Any Style Solo Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A single dancer performing one routine in a style of their own choosing, judged on technique, stage presence, execution, choreography and overall appearance, and placed in a skill-level band by score.

Any Style Solo is the open section of a dance competition. Instead of entering jazz, tap or ballet, the dancer chooses the style that suits them best, whether that is a fusion of two forms, a cultural dance, a jive or a piece that does not fit a named category, and performs one routine alone. It is the natural home for the dancer whose best work does not match any of the other solo sections.

On the Time to Shine Dance Competitions template, which this page is written from, Any Style Solo is one of about twenty solo styles. Entrants enter a division set by years of dance training and by age. There are three experience levels: less than two years, two to five years, and five years or more. Each runs through its own set of single-year ages, from 4 and under for the newest dancers, and the two higher levels continue to Adult and Mature Age. A separate Masters division is open to dance teachers. Age is counted as at 1 January of the competition year.

A round is one performance on stage. The dancer is announced, the music starts and the adjudicator watches the whole routine while writing a critique. The score is out of 100 on five lines: Technique 40, Stage Presence 25, Execution of Performance 20, Choreography 10 and Overall Appearance 5. The total decides a skill-level band rather than a first, second or third place: Platinum Plus from 97, Platinum 93-96, Double Diamond 87-92, Diamond 80-86, Emerald 70-79 and Ruby 60-69. Several dancers in one division can therefore earn the same band.

Routines for dancers with under two years of experience run to two minutes; every other division runs to three. Boys and girls compete together and no language requirement is printed. For a coordinator using eTalenter the item is handled like any other solo: register the dancer in the right experience level and age division, record the adjudicator’s mark out of 100, and the band follows from the score. The template does not say which styles are allowed or banned, whether props are permitted, or whether a routine may repeat one entered in another section, so none of that is stated here; coordinators should publish their own rules on these points.

Where Any Style Solo is run

In eTalenter data Any Style Solo appears on five dance templates, all of them dance eisteddfods, festivals or awards events, including Time to Shine Dance Competitions, where it carries 40 age and experience divisions. An open or ‘own choice’ solo section is a common feature of dance eisteddfods and festivals, usually alongside the named-style sections.

• Australia

Key facts

• Individual entry; boys and girls compete together; no language requirement.
• Divisions on this template: three experience levels (under 2 years, 2 to 5 years, 5 years or more) crossed with single-year ages, plus Adult, Mature Age and a Masters division for teachers.
• Time limit: 2 minutes for dancers with under 2 years of experience, 3 minutes for everyone else.
• Scored out of 100: Technique 40, Stage Presence 25, Execution of Performance 20, Choreography 10, Overall Appearance 5.
• Result is a skill-level band by score (Ruby 60-69 up to Platinum Plus 97 and above) with a written critique.
• Idea starters, not rules: a jive or swing routine, a fusion of ballet and street movement, a cultural dance the family teaches, a story told through a single prop-free character.

On eTalenter, Any Style Solo is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 5 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Any Style Solo is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to 2–3 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Any Style Solo

What a Any Style Solo panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Technique (40): the control of the chosen style done correctly, with clean lines, balance, turns and footwork that fit the style and the dancer’s level.
• Stage Presence (25): commitment from the first beat, with focus, projection and a clear sense of why this style was chosen.
• Execution of Performance (20): steps delivered on the music without stumbles or pauses, finishing strongly and on time.
• Choreography (10): a routine that shows the style at its best, with variety of pace, level and direction, and a shape with a clear start, build and end.
• Overall Appearance (5): costume, hair and presentation that suit the style and are worn neatly and safely.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Any Style Solo under Scoring Setup, or start from the full group dance judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Any Style Solo

How entrants and their teachers usually get Any Style Solo right on the day:

• Choose the experience level by total years of dance training, not by age, because it decides who the dancer is marked alongside.
• Pick the style the dancer performs most confidently; an open section rewards a polished strength, not an experiment.
• Choose music with a clear structure so the routine can build and finish, and cut it to the division limit, remembering the two-minute cap for under 2 years.
• Show the style’s defining features within the first thirty seconds so the adjudicator knows straight away what is being offered.
• Keep the choreography within what can be repeated perfectly; simple and clean marks better under Technique than ambitious and shaky.
• Rehearse the entrance and the final pose as carefully as the dance, since both are part of Stage Presence.
• Run the full routine at performance effort at least three times in a row, in the costume and shoes to be used on the day.
• After a lower band, read the written critique with the teacher and choose one technique point and one presentation point to fix.

Frequently asked questions

Is Any Style Solo judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What counts as an ‘any style’ dance?

Any style the dancer chooses, as long as it follows the organiser’s rules. The template does not list allowed or banned styles, so check the event’s own conditions.

How long can an any style solo be?

On the Time to Shine template, two minutes for dancers with under two years of experience and three minutes for everyone else. Other organisers set their own limit.

Can I use props in an any style solo?

The template does not print a prop rule, so it is not stated here. Ask the organiser before the event.

Is it judged against other dancers or against a standard?

The template reports a skill-level band from the total score and a written critique, so the result is the band the marks fall into rather than a printed first, second or third place.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full group dance judging criteria guide, or browse every dance competition item.