Pros: awards were time efficient, staff was friendly. Cons: they don't show levels in the program or with studio directors so no one knows who they go up against. It's frustrating and I've never seen this done before at any competition. Unfortunately because of this and due to a few questionable judging instances I don't think we will return again in the near future.
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I really love the hospitality of this competition but I hate how they don't allow teams to know who they are against. Don't call it a competition if you don't want people to come and compete. It really takes the suspense out of it. I take my kids because it is close, judging seems fair and awards are nice for them, but my students do not like to compete here because they don't know who their competition is.
This is our 2nd time here in 3 yrs and have loved it both times! Well organized and ran on time. Fair judging! Kind staff. Can’t say enough good things about Dance Machine. Hope our studio owner brings us back again next year.
We have gone to DM for a couple years now and things were really great this year. Staff was very friendly and ran on time.
Great competition! Always organized and on time, if not ahead of schedule. I feel that Dance Machine is very fair with scoring and always takes time to make my dancers feel special. You will not just be another studio here but part of their family. We have been competing with Dance Machine for many years and have witnessed this company grow and become a huge part of the dance industry. They continue to strive to give us the best competition experience possible.
Was more enjoyable than last year - and ran way ahead of schedule on Sunday, which is nice on a school night. Judging seemed fair and consistent, so no issues there. Dressing room space was really at a premium this year - not sure if there were more entries or not, but there was hardly room for the number of dancers to change comfortably. In addition, I am still not thrilled with the title "certificate" versus the tiara (cheap), and there was supposed to be photography available but it was not. The videographer was horid - DanceBug it is called. Poor customer service and the one video I purchased (for $35) was terrible quality. Grainy and poor audio quality - could've taken a better video on my old cell phone. Save your money there ladies and gentlemen!
Our last experience with Dance Machine was not a good one. We have been bringing our teams here for a few years. We have almost always placed with every routine. We loved this competition until some of our students were treated badly by an audience member. When speaking to the competition staff about it, they acted like it was no big deal. We will not return to this competition.
I have been attending Dance Machine since I was a dancer. Now, I\'m a teacher and I bring my kids to their regionals and nationals! I am so thankful for this competition, not only for the experience for my dancers, but for the camaraderie among the dancers AND teachers AND Dance Machine Staff. I have met some of my closest friends through this competition and I will be forever grateful. Like every competition, you will receive judges critiques that you may or may not agree with, but isn\'t that how the entire dance competition thing works?? I will continue to take my dancers to these competitions until I cant anymore!!
Went to Ragionals and studio had optional nationals for this competition. I felt it was a sub par venue, regionals didn\'t have photos, nationals were good photos, the programs, while less expensive then other comps, were not very well made and even though my daughter placed extremely well at regionals and we were excited about nationals...2 things were frustrating: they took points off for not wearing tights...id this is a requirement, it should be noted...2: a little girl that competed, while it is unfortunate, ran off stage crying and got to re-do her solo, while I agree with this, she should still be able to score but not be placed...and she placed, very well. AND their top 10-4 placements were FLAGS/BANNERS....I am a very open-minded dance mom but this was just very underwhelming.
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Great competition. Would recommend this competition.
Great competition
I was not that pleased this year. I thought the judging was off, based on the prior two years comments/awards. I was underwhelmed with the title awards - last year they received a tiara (what girl doesn\'t want that?) and this year it was a piece of paper. There was no photographer or videographer. After the weekend, felt disappointed and not really looking forward to this event again.
I read the reviews but for the money decided to give this competition a shot. That was a big mistake. Judging was HORRIBLE. There were multiple routines that forgot almost their entire routines and still placed overalls while other studios with beautiful routines barely received a High Gold. I not only felt bad for my girls but for other small studios who were completely left out of overalls and pre-awards fun.I have never seen score sheets before that do not give you a score for technique, execution, choreography and appearance but at DMP they just give you an overall score for your dance, you have no idea where you lost those points from. There were also obvious changes made to the scores on some of our judges sheets as well as some of the other studios at this regional. Also DMP let\'s their title holder\'s give out trophies which is fine but these same girls danced with their studios throughout the competition. Their awards run long and are very cheap. It is not a family orientated, Christ centered competition as they claim.
