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

A dance class for routines that tell a story or sell a character through song, acting and movement together, such as musical theatre, song and dance, song and tap or a demi-character piece, scored out of 100.

Entertainment is a dance class for routines whose point is to entertain an audience as a whole, not to show one technique in its purest form. Where Ballet, Tap or Contemporary ask a dancer to stay inside one movement style, an Entertainment routine borrows from stage and screen: a number from a musical, a song-and-dance piece, a song-and-tap piece, or a demi-character routine in which the dancer plays a role from the first step to the last. The title is a family of routines, not a single dance form.

A round follows the pattern of every dance class. The entry is announced, the music starts, and the performer or performers deliver one routine in front of the adjudicators. What sets Entertainment apart is what the panel looks for inside it. A dancer in a classical class is judged on how well the form is done; here the routine also has to work as a small piece of theatre, with a character, a mood or a story that the audience can follow without a programme note.

The class is run in the same three sections as the rest of a dance programme: solos, duos and trios, and troupes. Entries are grouped by age, with the youngest solo and duo/trio groups starting at four years and under, and with an open age group at the top. Duos, trios and troupes are placed by their eldest member, so a team has to think about the age of every dancer before it enters.

Organisers include Entertainment because it gives a place to the dancers and teams who do not fit a single strict genre. A child who loves musical theatre, a duo built around a song and a tap break, and a troupe with a comic story can all compete in one class, and a family or school audience usually remembers these routines best.

Where Entertainment is run

In eTalenter data this class appears on two templates, both Australian dance competitions: one runs it for solos, duos and trios and troupes across eight age groups, the other runs it for troupes only. Nothing in the data shows the same title elsewhere, so this page does not claim a wider reach. Classes that gather musical theatre, song-and-dance and character pieces under a general entertainment heading are a familiar part of dance competitions in many countries, but the age groups, scoring and awards on this page are the ones printed for those Australian events.

• Australia

Key facts

• Entered as a solo, a duo or trio, or a troupe, boys and girls together. No language applies.
• The printed description of the class names its kinds of routine: musical theatre, song and dance, song and tap, and demi-character.
• Age groups as printed: 4 and under (solos and duos/trios only), then 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 and under, and an open age group. Age is counted at 1 January of the current year, and a team takes the age of its eldest member.
• Marked out of 100: technique 50, performance and execution 30, choreography 15, music and presentation 5. Two adjudicators score separately and their marks are averaged.
• Awards printed for the section: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Highly Commended, at the adjudicators’ discretion. No points are printed for the placings.
• The second Australian template lists a five-minute limit for its troupe version; the first prints no time limit, so check the limit for your own event.
• Idea starters, not rules: choose one song or scene and let every move serve it; give the character a clear want in the first eight counts; use one costume change or prop only if it is part of the story; end on a held picture, not a bow.

On eTalenter, Entertainment is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 2 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Entertainment 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 Entertainment

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

• Technique (50 marks, half the total): the largest block, so the dancing itself cannot be hidden behind acting. Clean footwork, control, posture and line still decide the biggest share of the result, even in a character piece.
• Performance and execution (30 marks): this is where Entertainment is won. The panel looks for commitment, facial expression and a routine that is delivered with energy from the first count to the last, with no drop when a hard section ends.
• Choreography (15 marks): whether the routine has a shape, with an opening, a development and a finish, and whether the steps suit the song or scene. Moves added only because they are difficult cost marks if they do not belong to the story.
• Music and presentation (5 marks): the fit between music and movement, costume and the way the routine starts and finishes. It is the smallest block, but a clean entrance and a clear final pose lift the whole impression.
• Reading of the class: because the rules name more than one kind of routine, a panel will compare a musical-theatre piece with a song-and-tap piece on the same scale. A routine that commits fully to its chosen kind scores better than one that tries to be all of them.

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

How to prepare for Entertainment

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

• Choose the kind of routine first. Decide whether yours is musical theatre, song and dance, song and tap or a demi-character piece, then pick music that suits that kind and an age-appropriate story.
• Write the routine’s idea in one sentence before choreographing it. If you cannot say what the routine is about in one line, the audience will not follow it either.
• Spend most rehearsal time on technique. Half the marks are for technique, so drill the hardest sections until they are clean, then add acting on top.
• Rehearse expression on purpose. Film a run-through and watch it with the sound off: if the story is unclear, the face and the body are not yet doing enough.
• For duos, trios and troupes, rehearse spacing and entrances separately from the steps. Check every dancer’s age before entering, because the eldest member sets the age group.
• Cut the music to a clean start and a clean end, and confirm the time limit for your event, since one of the two Australian templates prints a five-minute limit for troupes and the other prints none.
• Test costume, shoes and any prop in full before the day. A prop that is dropped, or a costume that hides the footwork, loses marks in two blocks at once.
• After the result, compare your marks block by block. A low technique mark means more drilling; a low performance mark means more commitment and expression.

Frequently asked questions

Is Entertainment 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 Entertainment class in a dance competition?

It is a class for routines that entertain as a whole, such as musical theatre, song and dance, song and tap or demi-character pieces, rather than one pure dance style. It is judged on the same four-part scale as the other dance classes at the events that run it.

Is Entertainment the same as Musical Theatre?

Not exactly. Musical theatre is one of the kinds of routine that Entertainment covers. Entertainment is the wider class, and it also takes song-and-dance, song-and-tap and demi-character routines. A competition that has a separate Musical Theatre class will say so in its own list.

Can I enter as a solo, a duo or a troupe?

Yes at the event that runs all three sections: solos, duos and trios, and troupes. The other Australian template in the data runs Entertainment for troupes only, so check which sections your event offers.

How is Entertainment scored?

Out of 100: technique 50, performance and execution 30, choreography 15 and music and presentation 5. Two adjudicators score separately and their marks are averaged.

How long can the routine be?

It depends on the event. One of the two templates prints a five-minute limit for its troupe version, and the other prints no time limit. Ask the organiser before you cut your music.

How is my age group decided?

By age on 1 January of the current year. For a duo, trio or troupe the eldest member sets the group, and one of the Australian rule sets lets a troupe include two dancers who are one calendar year above the age group.

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