Vive Tu Sueño National Competition – Madrid

Day 1

 

I’m in beautiful Madrid, Spain preparing to judge the Vive tu Sueño national compeitition  open division! The theater doesn’t have an empty seat, parents are cheering and have their camera phones out and I am excited to begin the three hours of judging. The first piece that comes on to stage are a group of four, four year olds dressed in flower costumes, I can’t help but smile; this is going to be a great show! The competition was filled with prima ballerinas, contortionists, break dancers, flamenco, ballroom, Russian and even tribal fusion dancers. This eclectic mix kept the competition exciting and united the dance communities love for music, movement and art. Judging so many beautiful, passionate dancers was such an honor and I thank all of the participants for their performances.

 

Day 2 of Vive tu Sueño National competition HipHop!

 

As the groups line up and the parents file in I can smell competition in the air. Many groups have competed against each other in the past and for others this was their first national competition. All had a common goal to qualify for France, receive a certificate get a trophee and/or PERFORM! Some groups did all three. As a judge we are looking for creativity, musicality, costumes, difficulty and all around showmanship. At some moments I would think “This group is the best” then another group would blow the previous group out of the water. One thing I could not deny were the groups that took me to another place, made me feel I was dancing with them and showed me something I’ve never seen before. We judged the competition for four hours and the dances that stood out the most had the words “CREATIVELY DIFFERENT” written all over them.

 

Many teams can easily be influenced by what they’ve seen on youtube, television or on the stage years prior and this is a red flag for us as judges.

 

We handed out the awards to a very enthusiastic crowd of dance lovers! Many people cried of joy and achievement from all of the hard work they did. The winners received a Trophee, placard, certificate and/or a qualification for the International Championship in France!

 

All and all I had an amazing time and I am excited to be apart of the next “Vive tu Sueño” competition in Benahavis July 2. Thank you to the organizers of the event Soraya and Vicente for getting me involved and to my fellow judges the amazing and always smiling Juani, the sweet Carlos, the helpful English speaking Gsus Villaú and the quiet thinker Javi.