Competition dance life means weekend venues, per-routine fees and judges' score sheets, not only the showdowns that Dance Moms put on television. At the Tremaine convention tour, a solo entry runs $185 per dancer, a duo or trio $90, and group routines $70 per dancer, per the tour's published fees.
The Lifetime series, which premiered on July 13, 2011, and followed a Pittsburgh studio's junior team around the circuit, made the format famous. The week-to-week version is quieter: studios register routines, families pay the bills, and three judges score each number against a published sheet.
What Did Dance Moms Actually Show?
The series followed the Abby Lee Dance Company's Junior Elite Competition Team, dancers ages six to thirteen, as they traveled week after week to competitions, collected awards and prepared for nationals, per the show's Wikipedia entry. Routines ranged from solos and duets to trios and group numbers, with choreography from the studio's staff and guest choreographers.
Created by Collins Avenue Productions, the show filmed first in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later in Los Angeles, California. Rival studios such as the Candy Apple Dance Center fed the storylines, and the mothers played their parts too, cast as rivals on behalf of their daughters who sometimes closed ranks against other teams. The drama made the ratings; the underlying circuit, with its entry fees and score sheets, was already decades deep. For related coverage, see Adult Dance Classes: How to Start Late and Actually Stick With It.
How Do Dance Competitions Score a Routine?
Turn It Up Dance Competition, a touring event, publishes its sheet: three judges, 100 points each, 300 available per routine. Technique, performance and choreography carry 30 points apiece, and overall look, meaning costuming, hair and make-up, carries the last 10, per its scoring page.
Routines are judged within their level rather than against every act in the room, per the same page, and high score awards are named in each ability level, with the top five solos recognized. Judges also hand out choice awards at their own discretion. Each entry receives audio critiques as well, which reach the studio director within two weeks of the event. This connects to our earlier piece, Who Runs the Room? The Rehearsal Director's Job.
What Does a Season of Competition Dance Cost?
At Tremaine, a solo costs $185 per dancer, duos and trios $90 per dancer, and groups, lines and productions $70 per dancer, with one solo allowed per dancer per city, per the tour's pricing page. The same summer workshop lists junior, teen and senior students at $340 to $355 depending on the rate deadline.
Events also carry their own small print. Turn It Up charges fees per dancer, not per routine, so every dancer pays for each group number on the schedule, and studios add an administrative fee on top, per its published rules. Routines that run long lose 10 points, and extra time costs $2 per dancer per minute.
How Does a Dancer Move Up the Levels?
Competitions sort dancers by training years as well as by age. Turn It Up defines beginners as dancers with two or fewer years of training, intermediates at three to five, and advanced dancers above that, and it asks instructors to place their students honestly rather than chase an easy bracket. Age divisions follow the average age of everyone in the routine, so a mixed group competes where its middle sits.
The convention circuit adds classes and auditions to the weekend. At Tremaine, one-day registrations cannot enter the competition at all, and they cannot audition for scholarships either, which keeps the competitive track tied to the full workshop. The weekend, in other words, is the product.
Conclusion: The Show Got the Drama, Not the Score Sheet
Dance Moms compressed the circuit into weekly television drama, and the circuit it rode is real and still running. A family's bill arrives line by line, from entry fees per dancer to workshop seats, while judges grade technique, performance and choreography on published sheets and return audio notes to the studio. That is the life behind the curtain: long weekends, itemized costs and paperwork that tells a dancer exactly where the work stands.
