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

A jazz dance routine built on sharp, rhythmic movement, strong lines and bold stage presence, performed to its own music as a solo, duo/trio or group.

Jazz dance is a technique-led style that grew out of social and stage dancing and is now taught in studios across the world. Its movement vocabulary is easy to spot: isolations of the head, ribs and hips, kicks and leaps with a flexed or pointed line, turns that start from a deep plie, and a grounded, rhythmic attack that follows the accents in the music. In competition the word covers a polished routine to a jazz, pop or musical-theatre track in which the dancer shows that technique while performing to the audience.

A round is a single performance on the stage floor. The dancer or team is announced, the music starts, and the adjudicator watches the whole routine from the opening shape to the final pose, writing comments and a mark as it unfolds. Because the style is built on sharpness, contrast and energy, the panel sees quickly whether a dancer is controlling the movement or only throwing it, and whether the performance reaches the people watching.

On the Rise Up Dance Creative template, which this page is written from, Jazz is a large section. Solos are split into three levels (Specially Restricted, Restricted and Open) across seven age divisions, from 6 and under to 17 and over, and there are duo/trio sections for each age division, a parent and child section, troupe sections and school-group sections from preschool to high school. Solos and duo/trio entries run to three minutes and troupe and school sections to four. Boys and girls compete together, no language is required, and every entry is marked out of 100 under the label Marks. The template prints no marking criteria for Jazz, so none are installed here and the adjudicator’s own sheet applies.

Organisers run Jazz as its own section, separate from lyrical, contemporary and hip hop, because each of those is judged against its own character: Jazz is expected to be crisp and rhythmic where lyrical is flowing and contemporary is grounded and fluid. For a coordinator using eTalenter it is entered like any other item: register each dancer or team in the right division and level, record the adjudicator’s mark out of 100, and ranking and placings follow within each division.

Where Jazz is run

In eTalenter’s data Jazz appears on 18 dance templates, all Australian dance competitions and eisteddfods, among them Rise Up Dance Creative, Perth Dance Challenge and Fierce Talent Dance Competition. It is one of the standard sections of dance-school syllabi and eisteddfod dance programmes in Australia, and it is run in the same way in the United Kingdom, North America and other countries where studio dance is popular.

• Australia
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Canada

Key facts

• Solo, duo/trio, parent and child, troupe and school-group entries on the Rise Up Dance Creative template.
• Solos are split by level (Specially Restricted, Restricted, Open) and by age: 6 and under, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and under, and 17 and over.
• Boys and girls compete together; no language requirement.
• Time limit in the template: 3 minutes for solos, duo/trio and parent and child; 4 minutes for troupes and school groups (preschool, primary, high school and small schools).
• Marks out of 100 under the label Marks; the template prints no criteria, so the adjudicator’s sheet decides.
• Idea starters, not rules: a big-band swing number, a funky pop routine built on isolations, a showgirl-style piece, a theme from a musical, a sharp, stop-start routine built around a drum break.

On eTalenter, Jazz is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 18 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Jazz is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to 2–5 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Jazz

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

• Technique: clean kicks, leaps and turns, secure pirouettes that finish on balance, and a strong jazz line in the legs and feet, whether flexed or pointed.
• Isolations and sharpness: head, rib and hip movements that are clearly separated and hit on the beat rather than blurred together.
• Rhythm and musicality: accents placed on the music, changes of speed and dynamics that match the track, and a finish that lands on the last note.
• Performance and projection: facial expression, eye focus and attack from the first count, so the routine reads as a performance rather than a rehearsal.
• Choreography and use of space: a routine with a clear shape, varied levels and floor patterns, and difficulty that suits the dancer’s level and age.
• Timing and presentation: finishing inside the time limit, with costume, hair and music cut tidy; for groups, spacing and unison across the stage.

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

How to prepare for Jazz

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

• Choose choreography that matches the dancer’s level and age; a clean, simple routine scores better than an ambitious one that falls apart.
• Work on the basics every week: jazz walks, kicks, pirouettes and leaps, so the technique holds up when the music starts.
• Drill the isolations slowly with a metronome or a count, then speed them up until they stay sharp at performance tempo.
• Learn the music as well as the steps: mark every accent and break with the teacher so movements land on them.
• Practise the performance face and eye focus in the mirror and on camera; energy has to be there from the first count to the last pose.
• Run the whole routine back to back twice near the date to build stamina, and rehearse in the real costume and shoes.
• For duos, trios and troupes, rehearse spacing and unison on a floor the size of the stage, and have everyone learn the transitions, not only the big moments.
• Check that the music cut fits the time limit and that the entrance and final pose are rehearsed.

Frequently asked questions

Is Jazz judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What is jazz dance in a competition?

It is a routine in the jazz style: sharp, rhythmic movement with isolations, kicks, leaps and turns, performed to music that has a clear beat, with a strong stage presence from the dancer.

Is Jazz the same as lyrical or contemporary?

No. They are judged as separate sections. Jazz is crisp and rhythmic, lyrical is flowing and expressive, and contemporary is grounded and fluid, so the same routine does not suit all three.

How long is a Jazz routine?

On the Rise Up Dance Creative template solos, duo/trio and parent and child entries run to three minutes, and troupe and school-group entries to four.

Is Jazz judged individually or as a team?

Solos are judged individually. Duo/trio, parent and child, troupe and school-group entries are judged as one performance and ranked within their own division.

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