Denver Ballet Guild YDC

General

Reviewer:

Parent

Dancer Age:

Competition experience:

2-5

Event Details

Round:

Regional

Season:

2025-26

Location:

Denver CO area

Traveled to compete:

Regionals attended:

Who encouraged multiple regionals:

Entry affiliation:

School

Rules Easy to Access?

Yes

Did Dancer Miss School?

Attended master classes:

Yes

Master Classes

Master Class Types:

Technique

Master class teachers:

Visiting instructors teach each year - typically a DBG YDC alum now dancing professionally at a company outside of Colorado

Distance from venue:

At the same venue

Received corrections:

Yes

How corrections were given:

Varied based on instructor. The first year my daughter attended (age 12) the instructor was Zimmi Coker from ABT and she sounded amazing - lots of individual and group corrections and super engaged with the students. I cannot remember the name of the instructor this last year, but students were not nearly as excited about the classes. Zimmi was amazing.

What corrections were about:

Dancing for sure. It sounded like Zimmi's corrections were highly specific and helpful. No codes negativity.

Anatomical language:

Yes

Correction tone:

Positive

Teacher engagement:

In 2024-5 the teacher was super engaged; the following year, less so.

Crowding:


Really Crowded	Plenty of Room to Move

Master Class Feedback

Technique:

Additional master class comments:

DBG YDC uses class feedback as part of the competition overall score. I believe that score comes from judges watching the class - not from the instructor themselves.

Performance Details

Venue name:

Mapleton Arts Center

Venue description:

Very nice, newer regional arts venue. Ample seating.

Stage description:

The dancers did report the floor was very slippery. There was room for a full jumping pass but the stage wasn't as big as most professional company venues. Not raked. Marlet with a few spots of damage, which were marked for the dancers to avoid.

Off-stage warm-up space:

Spaces to stretch in a packed dressing area only

Dressing rooms:

DBG YDC competitions have dancers where a basic black Leo or white t-shirt with black tights for the male dancers. They wear the same attire in class and in competition, so dressing rooms aren't really a big issue.

Parents in dressing rooms:

Male dressing room:

Parents backstage:

Onstage warm-up:

It was rather brief and a bit rushed, but generally okay. Main feedback was about it being challenging with lots of people and the floor being kind of slippery. Each group only had about 15 minutes for Open stage.

Schedule adherence:

Tended to mostly run on time

Other schedule comments:

Ran quite on schedule for the entire 2.5 days

Staff communication:

Not really applicable. They stuck to the schedule.

Parent seminar offered:

Yes

Parent Education

Seminar content:

There is a wellness seminar that includes dancers and parents. So it's not a q&a about the competition, per se, but the wellness seminar is mandatory.

Seminar helpful:

Why (not) helpful:

It was a nutrition seminar that was not particularly informative.

Judging

Judging rubric clarity:

Judges' attentiveness:

Yes, all judges were actively watching

Feedback turnaround:

More than a week after the competition

Type of Feedback:

Numerical scores, Brief written feedback

Feedback helpfulness:


Not Helpful At All	Extremely Helpful

Main takeaway:

The feedback was very brief, not terribly specific, and not really actionable.

Scoring felt fair:

Why Scoring Unfair?

We come from a school that only sends a couple students to DBG YDC each year. The school has about 50 students in their more serious audition based after school ballet program, and many of these kids are attending top summer programs across the country. Competition just isn't a big focus for the studio, but really motivated kids are supported if they want to go. Each year they have sent between 2-5 students, and these students are rarely if ever place. Our program directors are quite clear that there is significant bias in the judging toward larger schools that put a lot more resources into this competition and DBG overall. I am uncertain if our school will attend again unless this changes.

Awards & Scholarships

Awards ceremony:

Because it is a single standalone competition each year, the finalists are selected from Friday and Saturday performances and then they perform in the finals on Sunday. The finals run straight into the award ceremony. For students who are not in the finals they watch this from the audience and it usually runs close to 3 hours. It's a lot!

Won an award or training offer:

Festival offer:

Gala offer:

Invited to finals:

Final Comments

Best aspect:

I really like that it is for Colorado residents only. It is fun for kids from schools around the state to run into friends from different programs each year. It also avoids the strategy of out-of-state programs trying to game which dancers they send to which regionals each year, as everyone knows happens with yagp. It's also nice that students perform in basic dance wear instead of expensive costumes. And registration fees are very affordable as well.

Worst aspect:

The Colorado only focus means the folks running and judging know all the programs and many of the dancers going in. Very little surprise in terms of who places. Same schools each year.

Competition culture:

Overall positive.

Attendee culture:

The kids seem really nice and genuinely happy to see friends from other programs in the state.

Suggested changes:

The master class is a real highlight, and it would be nice if they offered more than one per age group.

Cost vs. expectation:


Significantly More	Significantly Less

Time worth it:


Not Worth It	Worth Every Minute

Overall rating:

Anything else?

Another unique aspect that I didn't know where to fit elsewhere in the survey is that students / teachers pick one single classical variation from a very short list of options per age group. Some variation show up year over year (bluebird, swan lake pas de trois), but then there are always a couple really unusual, borderline strange variations. So, every year it's something different. This can be both good and bad. My daughter definitely did two variations over 2 years that she never would have learned otherwise, and she did like one of them quite a bit.