Eurofurence Community > General Discussion

Enter the Arena - Time for change?

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Spark Wolf:

--- Quote from: Faolan on 14.04.2016, 16:13:29 ---In order to relieve some of the responsibility of our beloved judges, we would like to suggest to relieve 2 of them of their duties, and have them replaced by last year's 1st and 2nd-place, or one of the other dancers should either of those two be unavailable for any reason.

We think it is important for the dancers to understand what it's like to be a part of the jury panel, and to actually judge someone's performance. This will create a whole new level of understanding, which will hopefully result in less negative feelings and remarks. A change of face may be very refreshing for the audience as well, and if the dancers put on a great act as judges as well, we'll definitely have a great show.
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Dancers (or people having experience in dance) in the judges panel is always a pro in my book. Knowing different styles and techniques so they can give proper feedback towards contestants.
Also each judge can have a different focus point which they will give feedback to. Dancers rely on this feedback to motivate themselves to work on their technical points so they can give you an even more amazing show the next time!  ;D



--- Quote from: Faolan on 14.04.2016, 16:13:29 ---If we follow the number of dancers in the past 3 years, we can easily see that our happy little group of dancers is quickly growing bigger and bigger. Aside from this being awesome, of course, this could cause problems for Enter the Arena the way it is now. We were pretty much at our max last year, and if more join this year, the chances of preliminaries being held, is pretty much unavoidable. However, this would ensure that the average level of the dancers would go up, and it may provide time for the next item.
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Eurofurence is a long convention considering any other convention in the world. It would be nice to have these preliminary rounds set into place as demand to enter the dance competitions are getting higher and higher. I am a little 50/50 about the preliminary videos we have to send in now:
Yes, it shows you have skills in dancing... but it doesn't show your full potential as you have been practicing along the way in between the videos and the Enter the Arena event.
This is why I think freestyle preliminary rounds OR choreographed preliminary rounds where you have to either showcase your improvisation/freestyle skills or show your routine for the event so that a choice can be made which ones can make it to the finals. This way we also invite even more people to practice and do their utmost best to get into the finals <3



--- Quote from: Faolan on 14.04.2016, 16:13:29 ---An all-time audience favourite! EF19 was the last time battles were held; we had twelve dancers back then. However, due to the large increase in dancers that joined EF20 and 21, there was not enough time to do battles anymore. If we have prelimaries to such an extend that we'd bring the amount of dancers back to around 12, battles would be a possibility again. However, this is probably a bit too extensive.
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Since I pretty much have been in every Enter the Arena dance competition since EF 17 the suggestion of returning the battles is surely a fun one. It pits contestants 1v1 which I saw first hand results in a rush of adrenaline and excitement between the two. It was a nice touch to it but as the time slot is too short we have to choose between the normal competition and battles. What we can do is a separate event for this much like the Floor Wars events at US cons. Gotta say these are hella RAD!!! <3 Fun, adrenaline and companionship! The other thing is that you can also make a non-suit category which allows people without a suit with a passion for dancing to join up also. It's as big of a show as the dance competitions are so I surely advise to get something done with this.



--- Quote from: CleanerWolf on 15.04.2016, 22:09:11 ---With nearly everybody having a smartphone nowadays would it be possible to setup a small website with a voting system, so that the audience could vote for their favorite dancer? This doesn't have to replace the judges completely, but it could be taken into account for the end result.

Personally I think that voting is not so important anyways, the dance competition should be about fun in the first place, from what I've seen in the previous years, all dancers performed great, it's always exciting to see how much passion they put into it and that is what should be kept.
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Good point about the having fun part but without voting there is just no "competition" in the words "dance competition". It may seem like a thing to see who just did better in this competition but as I stated in a reply to Faolan it will help the contestants to give them a certain feedback. If it's only a voting system you have your lovely fanboys/fangirls in the audience or maybe checking out the stream that will obliterate the meaning of any feedback given by a judging panel. If there is like such a voting system for the audience they should just count for about 20% or less in the final scoring to keep things clean.

The passion you speak of here has come from love, care and practice for the state of the art we call "dance" <3 We always want to improve our skills to give the audience an amazing show to watch so feedback is vital for us!  :D



--- Quote from: nihil on 16.04.2016, 22:43:32 ---Something that would make Enter the Arena better in a way (to me) is to give information way beforehand. Information about the rules and how it all works. I want to join but there is no information online at this point.
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To make it easier for the European dancerfur community I thought about setting up a website so organizers/hosts from the dance events at European conventions such as EF, CFz, NFC, Gdakon, etc etc. can provide you with details for their dance competitions/events and even creating a hub for a possible registration system :)
Of course this can also become a little gallery so that people can get a great impression of the events being held and show pics/vids from previous competitions.



