Universal Ballet Competition

Atlanta, GA

General

Reviewer

Dancer Age

Competition experience

Event Details

Round

Regional

Season

Location

Atlanta, GA

Traveled to compete

Regional was the closest

Why this location

"Our director chose it because she felt that traveling was a good experience for the dancers to experience."

Who encouraged multiple regionals

School Encouragement for Multiple Regionals

"More opportunities to be seen and to qualify for the finals."

Did Dancer Miss School?

Master Classes

Master Class Types

Master class teachers

"The judges were the teachers, but I can't remember their names specifically."
"Ettiene Diaz and Andrew Brader"
"I don't remember, but my daughter liked all the classes and felt they were worthwhile."

Distance from venue

Received corrections

How corrections were given

"She says that they were both to the group and to individuals and felt there was a lot of attention equally distributed to all dancers."
"My daughter said corrections were given and she felt she received good attention from the teachers."

What corrections were about

"She believes they were about her dancing directly - technique and encouragement."
"She received comments about her dancing, they were very encouraging. She did not feel there was excessive favoritism or anything inappropriate."

Correction tone

Negative correction details

"N/A"

Teacher engagement

"She remembers them walking around and engaging with each dancer throughout the classes."
"Both teachers were engaging and encouraging to the dancers. Andrew really had the dancers moving in a manner that was out of a lot of their comfort zones but he was very positive and made them feel comfortable. I like how he had the dancers moving and active the whole class. Etienne great constructive feedback and described things he was looking for in the competitors. His voice was a little soft spoken for the space. The space was in an empty building like a warehouse with floors and barres brought in. I did not like how the parents could watch the entire class…it was distracting to some dancers. There were no mirrors. This was not an appropriate space for the price spent for classes and the competition."
"My daughter felt the teachers were actively engaged in the classes. She felt they were well run."

Crowding

Really Crowded


Plenty of Room to Move

Master Class Feedback

Technique

Contemporary

Additional master class comments

"She remembers them as being well done classes."
"The ballet class had a nice balance of technique and artistry. It was a good level class for the dancers without the feeling of “watch me give you combinations to mess you up”. I do wish they had arranged the dancers in number order to feel more like an audition. Some dancers pushed to the front."
"My daughter loved all the classes but was especially inspired by the contemporary teachers!"

Performance Details

Venue name

"Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University"
"Rialto Theatre"
"Rialto Center"

Venue description

"It is a fairly large venue that is in great condition with a large lobby and plenty of seating. The stage is also large."
"It’s a great theatre venue with ample seating, a large lobby, and a terrific stage and sound system. The backstage area is less than desirable but works. Rehearsal and warm up space is negligible, especially for groups. Parking is close and the area is right downtown."
"It was a spacious venue."

Stage description

"She believes there was marley and it was not sticky or slippery nor was it raked."
"It was a large stage with good Marley."
"Marley, there was enough room"

Off-stage warm-up space

"She doesn't remember."
"The backstage area is tight with minimal space to wait and warmup."
"There did seem to be limited warm up space as there were a lot of groups warming up in the lobby"

Dressing rooms

"The dressing rooms were large rooms with plenty of space for everyone."
"They had a dressing room with mirrors and a restroom. It was small, like a lead characters dressing space."
"There wasn't a huge dressing room"

Male dressing room

Onstage warm-up

"She said it was a pleasant experience with plenty of room to warm up."
"Open stage was way too crowded for the junior groups. 50+ dancers. It’s was psychologically taxing and not safe for the dancers."
"My daughter did not express any concerns about warm up"

Schedule adherence

Other schedule comments

"The schedule is pretty good. The awards take way too long!!!!!"

Staff communication

"Our school received all communication and then shared with the students."
"UBC used to have an App that was great to keep up with updates. That is not a thing anymore. If the teachers didn’t keep in touch with the students things would have gotten really hairy."
"It was well run, good communication"

Judging

Judging rubric clarity

Feedback turnaround

Type of Feedback

Feedback helpfulness

Not Helpful At All


Extremely Helpful

Main takeaway

"I absolutely love the way UBC does feedback because they provide a video file with the judges speaking over it, so you can match the feedback to the exact moment in the dance. I do not believe there was any coded language. The feedback was both corrections and encouraging, and she felt it was all very useful."
"Some of the judges gave critiques for the entire piece,…while others just breathed and said “nice job”. Nothing that would really help the dancer a lot. I have not observed any coded language."
"The feedback was useful. Some judges had more useful things to say than others."

