Organiser guide
How to run a street dance competition
A practical sequence for UK organisers, from the first category decision to the final payout. Use it as a planning checklist, whether you run the event with MyDanceComp or another system.
1. Decide the event structure
Everything downstream depends on the structure, so decide it before anything opens. Pick your entry types: solos, duos, small groups and crews are the street dance standard, and crews belong to schools while the dancers in them still enter solos and duos. Set age bands, usually Under 8, Under 12, Under 16 and over 16, and publish the age rule you will use, normally age on the day. Decide levels if you run them, and what moves a dancer up. Finally choose your fee model: a fee per dancer per show, or per category entry. Resist adding categories; every one is a block in the running order and a set of trophies, and a tight structure runs on time.
Read the categories guide2. Build categories and pricing
Price to cover fixed costs first: venue, judges, sound, trophies and insurance come out before any profit. Around £20 per dancer and £20 per spectator ticket are common planning figures, with roughly one spectator per dancer. Family bundles and multi-buy deals fill seats early. Set minimum entries per category, heat size, final size and any early-bird or late-entry rules before you promote the event, because changing them after entries open creates refund and fairness problems. MyDanceComp checks every entry against your structure automatically, so schools cannot book combinations you do not offer.
Read the pricing guide3. Open entries and tickets together
Give dance schools a roster-based portal so they enter thirty dancers from a saved list, build one basket and pay once. Decide whether independent dancers can enter directly, and collect guardian details for under-18s. Collect music and payment with each entry, not afterwards by email. Open spectator tickets when entries open, not the week before; spectators are where the margin lives. Expect entries to arrive late and plan reminder points: when entries close and when the running order publishes are the two moments schools act.
Read the ticket sales guide4. Plan rounds and the running order
Once entries close, plan the rounds from the real numbers, not last year's. Recall competitions cut a big field through heats: judges mark the numbers they want to see again and a majority advances. Set quotas from your rule pack's model, keep heats within the room's floor capacity, and check dancer clashes and change time before publishing. Build the timetable generously: performance, marks and the walk on and off all take longer than you think, and breaks belong after big crew categories. Publish the running order early so schools stop asking, and keep it live on the day.
Read the timetabling guide5. Prepare the event team
A smooth comp is a team sport. You need a desk for check-in and payments, a door for scanning, a stage manager who controls what is on now, an MC, a coordinator moving dancers to the holding area, a scrutineer checking tallies and skating working, and judges who only judge. Brief everyone before doors: the categories, the judging style per round, attendance handling, skipped categories and what happens if the wifi drops. Give each role its own screen and PIN so helpers see exactly their job. Ten minutes of briefing saves an hour of confusion at 4pm.
Read the team roles guide6. Run judging and the day
On the day, keep one version of the truth: the stage screen drives what judges, the MC and the big screen show. Record no-shows properly so missing dancers never reach the judges, and let the stage manager skip a category and come back to it rather than holding the whole venue. Keep the coordinator's holding calls visible so heats form on time. Handle incidents, a music failure, an injury, a teacher query, by logging them with a decision, not by memory. And keep the paper pack printed: you will probably never need it, and the day you do it is the best decision you made.
Read the recall guide7. Publish and settle
Results are the moment your event is judged on, so handle them with process. Check missing marks and ties, use a protest window so results are provisional before they are final, and publish the working where you can; a skating grid ends most arguments before they start. Answer every query with the record. Then issue certificates, reconcile the money on the day rather than a month later, confirm cash and payouts, and send the thank-you email and survey. Finally, clone the event while everything is fresh; next year's version of you will be grateful.
Read the results guide