--- Quote from: Shay (Wolly) on 18.04.2016, 19:14:22 ---I agree that it is very hard to find information online about the Dance Comp, the people that run it have busy lives and usually when the post goes live, the chance to ask questions comes with it. That said, I do see that it isn't the best way to deal with it, so I will see if I can write something about the competition and have it stickied somewhere appropriate in the forum.

To help out with the hosting and announcing of dancers or performers, I also would like to suggest a change in questions asked.
That might help too with preparing us and yourself.
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We are here to help out if necessary! With all the ideas and suggestions given already on this topic it shows we all want the best for these events <3
And of course we do appreciate all the organizers and hosts for the great years they have done their best to make these events just plain awesome! =D
Thank you for all the hard work <3 


With this all being said I am looking forward to what is in store for us next time... Lets all keep enjoying dancing! <3

Tygs:
Happy to admit I have attended the last EFs but in terms of feedback based on the comps I have been in...

Judges
At least some judges who know where they're looking at is a must. We have had some dancers previously show amazing technical skills who scored shit because the judges didn't know what the dancers were doing.

Judging by the audience has got to be a no. As above reasons, fans for the suit/maker would ruin it and turn it into a popularity contest rather than a dance competition. It also counteracts any expert judging you've then brought to the panel.

Competition style
I recognise that "battles" are fun for some but not all. Floor wars and battles should be separate from the comp in my opinion as otherwise you'll alienate those who don't like battles. Personally I'm really not a fan :page

Hosts
It's one thing having the hosts make comments, it's another thing entirely having a host who touches up contestants when they clearly say no to the request, so there needs to be ground rules.

The set of awkward questions for an introduction aren't needed, nor is making stuff about people who don't answer the questions. If time is an issue just say who they are and where they're from.

Tygs:
Also, novice and pro categories are a must if we're going to encourage new dancers.

FreesTyler:
Just throwing in some more thoughts.

For preliminaries, as of now might be a bit of a longshot? Its a lot of extra work when you have to do all the sorting of music and who is actually in the competition while at the con where people are busy. I guess this works out in the US cons because they have their own DJs and stuff and those that deal with the dance comps, only work on those things, while its different at EF. If we need to remove more of the known dancers from the competition to judge the prelims, we might also loose viewers for the show because everyone people are expecting to see again is gone (though if any EtA viewers would comment on theirs thoughts that would help). Right now I think maybe prelims shouldn't be the main focus, but maybe we should just try to make small changes at a time to not overwhelm anyone.

Maybe right now we should just work on what we have, so just change a few things in the competition itself. An update in the judging system, put new faces in with the judges, make sure the information about the event is easy to find for anyone interested, and maybe also just keep the introductions simple. Last year I had used time on filling out the questions, but non of that was mentioned so it kind of was a wasted effort.

If any new dancers who are not sure if they want to enter the dance comp, I hope some of you would comment on this thread and tell us what is holding you back. If its the beforehand prelims (sending in a video over mail), because we don't have a novice/ pro category? Hopefully some insight on that could also help upgrade the event to be more friendly to everyone!

I haven't entered any other dance competition anywhere, so I cant compare much, but I know I really enjoy the friendliness of EtA. The competitors are very supportive of each other, and I feel like even though it is a competition, its much more about the fun of it. That is however my opinion, and if other dancers have a different view then they do. I enter this competition to entertain people and because I enjoy dancing. I feel like we don't need to make the event more "competitive" and that the most important thing is that everyone has fun, and that it is a fun that anyone can join in on. Changing up the event could make it seem fresh, having dancers as judges can make it more interesting for the audience, more helpful for the dancers, and can be opening up new doors for fun things like a judge showcase.

Hopefully that was understandable, I'm horrible at explaining. 

silverfoxwolf:
A couple of notes I'd offer, generally groups tend to score higher as several people doing a coordinated routine tends to look better than an individual. It's just the way people are liking matching things. Separating groups from individual dancers tends to lead to a more balanced competition.

Secondly, I've taken part in dance contests before. When I have done it's for me to have fun, not to demonstrate specific ballroom moves or aspects of any dance. I have done it for fun and for a bit of entertainment.

The biggest problem would remain, you can't please everyone. Some will want a big dance off, others will want to show how many flips and jumps they can fit in a song.

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