This was my girls first national title competition. It was organized and competitions were on time. We were pleased with outcome and plan to attend again.
Dance Machine is a dance competition, however, it is so much more than that. As a studio owner, I do concentrate on choreography, technique, performance opportunities, and attending as many competitions and conventions as possible. With that said, DMP offers more than just dance critiques. The comradery between teachers, studio owners, and kids is like nothing else in this industry. To have other studio owners support other studio kids and vise versa, it truly uplifting and inspiring. Now, Do I agree with judges critiques? Sometimes Yes, Sometimes No. And that is at any competition or convention I attend. Sometimes I agree and sometimes I do not. And that is OK. Do I respect the opinions of the judges? Absolutely. On any given day, at any given competition or convention, its is the opinion of an individual watching a performer.My studio is new to their national program and American Miss/Mister program. By participating in the series of categories, my students have grown more than I could have ever imagined. Other competitions strictly judge for title based on solo performance whereas, the DMP program allows for contestants and the representatives to gain confidence and communication skills by conducting interviews and answering questions on stage in front of a full auditorium. Their audition class also prepares the dancers for professional castings and auditions. This approach that DMP takes makes for a much more well rounded child/dancer/performer/citizen. So I will be forever grateful for the experiences that my students have by participating in this comp. And, I will continue to encourage my students to enroll/apply/attend the title program. I will continue to support Dance Machine and I certainly encourage any studio to come and see for themselves the positive role DMP offers to the dance community.
Please do not send your dancers here! I have never been to such a bias competition! We went to regional, and we scored Diamond, and were first overall, and had the highest score of the weekend. At every other competition we went to, we got 5 stars, and first place. When we went to Nationals, with the same dance, we performed better than ever. We had tons of people coming up and telling us that was the best dance they had seen all day. We scored High Gold. The entire audience gasped when our score was announced (this is NOT an exaggeration). We thought that there was a mistake, so we went to talk to the director. The director informed us that two of our three judges score sheets were missing. All the director had to say was that these things happen sometimes. My question is how many times does this happen at this competition? How many dances have not had complete scores? I am not a sore loser complaining because I did not win, I go to competitions to get a fair chance at winning, and to get critiques so that I can be a better dancer. That is not what you will find at Dance Machine. There were 2 large studios that won EVERYTHING. If you are a studio that is large and wants to win based on bias relationships with the director then go to Dance Machine. If you are a studio that wants a fair shot at competition, and constructive criticism, then DO NOT ATTEND!!! It was easy to tell that this competition is bias, and we were not given a fair chance! PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND! GIVE YOUR DANCERS A FAIR SHOT AT COMPETITION, WHERE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE ALL SCORE SHEETS WITH YOUR CRITICISM, AND CRITIQUES!
Our studio has attended the Dance Machine competition in Myrtle Beach for the past several years, and it was our favorite competition to go to, and not just for the location. This year, all of our dances did great at Myrtle Beach, including one dance that was the top scoring dance of the day! So we decided to take everybody to Nationals. Huge mistake. The venue had no space to adequately store and stage the props. The girls had to go outside to get backstage, unless they walked through the auditorium, but our dancers have been taught NOT to go into the auditorium in costume, so that left the girls walking outside in the rain to get to the stage. As we watched the competition, the awards seemed a little off, as in dances that weren\'t that good were scoring higher than dances that were better, but we wrote it off to judges\'s preference of one style of dance over another. But then our award-winning dance scored so very low that there was a collective gasp followed by silence from the audience when our score was announced. Surely there was a scoring mistake? A transposition error perhaps? A number miss-keyed into the computer? We convinced our director to find out. Guess what? We\'ll never know what our score actually was because 2 of our 3 judges sheets were missing. The director had no idea what happened to them or where they were, but \"these things happen\". However, the only thing I am thankful for is that the favoritism and bias was so blatantly obvious that our dancers understood what was going on. They know that the \"score\" that was chosen for them is NOT the score that they earned or deserved. To be completely fair, I can\'t tell you if the judges were scoring fairly or not, because the score sheets/critiques are missing. So it could be that the person that enters the scores is the one that has a bias. Who knows? Either way, DMP now has a reputation for showing favoritism.
