;)

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Talking of Greek - my daughter got a gold for her classical Greek solo and on the feedback form it says "lovely choton and good poise in 3rd". I have talked to her teacher and asked her to help me understand what that means but she wasn't sure herself. All she could think was that the adjudicator meant "chiton" which appears to be a style of classical Greek dress...I also found in the Greek syllabus on the ISTD site a reference to "10 Chiton positions with 6 walks". Does anyone know what the Chiton positions are?

They are arm movements but don't ask for a demo lol. And before you get the idea that I know anything about Greek, I confess that for years I thought it was 'freeze' and not 'frieze'.

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My favourite Greek reference: 'preparation exercise for tragedies'. You've got to admit that could come in handy in all kinds of dance festival situations. Indeed in life generally. There I will shut up now.

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