Scoring felt fair

Why Scoring Unfair?

"There are some schools in the Atlantan area that tend to “work” the system and puts kids in lower level categories to stack the prizes. They have talented dancers but sweep the intermediate category when they should be in competitive. When a child is all over social media and then wins top place at different competitions things look suspicious."

Awards & Scholarships

Awards ceremony

"UBC awards are always easy to follow and go fairly quickly given how large of a competition it is."
"I like how they separate the intermediate and competitive awards but the awards are still too long on Sunday night when everyone has to go back to school or work the next day. Some people have long drives home too! Also, I’ve been attending UBC for years, as a teacher, and the medals are nice, but kids used to get some swag too. A journal, notebook, water bottle, pair of tights. Not anymore. Another frustrating thing is that the groups are listed by size (small, large, etc) but they often end up being clumped together for awards. So a small group vs. 30 dancers. How much does it take to give them a piece of paper for their placement?"
"The awards ceremony was well organized. I liked how they broke up the Intermediate and Competitive awards. That made it more more pleasant and not too long."

Won an award or training offer

Award or Training Offer Description

"Rising Star Award 1st place classical 5th place contemporary Duncan Cooper workshop scholarship Short stay to SFBS Short stay to Winnipeg Ballet School"
"She received scholarships to several summer programs, including 25%, 50% and 75% tuition scholarships."

Final Comments

Best aspect

"I really love the feedback and judging at UBC. it has by far been our best competition experience in the US."
"The staff is very friendly and professional."
"It's nice that they have different levels that dancers can enter. It makes it a better experience for everyone involved. The competition is well run and the staff was kind and professional."

Worst aspect

"As someone whose dancer doesn't like contemporary she wishes there was no contemporary masterclass."
"Long awards. I feel like the events and business model have gotten too big. I also dislike how cultural dances are placed in the contemporary category. They should be separate. I also dislike how the master classes were across town rather than close to the venue. It makes it harder to navigate the weekend increasing the stress level. The Live Stream is horrible!!!"
"They announce your adjudication after you dance. Which is an emotional roller coaster. Dancers are either happy with what they received, or they are upset. That felt very stressful and caused issues amongst friends if one person received a higher score. The positive aspect is that it provides transparency and makes it not feel rigged. However, the awards didn't seem to line up with the level that was announced. For example, dancers who received "UBC Platinum" didn't place, however dancers who received "High Gold" did. That aspect of scoring did not seem transparent. Every year we're highly confused by placements compared to what we heard announced. It also seems that they gave the majority of dancers "High Gold", there were rarely dancers scored below that. There were a select few who received "gold", which was devastating for those girls. Situations like that make it stressful and traumatic for some of the dancers. It seemed unnecessary to publicly single out just a few dancers, that's a blow to their confidence."

Competition culture

"I think it is a positive culture that encourages a positive ballet environment. It comes across as a very fair competition with a lot of support in place to help dancers succeed."
"The culture is positive but I feel like they’ve gotten away from their original business model."
"Other than the scores being announced causing tension and jealousy issues, the overall culture is positive. Those are common issues in ballet, but the public announcement was not the best feeling and it promoted some toxic behavior among dancers and parents."

Attendee culture

"Parents and students alike are all super supportive of each other, and there is a feeling of friendship across the whole competition."
"Some of the schools are very supportive and encouraging while others are cut throat."
"The overall culture was fine. It's better than the other big name competitions."

Suggested changes

"None!"
"Cultural category, classes at or near the venue, shorter awards, and more classes. Also improve the livestream."
"My dancers finals experience was positive, however, all the "winners" from the regional competitions were placed in separate classes from the "regular" kids. It seemed like they received priority attention, which didn't seem to make the finals experience feel fair or unbiased. It felt like those dancers had a different experience and received priority treatment. I'd rather pay a little bit more in registration fees to not have to buy wrist bands each day!"

Cost vs. expectation

Significantly More


Significantly Less

Time worth it

Not Worth It


Worth Every Minute

Overall rating

Anything else?

"N/A"
"It seems like the same dancers get the scholarships and awards."
"It's a good first competition to attend as it has different levels to help less experienced dancers still have the competitive experience while being tailored to their abilities."