I have always loved Dance Machine for the family feel and the honest judging. But throughout this past competition year, at regionals and certainly at nationals, I grew more and more disappointed. For those who say the bad comments come from sore losers, that is certainly not the case. As dancers, parents, and teachers, we come to competition not only to get an honest and fair placing but to get critiques. They are what is most important because without them, how can you improve? It was very frustrating as a dancer to not only go from diamond and overall high score of the day at other competitions to high gold here and then not know why or what to fix. Two score sheets were \"missing\" and the one sheet we did have did not include a single critique of our dancing. While we danced, the judges barely even looked up to watch us, or any dance for that matter. Except for two or three studios, which just so happened to win everything, even a directors award. An award which was so personal she cried while giving it. So all in all, we walked away not being able to grow at all as dancers or know what to improve on with our technique and feeling utterly disrespected as individuals and as a studio from the judges and staff. As a senior, I was very dissapointed that this was the last competition I will ever attend. If you want your studio to get honest critiques and grow, DO NOT ATTEND THIS COMPETITION. If you are a large studio and wish to win based on friendships and your large entry fees, go right ahead and I hope you can win your trophies with a clean conscience.
Will, thank you for a fantastic weekend. Watching your competition grow and morph and being able to be part if the process has been such a joy over the past 15 years. What I most love is that it is clear that you are all about the students and their growth as people and dancers! Keep it up! Here\'s to 15 more years together!
My daughter has been dancing since she was 3 years old and competing in dance competitions since 2007. There is nothing better to us than to watch our kids(studio family included) present what they have worked so very hard to learn in those competitions. Most of these kids at these studios pour their hearts, souls, lives, and selves into every dance and when they do you see it on stage. Now with that being said, I have never left a competition more disappointed and upset than I did last night. I have seen many things in the dance world in support of my children that I thought odd but to see obvious favoritism, and unfair treatment of a studio was not only alarming but also made this dance mom angry!!!!! I have never in my life been so heartbroken and angry at the same time. If you are going to run a competition and going to allow judges comments to be \"misplaced\", dance etiquette to go unobserved (don\'t walk around the auditorium when anyone is on stage), and favoritism to run amuck the entire place crushing dancers at random then just stop. Stop now before you ruin the beauty, magic and fun of dance!!!!!
I used to really enjoy this competition, unfortunately what happened at this years past nationals I have changed my opinion. We had several issues such has staff being incredibly rude to teachers kids and parents for simply asking questions about the venue or the competition itself. Also there were several studios that placed their kids in a lower level category then their dancers were dancing at. Even the owner of the competition made a comment to us about this happening yet still nothing was done about it. It states in the rules that if the dance is a higher level then entered the judges can move that dance up and judge it at the higher level. this did not happen and it should have. Then at the end of the week we went to go and get our score sheets and we were informed that one of our dances only had one score sheet because the other two were lost. The response from the staff was \"well this does happen\" news to me and I have been in the dance world for years. Never heard of that ever happening.The venue was out in the middle of no where so going and grabbing a quick bite to eat was out of the question. Everything was at least 20 mins away. Yes they concessions but they were expensive and didn\'t have a lot of options. The back stage space is none existent and the dancers had to walk out side to enter backs stage left. There was a way to get back stage without waking outside but no one showed us or marked it. There was no stage manager or staff member on stage left to watch the noise level and when students, parents, and teachers were asked to be a little quieter there were snide comments and rolling of the eyes. The bathrooms were small and smelled horrible plus there were only two bathroom locations to use at the school. The air had shut off for the weekend which is normal in a newer high school bc it\'s on an automated system but with that said they knew that nationals were going to run till Sunday night. All in all not pleased with this competition what so ever.
