Beyond the Mentor Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A duo dance section that pairs an older mentor with a much younger mentee, where the mentor choreographs the piece and the pair is scored on the strength of the mentorship as well as the dancing.

Beyond the Mentor is a two-person dance section built around a relationship rather than a style. One dancer is the mentor, aged 12 or over, and the other is the mentee, aged 11 or under, with at least a three-year gap between them. The mentor creates the choreography and brings the younger dancer into the routine, so the piece shows an experienced dancer passing something on and a newer dancer growing into it.

The routine can be in any dance style, from jazz or ballet to hip hop or contemporary, which means the choice of style is part of the planning: the best entries pick a style where the older dancer can lead and the younger one can shine at a level they are comfortable with. On the day the pair is announced, the music starts, and the panel watches a single performance of up to three minutes, looking at how the two dancers work together as much as at the steps themselves.

In the eTalenter catalogue the section appears on one Australian dance-competition template, where it is entered as a team of two, open to boys and girls together with no language requirement, and marked out of 100. Unlike the solo and troupe sections on the same template, it is not split into age bands: the age rule is built into the pairing, and every pair competes in one common group.

Organisers add a section like this to reward the older dancers who coach and look after younger ones, and to give junior dancers a first duo experience on a real stage. For a coordinator the practical steps are to check each pair against the age and gap rule at entry, record the adjudicator’s mark out of 100 for the single group, and rank the pairs from those marks.

Where Beyond the Mentor is run

In eTalenter’s data Beyond the Mentor appears on a single Australian dance-competition template, a multi-venue series that also runs solo, duo/trio and troupe sections in Mini to Elite age bands. Mentor and mentee pairings of this kind are most often seen in studio-based competitions and dance-school showcases, but this exact section name is known here from that one series only.

• Australia

Key facts

• Team entry of two dancers: a mentor aged 12 or over and a mentee aged 11 or under, with at least a three-year age gap.
• The mentor choreographs the routine; any dance style is allowed.
• Boys and girls can be paired together and there is no language requirement.
• Runs for up to three minutes and is marked out of 100 under the label Marks.
• All pairs compete in one common group with no age bands, because the age rule is part of the pairing.
• Idea starters, not rules: a teaching-the-steps story that ends in unison, a follow-the-leader piece that gradually hands the lead to the mentee, a mirror routine where the younger dancer reflects the older, a lullaby-to-lively piece that grows in energy.

On eTalenter, Beyond the Mentor is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Beyond the Mentor is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 3 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Beyond the Mentor

What a Beyond the Mentor panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• The mentorship itself: the panel wants to see an older dancer who guides, supports and shares the stage, and a younger dancer who is included and learning. A routine where the mentor simply dances around a passive partner loses the point of the section.
• Choreography by the mentor: the steps, patterns and moments of leading and following should look planned and suited to both dancers, with the younger dancer given material they can perform cleanly.
• Technique at each dancer’s own level: the mentor is expected to show control and polish, while the mentee is judged on clean, confident execution of what they have been given, not on matching the older dancer’s difficulty.
• Unison and connection: shared moments should start and finish together, and the spacing should feel deliberate, with the pair clearly aware of each other.
• Performance and presentation: both dancers should commit to the story or mood, with matching or complementary costumes and a clear start and finish.

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

How to prepare for Beyond the Mentor

How entrants and their teachers usually get Beyond the Mentor right on the day:

• Choose the style first, then build the routine around the younger dancer’s strongest skills and add the mentor’s more demanding moves around them, so the mentee is never stretched past what they can do cleanly.
• Plan a story for the pair, for example learning, following and finally leading, and let the choreography show that arc so the mentorship is visible rather than only described.
• Check the entry rule early: confirm the mentor is 12 or over, the mentee is 11 or under and the gap is at least three years, and keep proof of ages ready in case the organiser asks.
• Rehearse the pair together often and in short, focused sessions, particularly the handovers where one dancer leads and the other follows, because that is where timing slips.
• Time the routine with the music to land inside three minutes, and practise the ending until both dancers hold the final pose together.
• Include a few moments in which the mentee performs alone or leads, which gives them confidence and shows the panel the growth the section is about.
• Make sure the mentor is also coaching, not just performing: spend rehearsal time helping the younger dancer with counts, spacing and stage nerves.

Frequently asked questions

Is Beyond the Mentor judged individually or as a team?

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

What is the Beyond the Mentor dance section?

It is a duo section in which an older mentor and a much younger mentee dance a routine the mentor has choreographed. The pair is scored on the mentorship as well as on the dancing.

Who can be the mentor and who can be the mentee?

On the template in the catalogue the mentor must be 12 or over and the mentee 11 or under, with at least a three-year gap between them. Boys and girls can be paired together.

What style of dance can we use?

Any style. The section is defined by the pairing and the mentorship, not by a technique, so jazz, ballet, hip hop, contemporary and others are all possible.

How long is the routine?

Up to three minutes on the template in the catalogue, marked out of 100.

Is it judged individually or as a team?

As one team of two. The pair gets a single mark and is ranked against the other pairs in the same common group.

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