Complimenting Other Studios

From My Inbox:

I  have followed “Your Daily Dance” for a while now and I notice with the videos you post, you feature a lot of different studios across the country.  In our area, dance is very competitive and it would be rare for someone from our studio to promote or compliment another studio.  I think the videos you post are great, but I have wondered if it is me that is not the norm or you.  

– S

This question both caught me off guard and made me laugh.  Am I the norm – I don’t know.  A little background – as for the videos I post, “Your Daily Dance” actually began as a Facebook page with the purpose of sharing dances my dancer and I found interesting, good, moving etc. with other dance fans.  The page began after a conversation with my dancer about how much incredible dance talent there was across the country – not just at the competitions we attend.

For me, I don’t ever view complimenting another studio, dancers, dance, choreography etc. as a compliment to them; therefore, a diss to my own dancer or studio – that would be a foreign concept to me.  🙂  I think the moment you begin thinking that your dancer, studio, city, state, region etc. are the be all end all of the dance world, you have naively narrowed your focus tremendously.  As someone who grew up dancing and worked at a dinner theater in high school, I love the arts.  I love being entertained and if that entertainment comes from my own studio or the studio down the street, I celebrate it.

View image | gettyimages.com

 

Sure, when we attend competitions, I am rooting for my dancer’s studio and dancers, but I don’t find complimenting the other talent attending the competition difficult at all.  For instance, my dancer’s studio took a few solos to a competition last weekend and another somewhat local studio was in attendance who is known for putting out some very talented dancers.  When I was told they would be attending, the first comment out of my mouth, was “Oh good, can’t wait to see their dancers”.  I meant that – I enjoy watching them, my dancer is challenged by them and that’s a good thing.  This coming weekend, we will be attending a competition that a studio that I have grown to love watching over the years sometimes attends.  As we were getting our stuff together for the coming weekend, my dancer and I were both chatting about how we hope they are attending.  Yes, sometimes they place above us, sometimes we place above them, but I always walk away from a weekend competing with them talking about a few of their dances.  They are so entertaining and churn out some high energy tap that I adore.  As a bonus, my dancer enjoys chatting with their dancers throughout the weekend and comments on how sweet they are backstage.

So while I am not sure if we are the norm or not, I certainly hope that we are the norm.  In my opinion, if you have a genuine love of dance and an appreciation for the work that goes into creating a piece from the effort and training of the dancers, to the choreography, costuming etc. then you are better able to appreciate and respect others talents.  Even though, we are “competing” at dance competitions, the moment “beating” and outshining other studios becomes more of a focus than “appreciating” the arts and the other talent, well then, we have officially lost.

Thank you so much for your email – it provided great “food for thought”.  For my other readers, how do you view complimenting the “competition”.