I usually enjoy going to this competition. This year the atmosphere seemed a little different. Ran ahead. too far ahead! One hour and thirty minutes is too much. Our studio is close to the venue so told students to be there 1 hour early, I was calling students to get there. Usually friendly staff behind the curtain, not this year. The competitions National winners were running the music and helping the teachers and students. They are children themselves and really were inefficient. I liked the MC from last year. This year the lady MC was bragging about being so early. In previous years the competition had fun events for the parents and teachers. Did not this year. Parents said other studio parents were so loud they were rude. I hate that I can not give them 5 stars this year. I really like the owners of this competition. We will skip a few years and go back to see if better.
I was in awe at the lack of professionalism at this competition. Read reviews below mine and all the comments about the judges were o so accurate. The comments below like \"stone-faced\" \"never looked up\" \"favoritism\" etc were more than true. The judges sat and didn\'t watch half of the routines. There was a \"select\" studio that they watched. This competition is behind in technology and still has paper judges sheets so that does take away from them fully being able to focus on the dancers. I heard several other studio owners complaining about how they wouldn\'t be back and all the favoritism going on and it was very apparent. I brought the fact that the judges wasn\'t paying attention to the dancers up to the director and he was very rude. He assured me that they were and I would have great feed back. As soon as I read through the judges notes I didn\'t know whether to be in laughter or tears. The judges talked about illusions, back tucks, etc. that weren\'t even in the routines. Needless to say, BEWARE, and we will not be returning here again.
Extremely well run competition at Myrtle Beach this past weekend. Everyone back stage was so encouraging to our kids waiting to dance and each time the kids came off the young man and woman that were checking in dances said \"great job\" or something similar. Both days ran on time and we got out early both nights. Our students and parents had a wonderful experience & no we didn\'t win big ..that is not why we had a great time..we had a great time because the staff was excellent and professional. They had very qualified judges..(we did our research on all 3). We will be back to Dance Machines and we applaud the encouragement of the staff and the professional organization of this competition. We tell our kids ..when you stop having fun its time to stop dancing...this weekend they had FUN and that\'s what it\'s all about.(We also had a issue with our music (our fault) the backstage workers & the sound guy helped us not too panic and got our music fixed for us. 5 stars no question!!
This is my fifth year attending Dance Machine competition. I bring my dancers back year after year because we always have a great time!! Win or lose we have fun. The staff is wonderful, we agree with the judges comments and our dancers and parents leave happy! I have read the comments below and want to remind everyone there are two sides to every story. As teachers we are always going to think our routines should have won or accommodations for dressing rooms could be better and so on. The fact of the matter is you can not make everyone happy but in my experience this is a competition worth checking out!!!! We truly love it!!
My studio has been attending Dance Machine events for 7 years and it has always been a positive experience for us! Dance Machine is very unique in that they truly foster studios becoming friends with other studios. I have made, what are now, some of my best friends through dance machine introducing me to other studio owners! My dancers have made life long friends going to regionals and nationals every year as well! We have grown as a studio while going to dance machine events and it is so nice to see the other studios grow as well! This competition is always on time or early and is very fair! As I said we have gone for years and have many friends there but sometimes we go and do really well and other times we go and just do ok! Either way out kids always leave feeling encouraged and having a good time! I highly recommend this competition to studios of all sizes and levels, there is something for everyone;)!!
I have been attending dance machine competitions for the past two years and have loved it! they are always the most fun and excited competitions and I always look forward to going. The people that work with dance machine productions are some of the nicest people I have met! They make it so much fun and they are always fair in their scoring and judging. The judges always appear very interested in all the dancers. Love dance machine!
Very organized and always runs on time! Our studio has attended for over 10 years and we have always went home happy whether we win big or not. These negative reviews are from poor losers.....
Heard mixed things but had a good time in Myrtle. All the performers from Starz were having fun. A lot of studios turned out from a variety of abilities. It\'s good for the young dancers to look up to and watch.
We had a great experience in Elizabeth City. Backstage staff was friendly. We loved how the awards were separated into different categories rather than all grouped at the end of the night.
Attended the Myrtle Beach venue this year. Always a favorite, runs on time and a large variety of studios always attend. It\'s one for the most fairly judged competitions that we attend annually.
