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

Creative Dance is the group dance discipline of an international Games for French-speaking countries: a team of two to ten dancers aged 18 to 35 performs a choreography for a jury of five that ranks three winners and two mentions.

Creative Dance is the dance discipline in the cultural programme of the Francophone Games, an international event in which French-speaking countries send young artists to compete in singing, storytelling, dance, literature, the visual arts and acting. It is a group item: the programme’s rules set the entry at one group of two to ten dancers, so a duet is the smallest entry and a company of ten the largest. Dancers must be over 18 and under 35 during the Games, the discipline is open to men and women, and the age limit applies to the dancers only, not to any musician or other support person who accompanies them.

The general rules name the discipline but do not define the style, so this page does not claim that any particular technique, music or costume is required. In competitions generally, a “creative” dance class asks for an original choreography devised by the entrants rather than a set piece in a fixed traditional repertoire, and that is how a coordinator running the same class at a school, club or regional level will usually want to word it. The Games’ detailed technical rules for the discipline, such as the time limit, any theme and the judging sheet, sit in a separate document that eTalenter does not hold, so none of them is asserted here.

Entry is not open to the general public. Each artist is put forward by a member state or government after a national pre-selection, and an international pre-selection then limits the number of artists per discipline. Judging is by a jury of five, one president and four members. The jury ranks three winners and two further mentions, and gold, silver and bronze medals go to the top three. Because the rules print no points for placings, no marks and no time limit, the eTalenter template installs the item as a Team entry scored out of 100 with First, Second and Third at 0 points and no criteria set.

Organisers like a creative group class because it rewards the work a team does before the day: the idea, the music edit, the formations and the rehearsal discipline all show in a few minutes on stage. It also scales well, since a group of two to ten fits on most stages without a change of set.

Where Creative Dance is run

The title Creative Dance appears in one eTalenter template, the cultural competitions of the Francophone Games, where it is one of ten disciplines for artists aged 18 to 35, installed as a Team item. Other templates carry similarly named classes such as Modern Creative Dance, Cultural Creative Dance and Sri Lankan Creative Dance; those belong to other events with their own rules and have their own pages or none, and this page does not describe them as the same item.

• Francophone world (member states and governments of the Francophone Games)

Key facts

• Team item: one group of two to ten dancers
• Open to men and women aged over 18 and under 35 during the Games; the age limit applies to the dancers only
• Judged by a jury of five, one president and four members; the jury ranks three winners and two mentions
• Gold, silver and bronze medals; the rules print no points for placings, so the template installs First, Second and Third with 0 points
• Installed out of 100 with no printed judging criteria, no time limit and no language, because the programme’s general rules do not print them
• Entry is through a member state’s national pre-selection, with an international pre-selection to limit the number of artists per discipline

On eTalenter, Creative 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, Creative Dance is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100.

What judges look at in Creative Dance

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

• The printed rules give no criteria for this discipline, so this list is general advice drawn from how panels usually look at group choreography, not a sheet taken from the Games
• Originality of the choreography: a clear idea that the movement actually expresses, rather than a string of steps borrowed from a video
• Unison and spacing: dancers who move together when the piece calls for it, hold their lines and formations, and do not bunch or drift as the stage changes
• Technique and control: clean footwork, balance, extension and landings, and the ability to hold the quality to the last bar and not only the opening
• Musicality and use of the stage: movement that follows the phrasing of the music, with levels, travelling and entrances used on purpose
• Performance and presentation: shared energy and expression across the whole group, costume that suits the idea, and a finish the panel can see was planned

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

How to prepare for Creative Dance

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

• Ask the organiser first for the points the rules leave open: the time limit, any theme, whether live or recorded music is allowed and the stage size
• Choose a group size that suits the idea. Two dancers can build a sharp duet; ten need strong formations and a clear leader in rehearsal
• Write the idea in one sentence before choreographing it, and test every section against that sentence; sections that do not serve it are the first to cut
• Edit the music to the time limit early, with a clear start and end, and rehearse to that exact cut so nobody learns the dance to a different version
• Rehearse the spacing as carefully as the steps: mark positions on the floor, practise the transitions between formations and film from the front to check the lines
• Run the full piece without stopping at least three times in the final week, in the costume and the shoes, and rehearse the entrance and exit as well as the dance
• Plan for the dancer who is ill or injured: know in advance how the piece reshapes for one fewer, within the minimum group size
• Ideas, not rules: a piece built on a market morning, on the changing of the seasons, on a local legend, or on the idea of a crowd becoming one body

Frequently asked questions

Is Creative 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.

How many dancers can take part in Creative Dance?

The Games’ rules set the entry at one group of two to ten dancers. The template therefore installs the discipline as a Team item.

Is Creative Dance the same as Modern Creative Dance?

No. Modern Creative Dance and Cultural Creative Dance are separate classes in another festival’s template, with their own rules. Creative Dance here is the Francophone Games discipline for artists aged 18 to 35.

What dance style is required?

The programme’s general rules do not print a style, so none is asserted. A school or club running a creative class can set its own, for example any original choreography or a particular theme.

How long can the piece be and how is it marked?

The general rules print no time limit and no marks or criteria. The template installs the item out of 100 so a coordinator can set the sheet; the Games itself ranks three winners and two mentions by jury decision.

Who can enter the Games’ version of this discipline?

Entry is through a member state or government, after a national pre-selection, and only for dancers over 18 and under 35 during the Games. A school or club running the same class can set its own age band.

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