COMPETITION DETAIL

Great teachers and classes, poor competition rules. My dancer absolutely loves the classes at Velocity. There is no rule on dancing down more than one age bracket, so some studios play the game where they put enough minis in a group with older kids to bring the age down to junior, put them on stage for a couple 8 counts, and then the teens and seniors do the rest of the dance and beat groups that are actually made up of a majority of juniors.

Judges only seemed to like contemporary...there is more to dance than hitting pose after pose with extensions done every which way twenty times in the routine. Convention classes were good.

Read the rest of the comments, it's sad but true - Velocity employs Shannon Mather as a convention teacher and judge. She has her own studio and choreographs for other studios as well. Shannon then brings her studio and those dancers to Velocity competitions. Guess what? They win! Velocity judges are NOT unbiased. Also, judge's comments/recordings are horrible... not one critique or helpful comment. Judges seem to be just chatting together and not really watching. Maybe they closely watch kids from their studios and MVAs, I do not know. Oh an awards - CHEAP... they are little metal dog tags that you get from a gumball machine! Not sure where the money goes that parents spend to have their kids attend this joke of a competition/convention. During conventions they only call out MVA's - they know certain kids by name and those kids get all the attention and spotlight. At the competition/convention we went to, they also put TEENS and Seniors together in the same room, like they seem to do frequently, from what I read. The young teens get lost in the mix and it's crowded - no room to move! IT'S A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY... spend it at another competition/convention. Velocity really does not care about their dancers or their parents as they have yet to respond to any comments left here. Velocity is just too big for their britches and very BIASED! Please be forewarned.

Our dancer attended the MVA Season Finale and had a wonderful time. :) It was an amazing experience and they have great opportunities for parents as well. Reading through the comments, I tend to agree with the ones that say the judging did not seem correct. Judges are connected to studios and those studios and students do seem to score well and place always... there does seem to be some favoritism. But it's a great experience and a lot of fun!

Our studio attended the Velocity Convention in Detroit this past weekend (2/22-24). The venue is beautiful and great for a dance convention except for this weekend it was the same weekend as the gun/knife show. Why this wasn't considered when booking I don't know. Grown men walking thru the dancers with multiple rifles w/o bags on them, handguns in plastic bags, and who knows what else is totally unacceptable. This is totally unacceptable and when they announced the booked the same weekend next year I decided we would either consider another city or not book at all. Second complaint - judges should not be allowed to judge their own choreography. It's great that the amazing staff at Velocity creates amazing routines for studios but they shouldn't be allowed to judge it. This can be a great convention - and in the past I would have gave it a glowing review but some better planning & common sense would be appreciated in the future.

Our studio went to Velocity for the first time this year and won't be returning. The critiques were terrible! Instead of getting individual comments from each judge, you get a "conversation" of the panel, casually talking about the dances - on a single recording! You can clearly tell how they agree with each other just for the sake of supporting each other. Plus, the audio was barely audible. It was full of static. The judges sit in the very back of the room, which I have never seen before. I think it might be because of all the conversation they are engaging in. The judging was clearly very biased as well. Unless you pay Shannon Mather or another judge to come choreograph for your studio (and kill it of course), they won't give you above third place. In the Houston competition (2018), Shannon's teen group pieces for two different studios were awarded first place and she was a judge when teens were competing! It just seems very, very rigged. Do NOT go to this competition if you want fair and impartial judging - unless you go somewhere where Shannon isn't choreographing - or if you want individual critiques from the judges.

I have been taking my studio to Velocity since their first year. It is my students and parents favorite weekend. Even though the faculty has changed since the beginning, as most conventions do, I have loved every teacher they have had. All the teachers really have a passion for dance and most importantly educating the kids. Competition is always fun and the judges give great critiques. But what I love most is that this convention really focuses on the education of these dancers before anything. They also give our parents info on the education and different paths their kids can take. It is always a great weekend when your students and PARENTS go home happy :) Thank you Eve and Cory and the whole Velocity staff!!

