A themed festival street-dance contest in which whole contingents perform choreographed, costumed routines with props and live or accompanied music, judged mainly on how well the dance tells its theme.
A festival streetdance competition is a team contest built around a theme. Each contingent, often a school, town or community group, prepares a routine of several minutes that combines choreography, costume, props and music into one story, usually drawn from a local festival, legend or harvest tradition. It is performed for judges and a crowd rather than on a stage in a hall.
The routine is judged as a whole picture. A strong entry has a clear concept that every element serves: the steps echo the story, the costumes and props reinforce it, and the music accompaniment carries the rhythm so that the dancers can stay precise and in unison. Judges usually watch for how the contingent moves as one body, how formations change, and whether the energy holds from the first beat to the last.
A round runs one contingent at a time. Teams are called in a published order, take their positions, perform within the time limit and clear the performance area for the next group. Results are tabulated after the last team, and prizes are normally a grand prize followed by further placings and a consolation, with special awards for areas such as costume or music accompaniment.
On the template the item is a Team item for the contingents group, open to all genders, with a 100-mark scale and a ten-minute limit with a warning bell at the end. The source’s printed weightings are theme or concept 35, choreography 20, performance 20, costume 15 and props 10, which is why concept is the largest single block of marks.
Organisers run it because it is the showpiece of a festival: it draws large crowds, gives many groups a place in the programme and rewards creativity, rehearsal and cultural storytelling rather than a single star performer.
Where Streetdance Competition is run
On eTalenter this item is used in one template, a national festival street-dance template for the Philippines that also carries a float parade, festival music, a pageant and a photography class. Themed street-dance contests of this kind are also staged at many town fiestas, school anniversaries and cultural parades, each under its own rules, so the organiser’s notice decides group size, route, time limit and what counts as an allowed prop.
- Philippines (the festival the template is built from)
Key facts
- Team item: a whole contingent performs together, mixed gender
- Printed weightings: theme or concept 35, choreography 20, performance 20, costume 15, props 10
- Template scale is 100 marks, with a ten-minute limit and a warning bell at the end
- Prizes on the source run from a grand prize through further placings to a consolation
- Special awards recognised on the source include best costume and best music accompaniment
- Contingent entry rules such as size caps and regional quotas are not published by the source, so the organiser sets them
On eTalenter, Streetdance Competition is filed under On Stage 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, Streetdance Competition is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 10 minutes where a limit is set.
The scoring method the templates attach to this item, and what that scale means. The category this competition is filed under when a template is installed. Others in this category: Dance, Music, Drama, Mimicry, Debate, Elocution, Story Telling, Group Song, Action Song eTalenter matches an item to its criteria on the words in its name, and creates exactly these when the template is installed. No criteria match this name, so none are created automatically — judges score it on the event’s own criteria instead.How it is scored
Where it sits
Judging criteria installed for it
What judges look at in Streetdance Competition
What a Streetdance Competition panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Theme and concept (35 of 100): whether one clear idea runs through steps, costume, props and music, and whether it is told rather than merely labelled
- Choreography (20): variety of formations, transitions and levels, and steps that fit the story instead of repeating one pattern
- Performance (20): unison, timing, stamina and expression from the whole contingent, including the back row and the youngest dancers
- Costume (15): craftsmanship and fit to the theme, and whether it survives movement without coming apart
- Props (10): props that add meaning and are handled safely and tidily, rather than carried as decoration
- Marks are lost by going over the time limit, by a theme that is unclear to the audience and by loose, uneven unison
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Streetdance Competition under Scoring Setup, or start from our judging and score tabulation guide.
How to prepare for Streetdance Competition
How entrants and their teachers usually get Streetdance Competition right on the day:
- Read the organiser’s notice first for group size, time limit, allowed props and music rules, and design inside them
- Choose one theme you can explain in a sentence and build every scene from it, then check that each scene earns its place
- Plan the routine as a timeline of scenes with a count for each, and rehearse to a stopwatch so you finish with a few seconds spare
- Rehearse on the same kind of surface and at the same scale as the performance area, because formations that fit a hall may not fit a road
- Drill unison in small sections before running the full routine, and have someone film it to spot the dancers who drift
- Test costumes and props while dancing at full effort and repair weak points before the day
- Agree an entry and exit plan for props and dancers so the changeover between teams is quick
- If you lose, compare the scoring on theme, choreography and performance with the placed teams and fix the weakest block first
Events that run this (1)
Ready-made templates that already include this competition. Installing one sets it up for you.
Frequently asked questions
Is Streetdance Competition 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.
Is a streetdance competition the same as a hip-hop contest?
Not necessarily. A themed festival streetdance is a staged team routine with costume and storytelling, while a hip-hop contest usually judges a style of dance. Check the organiser’s notice for which one is meant.
Is it judged individually or as a team?
As a team. The whole contingent is scored together, so unison and overall impact matter more than any one dancer.
How long can a routine be?
The template sets a ten-minute limit with a warning bell, but an organiser can change it. Always rehearse to the limit in the notice you receive.
Why is the theme worth so many marks?
The source weights theme or concept at 35 of 100, so a clear idea that runs through choreography, costume and props earns more than any single technical element.
Similar competitions
Items whose names share a word with this one — usually the same discipline in another form.
Want the full judging picture? Read our judging and score tabulation guide, or browse every on stage competition item.
Try Streetdance Competition in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Streetdance Competition, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
