Glossary
Dance competition terms, in plain English
From recalls to the skating system, every term you will meet running a street dance competition.
- Age band
- The age grouping a category is open to, such as Under 12 or 16 and over. MyDanceComp checks entries against the band so dancers land in the right category.
- Age rule
- The rule that decides which age band a dancer falls into, usually their age on a set date.
- Battle
- A head-to-head format where dancers face off round by round, decided by judges, until one winner remains.
- Block
- A chunk of the running order: a heat, a round, an awards section or a break. Blocks can be moved, paused, skipped and revisited.
- Booking fee
- The £1 fee a spectator pays per ticket when booking online. It is paid by the spectator on top of the ticket price.
- Bracket
- The knockout structure of a battle: who faces whom, and who the winner meets next.
- Category
- A division of the competition with its own entries, judging and results, such as Under 16 Solo or Open Crew.
- Chaperone
- A licensed adult responsible for child performers at an event. Local authorities set how many children each chaperone can cover.
- Check-in desk
- Where dancers arrive, confirm they are present, pay anything outstanding and collect their number packs.
- Contest coordinator
- The person who moves dancers through the venue: calling categories to the holding area, confirming crew rosters and handling substitutions.
- Crew
- A group routine entered by a dance school. The dancers in a crew can also enter solos and duos; a crew is never a solo entry.
- Criteria scores
- A judging style where each judge scores set criteria, such as technique and musicality, and the totals decide placings.
- Dancer number
- The number a dancer wears and is judged by. MyDanceComp allocates numbers automatically and can run a random draw.
- DF / DNF
- Did not finish. An entry that started but did not complete its performance, recorded properly in the results.
- DQ
- Disqualified. An entry removed from contention under the event's rules, recorded and shown as such.
- Entry
- One routine in one category: a solo, duo, small group or crew, with its fee, payment status and music.
- Entry type
- The format of an entry: solo, duo, small group or crew.
- Event pass
- The one-off payment that takes an event live: £99 with MyDanceComp payments or £249 standalone. Not a subscription.
- Event team
- The named roles that run the day: desk, door, stage, MC, coordinator, scorer and judges, each with their own PIN and screen.
- Feedback tags
- A judging style where judges tap preset comments, such as 'great musicality', which schools receive with results.
- Final
- The last round of a category, deciding the placings. Often judged by ranking and worked with the skating system.
- Final size
- How many dancers a final holds, commonly seven for solos and five for duos, adjustable per category.
- Floor capacity
- How many dancers can safely perform at once. It drives how many heats a category needs.
- Heat
- An early round where a large category is split into groups, with a set number going through from each.
- Helpers
- Day volunteers given PIN access to a single screen, such as the door or the check-in desk.
- Holding area
- Where dancers wait just before going on. The big screen shows who is needed there, by number only.
- Independent entry
- An entry made directly by a dancer or their guardian rather than through a dance school, with guardian details for under-18s.
- Judge PIN
- The short code a judge enters to open their judging screen. No account, no password, no app.
- Level
- The experience tier of a category, such as beginner or open, keeping dancers against fair competition.
- Majority
- More than half the judges. With three judges a majority is two; with five it is three. Recalls and skating both work from majorities.
- MC screen
- The announcer's screen: what is on, what is next, recalls to announce and results to read.
- Music failure
- A track that will not play or stops mid-routine. Logged as an incident with the decision taken, such as a restart.
- Number pack
- The printed set of dancer numbers and event information handed out at check-in.
- Ordinal
- A judge's rank for a finalist: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on. The skating system works from ordinals.
- Prelim
- A preliminary round, often used to cut a large field before the main bracket in battles.
- Protest window
- A set period after results are worked during which queries can be raised before results go public.
- Quarter-final
- The round between heats and semi-finals in a large category.
- Re-dance
- A tie-break where tied dancers perform again so judges can separate them.
- Recall
- The judging style for early rounds: judges mark the dancer numbers they want to see again, and a majority means a dancer advances.
- Running order
- The live plan of the day: every block in order, updated as things change and shown on every screen.
- Scrutineer
- The person responsible for checking the judging maths: tallies, ties and the skating working, before results publish.
- Semi-final
- The round before the final, cutting the field to the final size.
- Skating system
- The standard method for turning judges' rankings into final placings, using majorities at each ordinal with published tiebreaks.
- Spectator ticket
- An admission pass with its own QR code, scanned once at the door.
- Start order
- The order dancers perform within a round. Some events reverse it between rounds so nobody always opens.
- Tally
- The count of judges' marks per dancer in a recall, compared against the majority to decide who advances.
- Tiebreak
- The published rule that separates dancers level on marks or majorities, such as majority count or sum of ordinals.
- Wrap-up
- The closing checklist after the day: results published, money reconciled, payout sent, feedback gathered.
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