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

A dance championship for dancers who have entered at least two open sections, awarding 1st to 3rd place with highly commended and prizes or scholarships on top of the ordinary section placings.

An Open Championship is a title rather than a single dance style. A dancer earns a place in it by entering a minimum number of the open sections on the programme, and the championship then recognises the dancer who has performed best across them. It sits above the ordinary section results: a dancer can win or place in a genre section and still be in the running for the overall title.

On the template that carries it, the championship is a solo item with seven age divisions: Open 6 and under, 8 and under, 10 and under, 12 and under, 14 and under, 16 and under and 17 plus. Boys and girls compete together, no language is required and the listed time allowance is three minutes. Each entry is recorded out of 100 under the label Marks. The source programme describes the entry rule as competing in at least two open sections, and says the championships award 1st to 3rd place, usually as cash prizes and/or scholarships, with highly commended at the adjudicator’s discretion.

The programme prints no marking criteria for the championship, so none are installed and the adjudicator’s own sheet decides. What an entrant should expect is that the panel looks for consistent quality across the genres the dancer entered, not one standout routine.

Organisers run championships to give committed dancers a bigger goal than a single section, to reward breadth of training, and to give the event a headline result at the end. For a coordinator using eTalenter it is entered like any other item: register the dancer in the correct open age division, record the adjudicator’s mark out of 100, and placings follow within each division.

Where Open Championship is run

In eTalenter’s data Open Championship appears on one dance template, an Australian dance competition, so it is best understood as a feature of that programme rather than a standard item everywhere. Many dance eisteddfods and festivals run a championship or scholarship round in a similar spirit, but the qualifying rule, prize and name vary, so always read the syllabus you are entering.

• Australia

Key facts

• Solo only; each age division is a separate championship.
• Seven open age divisions, from Open 6 and under to Open 17 plus.
• Entry rule as printed in the source programme: compete in at least two open sections.
• Listed time allowance is 3 minutes; a single mark out of 100 is recorded under the label Marks.
• Awards as printed: 1st to 3rd, cash prizes and/or scholarships, with highly commended at the adjudicator’s discretion.
• Its companion item on the same template is the Restricted Championship, which has the same shape for the restricted sections.

On eTalenter, Open Championship 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, Open Championship is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 3 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Open Championship

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

• Consistency across genres: the strongest championship entrants are marked well in every open section they entered, not only one.
• Technique and control: clean execution, balance, alignment and line in whichever style the dancer performs.
• Musicality and rhythm: movement that is matched to the music, with accents and phrasing clearly honoured.
• Performance quality: focus, projection and expression that hold the adjudicator’s attention for the whole routine.
• Presentation and stagecraft: confident entrance and finish, use of the floor, and costume and grooming suited to the style.
• Time discipline: finishing within the three-minute allowance without rushing the ending.

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

How to prepare for Open Championship

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

• Plan your entries early: count the open sections you qualify for and make sure you enter at least the minimum the programme requires.
• Choose sections that show range, such as one balletic and one contemporary or jazz entry, rather than two near-identical styles.
• Treat every routine as championship material; the title is decided across all the sections, so a weak one costs you.
• Rehearse each routine to the three-minute limit with a stopwatch, and trim the ending rather than rushing it.
• Schedule recovery between sections on a busy day: warm up again, drink water and change costume calmly.
• Ask your teacher to watch a full run-through of all your entries together so energy and quality stay level.
• Read the age rule carefully and enter the division that matches your age on the date the programme states.
• Learn from the adjudicator’s comments on each section and fix the weakest routine before the next event.

Frequently asked questions

Is Open Championship 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 an Open Championship in dance?

It is a title awarded to the best dancer in an open age division, open to dancers who have entered the minimum number of open sections the programme requires.

How many sections do I need to enter?

On the programme this template is built from, a dancer must compete in at least two open sections. Always check the syllabus of the event you are entering.

Is the Open Championship judged individually or as a team?

Individually. It is a solo item with its own age divisions.

What do winners receive?

The source programme says the championships award 1st to 3rd place, with cash prizes and/or scholarships and highly commended at the adjudicator’s discretion.

What is the difference between the Open and Restricted Championship?

They are the same idea for different groups of sections: the Open Championship draws on the open sections and the Restricted Championship on the restricted ones.

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