"Dancer was lucky to be used as an example. Otherwise mostly general corrections were given to the group"
"Corrections were given to some individual dancers, not all. Often corrections would take place to one side while large groups still dancing were ignored"
What corrections were about
"Mostly encouraging and neutral"
"Yes, coded words were used, some comments of surprise about the jumping ability of some dancers implying they looked too heavy to be able to"
Correction tone
Positive
Neutral
Teacher engagement
"They were pretty engaging, walking around with positive, high energy"
"Master classes were very big and fast pace. Call back class was well organised but master classes allowed dancers to push in front to be seen and were crowded and dificult to dance in"
Crowding
Really Crowded
1
2
Plenty of Room to Move
Master Class Feedback
Technique
A
C
Contemporary
A
D
Additional master class comments
"Was pretty tough but detailed"
"obvious favoritism, filming of some dancers was offputting to both my dancer being filmed and others around"
Performance Details
Venue name
"Concourse Theatre"
"Concourse Chatswood"
Venue description
"Lots of seating, dressing room space but relatively small stage"
"Full theatre with lobby. Some studios on site"
Stage description
"Was Marley, good surface that was not slippery."
"Marley floor, large enough and well laid"
Off-stage warm-up space
"There was sufficient space to warm up backstage, hallway or even dressing room"
"Concrete green room with no suitable flooring. Warm up room too far away from the stage to be helpful"
Dressing rooms
"There were 2 dressing rooms for boys and 4 for the girls. Both large and small. Anyone could pick a room, not allocated"
"Small and crowded, mixed groups and quite a lot of teachers coaching"
Onstage warm-up
"CROWDED!!!"
"Crowded, abrupt and very limited information. Names yelled across the stage"
Other schedule comments
"Unexpected running ahead of schedule which made me and other dancers feel more stressed"
"Information only updated via instagram which is very unhelpful, Given the number of posts they were sharing it was difficult to find and if you missed it you'd have to watch dozens of posts to see it again. Often inaccurate"
Staff communication
"If I didn't have my teacher with me, I would never have known as I don't have Instagram to see updates"
"Gruff and very limited. Staff are quite rude and assume everyone should "know how yagp works""
Judging
Judging rubric clarity
Unsure
No
Judges' attentiveness
None of the judges seemed to pay attention during the performance
Some of the judges watched and some seemed distracted
Feedback turnaround
At the end of the competition
More than a week after the competition
Type of Feedback
Numerical scores
Brief written feedback
Feedback helpfulness
Not Helpful At All
1
2
Extremely Helpful
Main takeaway
"It seemed as though the judges were not fully engaged as I am 12yrs old and danced on pointe performing Harlequinade and the general feedback was that why am I not on my shoe properly and I need to work on my turns, eventhough I completed all turns cleanly and even did a triple.
The scoring was consistent amongst 3 judges with low - mid 90's but one judge had a completely different score of more than a 10 point difference which lowered my overall score. This was the same for all students from my school. It seemed odd as the lowest scoring judge (low - mid 80's) had positive feedback which did not match the score given."
"That the scores were either meaningless or changed as they were all exactly the same across all judges and dances performed, even though the comments suggested a better perfomance in one dance vs another"
Why Scoring Unfair?
"We noticed that students from Claudia Dean Academy placed very well and 2 days after the competition one of the judges (Robert Parker) was teaching at her Academy. This seems like a conflict of interest. Also it was noted that the judges were on their phone and seemed disinterested. How do they mark, when they are not watching all dancers. It seemed biased towards certain schools. I would be interested in knowing how they judge dancers en pointe vs flat shoes in the same category. Also a dancer with clearly strong technique vs a dancer who is weak, falls out turns and doesn't point feet receives scholarships and higher scores than the stronger dancer who did execute technically well. It seemed like they only looked at dancers who were, skinny, had long legs and arched feet. It didn't matter how they danced, as long as they had the above characteristics or went to a ballet school with a large bank account or instagram following, that's mattered. Dancers were not rewarded for their dancing."
"The final round group selection took several hours to come out after the call-back class, and did not reflect first round performances at all. There was an initial selection shared that was subsequently deleted and replaced, changing some of dancers,
The final awards results were announced on stage, and then changed after the event. We were told this was due to judges complaining that "winning" participants were not who the judges had selected, but YAGP just called it a mix up rather than explaining why they had clearly changed the results. The whole thing seemed unethical and left a bad taste"
Awards & Scholarships
Awards ceremony
"Way too long..."
"It was quite clear that awards were going to larger school groups (those that had brought many students) and top placings were a line up of the skinniest kids rather than who danced well. It seemed very political and performative"
Won an award or training offer
No
Yes
Award or Training Offer Description
"Alberta short term and summer scholarship.
US John Cranko Summer scholarship"
Final Comments
Best aspect
"Being on stage and the master classes."
"Getting to perform with friends from other countries"
Worst aspect
"It felt rigged... and the overall feedback was not very useful or helpful"
"Awards are sometimes prearranged between yagp, schools and certain students. Students that had been accepted to schools outside of the competition were being "awarded" the same things at the awards ceremony, Including my daughter who has recieved a total of 5 scholarships to a school she had already declined. I suspect a great number of yagp awards are just for show"
Competition culture
"Staff were alot more friendly compared to last year and made us feel comfortable and welcome. There was an intense feeling of pressure in the air"
"The competition culture of bias, lack of information and care. Crowded classes and meat marketness of the awards ceremony"
Attendee culture
"Very competitive but some supportive"
"Very competitive between school groups and students. Not friendly"
Suggested changes
"To just be fair and judge without bias towards schools or body types. Judge the performance right there and then..."
"To actually do what they say they do.. it's either a fairly run competition or it's not"
Cost vs. expectation
Significantly More
1
2
Significantly Less
Time worth it
Not Worth It
1
2
Worth Every Minute
Overall rating
C
D
Anything else?
"Its fantastic for stage practice, opportunities for scholarships but it does have a very "political" feel to it. I would still attend this competition but knowing that no matter the hard work I put in, I will never be acknowledged for it as I don't have the arched feet and hypertened legs, so I will do it for the stage practice and to learn how to deal with nerves. To be honest I had a lot of feedback from external people mentioning I was cheated and I worked for more than 50hrs preparing my variations and genuinely danced well, but it seemed like no one watched or respected the hours of hard work I put in with my teacher and by myself."
"Your time and money is better spent in good training"