I have taken my 11 year old daughter to Velocity the past two years in St. Louis. I love the environment they create for our children! They hold themselves to the highest standards and it shows in the product they produce. Competition is always judged fairly, they give out more scholarships than any other convention, and best of all they have classes and seminars for the PARENTS!!! I love showing my daughter that we can all grow/learn during our time at Velocity ?? I highly recommend this convention for everybody! Sidenote: I was backstage with my daughter when the child puked on stage. They did not use makeup remover wipes..... They used lysol and disinfectant wipes and had their on staff MEDIC make sure the child was ok. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE A REVIEW IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE FACTS. It makes these companies who work so hard look bad.

We love Velocity however last weekend in St. Louis a dancer puked on stage. The staff cleaned it up with paper towels, no gloves. The biggest issue, they then wiped the area with makeup wipes! No sanitizing or really cleaning. I felt aweful for the next dancer who had floor work! Many moms were upset an complained. The hotel should have been the ones to properly clean the stage. The staff was not concerned about the health and safety of the dancers.

We have always loved Velocity, but this year was not the best experience. Senior soloist, but did not have a judge who could provide any helpful feedback for tap. :( We love Mark! I wish that he was judging all the tap solos.

We didn't think it was fair that there weren't levels at this competition, just overalls per age division. They messed up on videotaping some of the routines so those parents didn't get opportunities for video or photos. Also disappointed at how long it takes them to post results. We competed five weeks ago and they still haven't updated their site with the results.

Velocity should let the dancers know that awards are based off the recommendation of the studio owner. Not always how well the dancer dances. There were some great dancers there that were completely over looked.

So disappointed... This was going to be our third year at Velocity. The kids were fired up. They always love the classes. This year, new rules on the website said that in order to compete a solo or d/t, your studio had to bring a group, no independent soloists and each studio could only bring 10 solos. Our studio registered per the rules. This left half of our soloists out but we followed the rules. We got our comp schedule this week. The new rules were broken by over 75% of the studios. I guess they didn\'t have enough competitors so they contacted a couple local mega studios and independents and allowed them to register solos and d/t with out groups, solos way over the limit and independents. They never contacted our studio to see if we wanted to add dances and we had already registered. The staff was pretty unapologetic about it. Money over integrity. What a shame. Our kids are really disappointed that we will not be going. But how can we pay to participate when the favoritism for megas is blatant before we even walk in the door?

I have been a big Velocity fan in the past... but this year was disappointing. The new MVA+ program has really changed the way the convention classes operate. The focus has shifted to the MVA kids, not the kids that are paying students for the convention. The teachers know them all by name, call them out repeatedly and have them demonstrate over and over. We get it... those kids are \"on track to be stars\" and the Velocity team obviously believes in their talent because they pay them to attend the conventions, but Velocity might want to remember that the paying attendees are there to learn and have some time with the teachers and have some time in the spotlight. My kid always looks forward to Velocity, but this year certainly took some of that excitement away. She enjoyed some of the classes, but too much contemporary.

Always amazing!

very good competition and convention! very trendy and stays up to date with relevant faculty. well organized competitions and great convention classes. i always leave feeling a great amount of growth! there was an issue with judges allowing personal friendships w/ studio owners influence scores but that was the only negative expeerience i\'ve ever had with them.

My daughter loved the convention!! It was a great convention, & well organized!!

Really well rounded convention! Did not seem to emphasize any one genre of dance. The teachers were very strong across the board. Really liked the venue! This convention also gives out a lot of scholarships and recognizes a lot of dancers! Yay!...Mark Goodman is awesome!

I LOVE VELOCITY! BY FAR FAVORITE CONVENTION EVERRR!! the teachers are great and so helpful. So thankful and humble. Very Fun dances taught! We loved Mark (tap teacher) as he was very understanding and knew not everyone is a amazing taper and tried to help everyone and focused on everyone. Kyle (hip pop)was super nice and had fun classes. Nappytabs ( hip pop) where AMAZING and sooo much fun. The girls that hated hip pop loved hip pop by nappytabs who where extremely positive and nice. Shannon (jazz/contemporary) nice and is very understanding. Shannon has kids herself and knows how long and stressful a compition weekend is so she understand and is very nice. Tessandra (jazz) is very sweet and teaches very well and has the BEST combos!! Ade (jazz funk) is one of everyones favorite teacher. He is AMAZING AND FUN. ADE ALL DAY EVERYDAY! The assistants (ashley, Whitney, Matt, Amy) where amazing to and where wonderful role models

by far my favorite convention ive been to. i liked last years combos better but these were good as well. they will seperate the teens and seniors depending on how many people sign up.

