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

A schools-only troupe item in which primary and secondary schools from the Perth region enter a routine of up to five minutes in any dance genre.

Education is the section of a troupes event set aside for schools. Where the genre sections (ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop and the rest) are open to studios and are placed by the average age of the dancers, this one is reserved for primary and secondary schools from the Perth region, and a school may present its routine in any genre it likes. The title describes who is entering, not what they dance.

In the one-day Western Australian troupes event this page is written from, Education sits beside Production and Collaboration – Anything Goes as one of three sections that are not a single genre. Like them it takes one all-ages group, because a school team can mix year levels, and 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 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 gives the section one line of description and does not print a minimum team size for it, a definition of what counts as a school entry, or the marking criteria, so everything below about how a panel is likely to weigh a school routine is general guidance rather than an organiser’s rule.

Organisers run a schools section for a practical reason: a school dance team is rarely the same kind of group as a studio troupe. It may be a lunchtime club, a class project or a performing-arts elective, with dancers who learn together at school rather than in a private class, and judging it separately gives those teams a fair field and a first stage experience without having to compete against full-time studio dancers.

Where Education is run

In eTalenter’s data the title Education 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 Collaboration – Anything Goes. 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, open to primary and secondary schools from the Perth region; one all-ages group rather than the average-age categories the genre sections use.
• Any dance genre: the section is defined by who enters, so a school may present ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, tap or a mix.
• 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.
• It is a different item from Collaboration – Anything Goes, which is for studios and dancers joining forces across genres and ages, and from Production, a story-driven piece of up to ten minutes.
• Ideas, not rules: a whole-year-level routine built on a school value or a class topic; a routine in which older students lead and younger students carry the chorus; a hip hop and contemporary blend created by the school’s own dance elective.

On eTalenter, Education 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, Education 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 Education

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

• Clean, unified execution at the team’s own level: a school routine is judged on how well the team does what it sets out to do. Matching timing, shared spacing and secure basic technique beat a more ambitious routine that falls apart in the formation changes.
• Choreography that fits the dancers: steps and formations that the whole team can perform confidently, with a clear beginning, build and ending inside the five minutes. A simple idea performed together usually outscores a complex idea performed unevenly.
• Everyone on the stage is dancing: panels watch the back row and the youngest or newest team members. Routines where every student has a real role, rather than a few strong dancers in front of a crowd, tend to read as better rehearsed.
• Use of the stage and transitions: quick, quiet changes between formations, clear entrances and exits, and every student on their mark. Time lost sorting out lines on stage costs more than a basic change done cleanly.
• Performance and presentation: facial expression, energy, a costume that suits the music and the age of the dancers, and a clear final picture. These points are general advice on what dance panels usually weigh; the organiser’s own sheet may weigh them differently.
• Time discipline: a routine over the five-minute limit receives a spoken critique and no score or placing, so staying inside the limit is a scoring decision as well as a courtesy.

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

How to prepare for Education

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

• Choose the music and the idea first, then choreograph to a count. Cut the track to about four and a half minutes so a slow walk-on cannot push the routine past five minutes.
• Build for the whole team. Set the difficulty by what the least experienced student can perform cleanly, and give the stronger dancers featured moments or lead lines rather than harder steps for everyone.
• Plan a six-week path: weeks one and two for the idea, music and basic sequences; weeks three and four to link the sections and rehearse formations; week five for costume, transitions and cleaning; week six for two timed run-throughs on a floor marked out to stage size.
• Rehearse in the space you will perform in, or mark it out. School halls are often wider than competition stages, so practise with the real width and depth, and with the entrance and exit from the wings.
• Film a run-through from the front and watch it with the sound off. Note where lines drift or heads turn the wrong way, and fix those counts one at a time.
• Prepare the adults as well: a teacher or parent in charge of the music file, a spare copy, a check of costume and hair, and a plan for supervising students waiting in the wings.
• After a result, use the spoken critique. Ask the team to write down the points the adjudicator raised and rehearse those first when the routine goes back into the school timetable.

Frequently asked questions

Is Education 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.

Who can enter the Education section?

The information pack describes it as primary and secondary schools from the Perth region. It is a schools section, so a studio troupe that happens to include school-age dancers belongs in a genre section instead.

Which dance genre does an Education routine have to be?

Any. The section is defined by who enters, not by style, so a school can present ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, tap or a mix of styles.

How long can an Education routine be?

Up to five minutes, the same limit as the genre sections. 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 primary and secondary students dance in the same routine?

The section takes one all-ages group rather than the average-age categories used by the genre sections, so mixed year levels are possible. Check the event’s own entry rules for how a school’s teams are counted.

How is Education different from Collaboration – Anything Goes?

Education is defined by the entrants, which are schools. Collaboration – Anything Goes is defined by the approach: studios and dancers working together across genres, ages and styles. A school team that works with a studio should check with the organiser which section suits it.

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.