Youth America Grand Prix

Indianapolis, IN

General

Reviewer

Dancer Age

Competition experience

Event Details

Round

Regional

Season

Location

Indianapolis, IN

Regionals attended

Rationale for multiple regionals

"Certain dancers/schools always place no matter what"

Who encouraged multiple regionals

Competition Encouragement for Multiple Regionals

"Better chance at placement"

School Encouragement for Multiple Regionals

"School recommends up to 2 regionals for dancers who desire more time on stage or want more than one opportunity to be seen for finals and scholarship opportunities. Also to get different judges."
"Better chance at placement"

Did Dancer Miss School?

Master Classes

Master Class Types

Master class teachers

"Judges"
"Different judges"
"Rachel Nye and Berry Karolis"

Distance from venue

Received corrections

How corrections were given

"Corrections were given both individually and to group"

What corrections were about

"Dancing"

Teacher engagement

"Engaged"
"Only watched/gave corrections to 2-3 dancers. Ignored the rest."
"They were engaged, but the same teachers have taught at this yagp for multiple years. We would prefer new teachers for more exposure and experiences."

Crowding

Really Crowded



Plenty of Room to Move

Master Class Feedback

Technique

Contemporary

Additional master class comments

"Kids liked the contemporary class"
"Obvious favoritism Better corrections"
"Rachel nye teaches a good class. Berry Karolis is obnoxious and hyper which makes my dancer not want to attend his classes."

Performance Details

Venue name

Repeated Responses:

"Tarkington theater" (2 responses)

Unique Responses:

"Tarkington"

Venue description

"Ample seating in venue for solos. Cramped for groups. Awards at palladium was very nice."
"Safe area, beautiful theater. Very limited space backstage"
"Mid sized theater, nice seating and acoustics, back stage is very small."

Stage description

"Large stage. Marley. Slippery."
"Marley was good"
"Slippery Marley, poor floor care. The floor was never swept or mopped between sections even when it was obvious a certain area was slippery. Floor should be cleaned after contemporary sections on my opinion."

Off-stage warm-up space

"Wherever you find a spot"
"Very little space"
"Very tight backstage and dressing rooms. You’re lucky if you can find a corner to warm dancers up. The big studios take the onsite studios for themselves."

Dressing rooms

"Dressing rooms were spacious. Males had their own small space but it was an actual room and not a closet as it is a professional theater"
"Too small for the amount of kids"
"Small"

Onstage warm-up

"Congenial but not a lot of space for the guys"
"2-3 kids took up majority of space, ran it to kids without caring while others had a tiny space in the corner"
"Open stage is adequate, her teacher is always in the wings to advise. They get about 10 minutes per group."

Schedule adherence

Other schedule comments

"Always either very behind or very early"

Staff communication

"Good"
"Very little"
"Usually just announced overhead so easy to miss."

Judging

Judges' attentiveness

Feedback turnaround

Type of Feedback

Feedback helpfulness

Not Helpful At All



Extremely Helpful

Main takeaway

"Inconsistent feedback for girls 3 judges score girl 94 or 95 and one gave an 87 on classical with no feedback as to why that score was so low. Very inconsistent. Good comments and feedback for contemporary with specific corrections to enhance the piece."
"Rarely have comments and if they do it’s the same thing for several other kids we know. No constructive comments."
"Some judges gave the same scripted feedback to every dancer. One of the competition founders who was judging referred to a dance on one of her score sheet she hadn’t even performed yet (which shows they go back in afterwards to make adjustments). A few gave actual personal feedback."

Scoring felt fair

Why Scoring Unfair?

"One judge was very opinionated about tutus"
"Same category has different sets of judges. Some judges are know. To score very high and others very low regardless of how the dancer did"
"The score varied wildly. It seems the judges may not have a rubric or much training."

Awards & Scholarships

Awards ceremony

"Very celebratory and fun for kids. A little overly interested and invested in some dancers who were clearly favored by Larissa."
"Mean girls making rude comments"
"The awards ceremony is fine- we rarely attend, the same group of dancers win pretty much every year (this is our 6th year doing yagp). Kids come in from Canada and win as well as multiple winners from other regionals who score slightly higher. The same Russian school wins yagp school of the year every year."

Won an award or training offer

Award or Training Offer Description

"Top 24 and scholarship for summer intensive and short stay at a ballet company."
"Top 12. Small discount on several ballet schools"

Final Comments

Best aspect

"Opportunity to prepare and perform."
"Stage opportunities"
"I am also a studio director/owner as well as parent of a 16 yo dancer. The master classes, performance experience and camaraderie of our students is a good aspect of the competition."

Worst aspect

"Favortism towards certain schools that attend upwards of 4 regionals. A certain dancer just has to show up and he will win Grand Prix."
"Blatant cheating. Favoritism. Several students caught cheating, lying about their age and organization does nothing even though they are aware."
"Dances are allowed to compete in multiple regionals even if they’ve already placed and have been selected for finals. Dancers and studios also come in from other countries. It is obvious that the competition directors are close friends with several of the schools and their directors and their dancers consistently go to finals. It is also concerning that partner schools bring dancers to compete."

Competition culture

"Mostly positive. Maria is the absolute best greeter and makes all the kids feel special and loved."
"Toxic"
"The competition is well organized and the kids are nice to each other."

Attendee culture

"Friendly competition."
"So many mean girls, tearing down others"
"As teachers we keep it friendly and encouraging backstage."

Suggested changes

"Incorporate class into the score to make it more holistic. Stop making 9 and 10 year olds social media stars so early on. Certain dancers are constantly featured. What will happen to their mental health when they hit a growth spurt, burn out, or just don’t end up being the star they were expected to be at 9?!?!"
"Fairness"
"Figure out a way to offer scholarships and opportunities for dancers who are ready to move into the prepro or pro levels and not just reward the dancers who are already at that level and already training in the best programs nationally or internationally."

Cost vs. expectation

Significantly More


Significantly Less

Time worth it

Not Worth It



Worth Every Minute

Overall rating

Anything else?

"It is very expensive and only a few favored soloists will get invited to finals. It is aThey are usually pre determined, so if your dancer doesn’t place, this isn’t a failure!"
"Not worth the money, time or stress"
"We do not expect to win and only go for the experience so for our dancers it is a good option, but it is obvious that only specific dancers and schools will go to finals."