This was our first time at Velocity and it was a mixed bag. Overall the convention was good although it was much more hip-hop based than any other convention my daughter has attended. Audition combo was listed as Jazz Funk but really was hip hop, and so many of the dancers at our studio have minimal hip hop experience so auditions were pretty rough. Most teachers were fabulous, expecially the ballet instructor. One exception:tap instructor was horrible! Although he is an excellent dancer himself, he poked fun of many kids throughout the classes and although some rolled with the punches, others were mortified. He picked on the shy kids who were standing in the back and there really was no reason to do so. Competition was interesting. My daughter\'s division had a decent array of judges with ballet/contemporary/jazz background. Judging seemed fair but also tough. Overalls were hard to get into but the best dances won. The older division, however, had the tap teacher and a hip hop teacher as judges and the results were really disasterous. Dances that were technically flawless and artistically beautiful flopped while flashy, borderline obscene dances were awarded the highest honors. Choreography award was given to a teacher who was part of Velocity\'s core team of teachers, which seems like a major conflict of interest. On the plus side, video critiques were very detailed and helpful, and judges seemed to be paying attention to every detail. Their stage, lighting, and sound were so amazing, they rivaled Break the Floor. Photography was PHENOMENAL, best I have ever seen, though quite expensive. I wish I had bought all the photos at that comp now that I have seen what the photographers at other comps do. Overall run very professionally. I think we will be back.

My daughter had the BEST time!! It\'s the second year in a row they have hit it out of the park!! The staff was high energy and had some fun combos for the kids! Loved that the auditions were sassy and highlighted true dance and performance abilities! One slight disappointment: The convention teachers brought students from their own studios and put them in the \"The Show\" instead of paying convention attendees. If they are their students all year long, they see them dance all the time, please offer Show slots to people you are getting to know because they have paid to come dance with you. Thanks!

Classes no good and the staff was rude. English is our second language and one of the staff was mimicking me and another mother. Terrible we will never go back.

Great weekend ! Everything was a good size too so the girls really got to learn from the teachers . The girls made some great friends here and learned a ton too . The length of everything was perfect and we enjoyed the time we had .

I have attended Velocity twice and absolutely loved it both times! The faculty is phenomenal, it is ran perfectly, and I learned so much! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

I thought the competition judges scored very hard but also very fair. This was a competition where there were only a handful of Platinums. That can be kind of jarring when you are used to competitions where almost everyone gets Platinum. There was lots and lots of helpful critiques given...also not something that happens often. For the convention 6 out of 11 classes were contemporary in the teen room. That seemed a little weird to me The kids said that they were very different \"feeling\" contemporary classes, so they didn\'t seem to mind.

Second year at Velocity in Dearborn. Venue itself is great. The staff truly cared about making our stay top notch! Workshop - my daughter loved the classes she attended. None of the rooms were overcrowded. But they do put teens and seniors in the same rooms all weekend. Not a fan of that. The website lists ten faculty, only seven were there. Four assistants, only two were there. This year, it meant that four of the eight genre classes for teen/seniors were hip hop. Truly there were only two hip hop instructors so the dancers had each instructor twice. My kiddo was psyched to have one of the assistants that was listed online and all over Instagram, too bad that assistant was not there. Don\'t advertise it if it\'s not gonna happen. Competition - the behind the scenes staff could not have been nicer. A pleasure to work with. I do question the qualifications of some of the judges. Some only know one genre and it shows in the critiques. There weren\'t many studios competing, so there were lots of breaks for costume changes, etc. it made the night run an hour late. Biggest disappointment, for the second year, the video staff did not successfully record my daughters solo. That means no critiques either. Honestly, if I can\'t get the feedback, which is part of what I pay for, I should get a partial refund. In summary, I see signs of this convention/comp not making it long term. Lack of instructors, unqualified judges, declining number of studios competing, poor photos and videos, etc.. So buyer beware.

