Contemporary Dance Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A solo or group dance in a contemporary, expressive style, performed to music within a set time limit and rated on choreography, musicality and movement.

Contemporary Dance is the class for expressive, concept-led movement that is not tied to a fixed set of steps. Dancers draw on floor work, controlled falls and recoveries, breath, weight shifts and the use of space, and a piece is usually built around an idea or a feeling rather than a storyline. It sits apart from the other dance classes in the same championship, which are tied to a named tradition, a genre or a pop style.

In eTalenter’s data the item belongs to an international youth performing arts championship held in Malaysia, where it is the fifth of the dance categories. It runs as Solo, one dancer, and as Group, a team, in age bands from Under 6 up to Open age. The template carries sixteen assignments for it, one for every band in each format, open to boys and girls together, with no language requirement. The time limit is the printed maximum: 3 minutes for a solo and 5 minutes for a group.

A round is one stage performance. The dancer or team is announced, the music starts and the panel marks the piece with the same three-part scheme used for every dance category in this championship. The template prints no rule on costume, props or the choice of music, so those are the organiser’s matters.

Organisers run Contemporary Dance because it gives dancers trained in several styles one place to show original choreography, and because a single marking scheme lets a six-year-old’s first solo and an Open-age ensemble be ranked fairly within their own bands. In eTalenter a coordinator registers each soloist or team in the right band, records the panel’s marks out of 100, and ranking follows within each band.

Where Contemporary Dance is run

In eTalenter’s data this item appears on one template, an international youth performing arts championship run from Malaysia, listed under the Dance category. Contemporary dance classes are common in dance festivals and eisteddfods around the world, but this page describes only the format that this template defines.

• Malaysia (host of the grand final), with qualifying stages in several countries

Key facts

• Two formats: Solo (individual) and Group (team), each in age bands Under 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and Open.
• Boys and girls compete together; no language requirement.
• Maximum time in the template: 3 minutes for a solo and 5 minutes for a group.
• Rated out of 100 on three criteria: Choreography 40, Musicality and Rhythm 20, Movement and Performance 40.
• Shares its marking scheme with the other dance categories in the same championship, but is its own item with its own results.
• Idea starters, not rules: a solo built on one image such as water or a closing door, a group piece that begins in stillness and spreads across the stage, a duet-style canon in a group, a floor-work opening that rises into standing phrases.

On eTalenter, Contemporary Dance 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, Contemporary Dance is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to 3–5 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Contemporary Dance

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

• Choreography (40%): a clear idea carried from the first image to the last, phrases that develop instead of repeating, and use of the whole stage and of levels.
• Musicality and rhythm (20%): movement that responds to the phrasing and mood of the music, including the quiet moments, not only the beats.
• Movement and performance (40%): control of weight, smooth transitions, extension and balance, and a performer who is visibly committed to the idea.
• Group cohesion: spacing, shared timing in unison sections and clean canons make a group piece read as one idea.
• Age fit: movement the dancer can finish with control scores better than difficult lifts or turns that wobble.
• Originality: a personal approach to a familiar theme reads better than a copy of a well-known routine.

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

How to prepare for Contemporary Dance

How entrants and their teachers usually get Contemporary Dance right on the day:

• Pick one idea or feeling first and write it in a sentence; every phrase should serve it.
• Choose music that gives room to breathe and fits the time limit with a few seconds in hand; rehearse with the exact file you will bring.
• Build the piece in short phrases, learn each slowly and join them only once the transitions are clean.
• Practise floor work and recoveries on the type of floor you expect, and check that costume allows you to move safely.
• In a group, record rehearsals from the front and review spacing and timing together.
• Rehearse the entrance and the final held image as carefully as the dancing; first and last impressions carry the idea.
• Run the whole piece twice back to back to build stamina, then carry a backup copy of the music on a second device.

Frequently asked questions

Is Contemporary Dance 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 difference between Contemporary Dance and Modern Dance here?

This template runs them as separate categories with their own pages and results. Modern Dance is described as hip hop and jazz; Contemporary Dance is the expressive, idea-led class.

How long can a Contemporary Dance performance be?

In this template the limit is 3 minutes for a solo and 5 minutes for a group. The organiser’s own rules also print a lower limit, which the template does not carry, so check it when you enter.

Is it judged individually or as a team?

Both formats exist. A solo is an individual entry and a group is a team entry, each ranked within its own age band.

Can I use props or spoken word?

The template prints no rule on props, costume or spoken word. Check the organiser’s own rules and ask before the day if you are unsure.

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