COMPETITION DETAIL

We have been attending this competition for the past 8yrs. now. When we first attended there were plenty of things questionable and I wasn't sure we would return. We took a couple years off due to scheduling conflicts and when we returned I was greeted immediately by the director who thanked me for returning, which was a nice touch. Since then this has become my studio kids and parent's favorite event. To see a comp grow the way this event has, has been pretty cool and if ever there have been any issues the director is very upfront, honest and communicates well. We continue to return.

I have attended Dance Effect since 2015 when I was dancer, so naturally when I opened my own studio I wanted my students to attend this once great competition. For years, I have always thought dance effect was ran very well with the staff being super nice and great and our experience this past year was awful. The staff were very nice and we had no problems with that, but the problem we did have was poor judging and several mistakes when it came to the awards. Now I’m not no sore loser. I fully understand every judge is different and some will like the dances you bring and some don’t, which is fine and understandable. BUT I found it very strange that the dances that placed very high and won several awards at REGIONALS did not place at all at NATIONALS and vice versa. Maybe it was just this particular weekend but supposedly they were having troubles with the program they used to tally scores. This caused several discrepancies in the overall scoring with dances that definitely had a questionable overall scoring. The award ceremony for the Junior age and level 1 overalls was never tallied and when they realized that they skipped over it, they had to go in the back to “hand” tally the scores which were so wrong it was hilarious. They were given overalls to kids who received golds over kids who won platinums/high golds. SEVERAL parents/other studio owners were pulling their kids off the stage and were fully leaving the venue. Eventually, they “fixed” it but it really makes me question the whole weekend and if it was accurate the whole time. Fast forward to nationals in Dallas, those routines that placed very well in Regionals did not place at all at Nationals and vice versa. It was like the routines that didn’t place at regionals placed at nationals and the once that placed at regionals didn’t do good at nationals. The whole situation is strange and I don’t think we will attend this competition ever again as a full studio. It’s sad that dance competitions nowadays are becoming more and more worse/rigged. It takes the joy out of dancing and competing. :/

Just attended their Intensive. An excellent day of dance, well run, great teachers, no down time for kids, Parents got their money\'s worth of classes!

We have been to a few of their competitions. We love the family atmosphere, their positivity, and organization!

We really enjoyed our day in OKC! The staff was friendly and very helpful. The announcers were fun (and not cheesy like some of those we have seen:) and kept things moving along. The show started about 15 minutes late but they finished the day ahead of schedule. I didn\'t have any problems with the awards and our studio owner shared the reviews with the kids and my daughters thought they were helpful. We definitely want to go back!

We have attended this competition twice now, and overall, great competition. Love the staff and how well they interact with other studios, parents, and dancers. May have some technical issues every once and awhile...but overall, I do not mind attending this competition....which we are in another week!!

Five stars had to be given by staff. No one who attended this competition could give it a good rating. Staff was very nice. Competition was terrible. Scoring is a mess. Everyone is scored and ranked together. So solos go against trios, small groups, large groups, etc. No way to know where your dance rated agains other similar dances. How can you have a top three with solos and large groups?? NEVER seen this done before, even at other small competitions. If you cant afford trophies, fine, but figure out a way to place dances where it makes sense! Waste of our time and money.

I LOVE everything about this competition! I always look forward to dancing on The Dance Effect Stage!

Great competition! Had so much fun. Friendly staff with a lot of energy!! My students look forward to attending every year and sometimes twice a year! Awards ran smoothly and are always fair. The competition provides a family atmosphere that even allows the dance dads, moms, teachers, and siblings to get involved! We also LOVE the move across the floor!!! We always look forward to this competition and we will continue to attend every year!!

Last year we were a little disappointed but this year this competition has fixed the problems that were going on before. Parents and the dancers loved this competition and we will be going back again.

Review Has Been Removed - Multiple Accounts

Not impressed at all! Everything was so unprofessional and really just a mess! I will not be returning to this show...save yourself the headache and the money and go elsewhere!

We were not impressed with this competition. Right from the start, the staff couldn\'t answer the questions we had about where our props go and where the dressing room was. We ran behind schedule the entire day, only because the staff was not trained to use the software they had for judging. There were a zillion technical difficulties throughout the day. Several dances even had to repeat their dance so that the judges could judge them again after their adjudications were lost! The awards ceremony was unorganized at best. It was unclear how the dancers were supposed to get their awards. As it turns out, large groups, small groups, solos, duets, and trios all compete against each other for the Top 3 at this competition...and that doesn\'t seem very fair. After the competition, we received our judges critiques and videos, which were very poor quality. We didn\'t let our girls listen to any of the judges critiques because they would have been discouraged based on the tone of the voice and lack of encouragement of the judges. They were already nervous after dancing; they came off the stage saying \"the judges hated our dance, they didn\'t smile at all.\" It\'s probably because of how unorganized their job was! They were recording their voice AND typing their critiques on a computer at the same time! We noticed that one of our dances was missing in our critiques. We were told that somehow that dance was not recorded...so we didn\'t get judges critiques either. We will NOT be going back!!

Awards did not run well, nice staff, far from 2 stars. Save your money!

We had a good time at this comp in OKC we had fun backstage with Dana she was so fun and great with the kids! She got all of us teachers on stage and did a dance with them during the judges break. Awards could have went smoother, there were issues handing out awards.

Very kind staff but very poorly ran. Competition ran 4 hours late and ended at 1:00am on a school night. We never received critiques. Only an excuse that they were untrained on software. It took 4 weeks to get scores. First award ceremony handed out high scores all over the place... Then the next only offered 3. We liked the convention but not competition.

The only way this comp could get a 5 star would have to come from the comp team itself. Worse experience ever. They ran 4 to 5 hours behind and were rude never apologized during although we did get a short email later. Our critiques were supposed to be available within 24 hours on dance geni and three weeks later we still do not have them. We were told the week after that they were not trained on that yet and would be in the next day or two. Sent several emails asking for updates and no response. I have never made a negative rating when I have had bad experiences before but I just don\'t think this business is legit. Very disappointing. Oh and we had an over all winner in every category so not upset cause we did not agree with the scoring.

If I could give negative stars I would. How does a competition with 198 acts run 4 hours behind? This competition began at 7:00 IN THE MORNING and the last awards STARTED at 1:15 the next morning. I take that back there were not even 198 acts because studios were pulling their acts. My favorite is that during the awards ceremony they were reading awards over again...kids got two crowns, two trophies because everyone was clueless! Very unprofessional, the owners are rude and claim they are in it for the kids, yet as their attitudes proved, not so much. The judges and the backstage staff were the only bright spot of the competition. This hands down is the WORST run operation in the dance community. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR YOUR TIME!

This was a great convention! I loved the one on one time with the teachers and the great choreography! It was very well run and the staff was super friendly! We are excited to attend their competition! I highly recommend it to everyone!!!