My daughter went to Velocity for the first time this year. We traveled to Denver for the event even though we live in Texas. In advance, I was able to make sure that her solo competition time would be late enough to allow us to arrive on Friday without missing an entire day of school. Eve could not have been more helpful. My daughter loved the classes and the teachers. I liked the fact that the classes were an hour long. The kids were able to learn much longer combos and the teachers actually took the time to walk around the room to make sure kids were applying proper technique. That doesn\'t happen at every convention! The event itself was very professionally run. Definitely will go back.

Convention was good, but Teens and Seniors should NOT be in the same room. Not only is the skill level too varied, it\'s way too crowded! Loved the teachers, though. My daughter said it was the best tap teacher she\'s ever had at a convention. Also loved that the teachers took the time after class to sign autographs and take pictures. We\'ll be back, but please separate those ages!!

Love this one!! Only complaint would be that I wish you could still be eligible for scholarships even if you just attended one day. If you are at the audition and are able to stand out during only one day of class, why shouldn\'t you be rewarded?

I was honestly very disappointed on this one. Out of all the conventions I have attended, this was my least favorite. 1. The Teens/Seniors were in the same room which meant you could barley move. The venue was very small. 2. I felt that this convention was very hip hop based. Nothing against hip hop, but every class had a hip hop vibe, including the contemporary, jazz, and even the ballet. Every class seemed the same style to me, there was no variety in style. 3. The sound system was very low budget, and I had a headache a week after it was over. If you aren\'t a hip hopper, I would not recommend this convention at all.

This was our second year attending Velocity.. it was way more crowded than last year, but the teachers and staff accomdated quickly,..love the atmosphere and will attend every year!

We are very disappointed at this convention. At audition in the mini room, this boy named Sebastian did amazing job. Our studio was taking about this boy all day. We know he will win but he did not. All parents wideness the audition and Velocity give to other boy. It has to be some kinds of mistake. or some politic? I went to Velocity office and made a complain. Our studio is not coming back for sure after the result of the audition. so disappointing.

Teachers were awesome!!!

The way all conventions and competitions should be run. Professional, amazing instructors, fabulous staff. Everything ran on time. Competition was great, convention was outstanding. Look forward to doing another, this year if possible!

One of the best conventions my kids attended! The classes were fun and challenging. The staff is fair to all who attend. The kids can learn and grow from the experience. The judges are fair and honest and reward kids based on passion, talent, and dedication and not on how many times you attend.

Have attended many conventions but my first with this one. By far my favorite convention ever. The staff was awesome and teachers top notch. No one was walking around like they were too good to be there or that we should all feel thankful to be on their presence. Furthermore it was not perfect - the venue was not large enough and was quite dated but they acknowledged it immediately and often throughput the weekend very publicly. If you have a chance I would definitely attend this amazing weekend.

Just got back from our second trip to Velocity. The staff are fantastic! My daughter loved everything about it. They were so great with the kids. Tough judging (only a few platinums) - I like that!

I attended the St Louis venue and I loved it! SOOO fun! The staff was amazing! So You Think You Can Dance alumni and choreographers, and not to mention Autumn Miller as the Jr Assistant! The teachers were tough, but kind and fun too! There were a lot of great scholarships given out and many opportunities in the dance world. The competition part of the convention was okay, but hands down my favorite convention. The only thing I disliked was being on carpet and the crowdedness. Although, the instructors made sure to watch everyone not just the front rows. I learned a bunch and had tons of fun, highly suggest it.

Loved this dance convention and competition. Visited at Cleveland and Detroit. Teachers were amazing,compassionate and made the dancers work hard to achieve new techniques and achievements.

We attended the first Velcity Event in Cleveland. They had excellent staff and competition.