Collaboration – Anything Goes Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

An open team item in which studios and dancers of different ages and styles join forces on one routine of up to five minutes, with no required genre.

Collaboration – Anything Goes is the open-door item in a troupes event. Where the other sections of the event are tied to a named genre such as ballet, jazz, tap or hip hop, this one is built for studios and dancers who want to work together across genres, ages and styles. The title is the whole brief: there is no required style, so a routine might blend contemporary and hip hop, set tap against ballet, or bring two studios onto the stage in one piece.

In the one-day Western Australian troupes event this page is written from, it sits beside Production and Education as one of three sections that are not a single genre. It takes one all-ages group instead of the average-age categories the genre sections use, because the dancers on stage can be of mixed ages by design. It is a team item for boys and girls together, judged out of 100, with a routine limit of five minutes.

The printed rules for troupe routines in that event apply here as they do elsewhere: entrances and exits under ten seconds are not judged, and a routine that runs over time receives a spoken critique from the adjudicator but no score and no placing. The information pack does not print a definition of the item beyond the one line quoted above, and it does not print the marking criteria for it, so everything below about how a panel is likely to weigh a collaboration is general guidance rather than an organiser’s rule.

Organisers run an item like this for two reasons. It gives a place on the programme to routines that do not fit one genre label, which would otherwise be forced into the nearest section and judged against a style they are not trying to be. And it encourages studios to mix their dancers, which is good for entries from small schools that do not have enough dancers of one age to field a troupe of their own.

Where Collaboration – Anything Goes is run

In eTalenter’s data the title Collaboration – Anything Goes is carried by one competition, a troupes-only dance event in Western Australia, where it is one of three non-genre sections alongside Production and Education. This page describes the item only as that event runs it and does not claim it is run anywhere else under this name.

• Australia

Key facts

• Team item for boys and girls together: a troupe of five or more dancers, in one all-ages group rather than the average-age categories used by the genre sections.
• Routine length: up to 5 minutes. Entrances and exits under 10 seconds are not judged; a routine over time receives a spoken critique only, with no score or placing.
• Scored out of 100. The information pack says marking follows the organiser’s own criteria but prints neither the criteria nor the marks for each, so none are asserted here.
• The brief is collaboration across genres, ages and styles: studios and dancers working together, not a single studio’s genre routine renamed.
• It is a different item from Production, which is a story-driven piece using several genres and age groups with a ten-minute limit, and from Education, which is reserved for primary and secondary schools from the Perth region.
• Ideas, not rules: two studios each contributing a section of the routine and meeting for a shared finale; a hip hop crew and a ballet group answering each other phrase for phrase; older dancers lifting the formation while younger dancers carry the lead motif.

On eTalenter, Collaboration – Anything Goes 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, Collaboration – Anything Goes is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 5 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Collaboration – Anything Goes

What a Collaboration – Anything Goes panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• How well the collaboration really works: a routine in which the groups share the stage and the choreography reads as one piece will outscore one that is two separate routines run back to back. Panels look for moments where the styles meet, not just take turns.
• Choreographic idea and structure: a clear concept that explains why these dancers are together, a beginning, a build and an ending within the five minutes. “Anything goes” is a licence for variety, not for a routine with no shape.
• Unison and clean execution within each style: when dancers from different backgrounds share the floor, timing and spacing are the first things to slip. Whatever the genre mix, the steps each group performs should still be technically sound.
• Use of mixed ages: a good collaboration gives dancers of different ages roles that suit them, so the younger dancers are not hidden and the older dancers are not carrying the whole routine. Where the age gap is wide, safe and sensible lifts, partnering and spacing matter.
• Staging, transitions and use of the floor: quiet, quick changes between sections and formations, with every dancer on their mark. Slow reorganising between genres costs more than a simple change done cleanly.
• Performance and presentation: costume, music and energy that suit the idea, and a finish with a clear final picture. These points are general advice on what dance panels usually weigh; the organiser’s own sheet may weigh them differently.

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

How to prepare for Collaboration – Anything Goes

How entrants and their teachers usually get Collaboration – Anything Goes right on the day:

• Agree the concept before choreographing. Write one sentence that says what the collaboration is about and what each group contributes, and test every section against it.
• Rehearse together early and often. Joint rehearsals are harder to schedule than studio classes, so book at least four shared sessions and run the full routine twice in the last two.
• Cut the music to under the limit. Aim for about four and a half minutes so a slow entrance cannot push the routine over five minutes and turn the result into a critique with no placing.
• Build a six-week plan: weeks one and two for the concept, music and each group’s own section; weeks three and four to join the sections and rehearse the transitions; week five for costume, faces and cleaning; week six for two full timed run-throughs on a stage-sized floor.
• Plan for the weakest and the youngest dancer. Give each group choreography it can perform cleanly, then raise the level where it is safe to do so, rather than setting the pace by the strongest group.
• Film a run-through from the front and watch it without sound. Look for the places where the groups lose each other, mark those counts, and fix them one at a time.
• On the day: spare copies of the music, a shared warm-up in the wings, a named person for each group to check costumes and hair, and a plan for who is where in the entrance.

Frequently asked questions

Is Collaboration – Anything Goes 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 does “Anything Goes” mean in Collaboration – Anything Goes?

It means no genre is required. The information pack describes the section as studios and dancers collaborating across genres, ages and styles, so a routine may combine any of the styles the event runs, or others, as long as the groups genuinely dance together.

How long can a Collaboration routine be?

Up to five minutes, the same limit as the genre sections of the event. Entrances and exits under ten seconds are not judged, and a routine that runs over time receives a spoken critique only, with no score and no placing.

Can dancers of different ages be in the same routine?

Yes. The section takes one all-ages group, unlike the genre sections, which are placed by the average age of the troupe. Mixed ages are part of the point of the item.

Can two studios enter one routine together?

The section is described as studios and dancers collaborating, so a joint entry is what it is built for. How entries and studio limits are counted is set by the organiser, so check the event’s own entry rules before registering.

How is Collaboration different from Production?

Production is a story-driven performance that uses several genres and age groups and may run up to ten minutes. Collaboration runs up to five minutes and is about studios and dancers working together on one piece, which need not tell a story.

What are the marking criteria?

The information pack says marking follows the organiser’s own criteria without printing them, so no criteria or marks are listed here. The advice on this page is general guidance on what dance panels usually weigh.

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