Wonderful weekend at Myrtle Beach. The staff was very helpful with any questions I had. The whole staff seemed to enjoy what they where doing. Very friendly with dancers and owners as well. It was a very big competition but it seemed to run smoothly. Venue was nice, although we could not take food inside auditorium there was a place provided in the lobby for eating. Would recommend this competition to others. Backstage was managed well and dancers really enjoyed it.
PLEASE read all these reviews before attending this competition!! We did very well at this competition. We took almost every overall that was given, so I am not writing this review because we lost and are sore losers. First of all, the judges are terrible. They were stone faced the entire competition. We teach our kids to look at the judges, to \"work\" the judges. There is no \"working\" these judges. They didn\'t smile, or even look pleasant the entire weekend. Most of them sat there with their head rested in their hands like they were bored to death through every single dance. Our music skipped over and over during one of our best pieces. My students, being the professionals that they are kept dancing throughout the entire routine. I kept waiting for the sound guy to get on the microphone and to politely say \"please exit the stage and would a representative from this studio please come see the sound booth\". That did not happen. My dancers finished out the routine the way they were supposed to. After the dance, I went backstage to the sound booth and asked what happened and the sound guy said it kept skipping over and over and I said then why didn\'t you stop the music and ask to see a representative from our studio. And he had the audacity to say \"This is your fault\". So, we argued a little back and forth and I simply told him that in my experience with all the thousands of competitions that we attend, many \"high end\" competitions, that they get the back up cd. He was still very accusatory, so I just said I would like them to run it again and get a fair chance of doing their dance the correct way. I thought everything was fine until the owner came back stage. The owner, instead of saying, \"what is the problem, how can we help? The first words out of his mouth was...\"I can write you a check and you and your students can go home right now\" I was FLORRED! I will never attend this competition EVER again! There is so much more I could say.
First our studio did WELL at this competition so my comments don’t come from being “a sore loser.” This is also my 7th dance competition season so I do have some background to lean on. I’ll summarize in my first paragraph and if you want more detail, see below. Dance competition weekends are not easy even in the best of circumstances. I feel my job is to help make my dancer’s life easier by having things organized and ready for costume changes, try to sneak in a quick protein and drink of water, give a word of praise and send that dancer back to the stage. This was the first competition EVER our routine was tossed aside; and NO ONE CARED! As a parent, I respectfully look to our studio staff for answers first, every time, BUT when they can’t get answers it’s an epic fail to the competition staff. This weekend was all about the DM staff deflecting to the Reynolds staff and the Reynolds staff deflecting to the DM staff and neither staff taking responsibility for anything. Worse, apparently neither staff cared about our dancers. Forget the teachers, parents, but what about this weekend was positive for my child? “Thank goodness this competition is over! Let’s go home.” Detail: Worst competition weekend ever! Had DM selected a better venue (since they did start Friday afternoon and end Sunday evening) the weekend would not have been quite as unbearable. R.J. Reynolds auditorium is a beautiful, historic site but not designed for the crowd DM pulled, particularly on Saturday. It’s technically a theater, not a convention center. The venue staff was allowed to treat everyone with complete disrespect. They were obnoxious, rude beyond rude, and completely unhelpful. One minute people could eat in the lobby, the next minute people were forced outside to eat. It was cold, rainy, sleeted, a wind advisory in effect and people forced outside to eat. There was NO eating in the building, not even the dressing areas. The parking for the venue is at the back of the build
If I could give zero stars I would. Venue was a logistical nightmare. While the auditorium was beautiful, the dressing room area was horrible. Several small rooms-- only could cram 4 people in them. The larger dressing room was down a VERY narrow flight of stars located backstage. We have attended this competition for several years and it\'s obvious they have their core studios that get insider attention. And those studios are rude-- yet they get the Studio of the Day awards every time. Each of the 3 days our stuff was moved so another studio could take the space. Way too many dancers for the venue. Parking was a challenge. One set of awards was all they had on Saturday-- the busiest of the 3 days. So no one ever left the venue, the auditorium was beyond capacity and the dancers were dangerously crammed on stage. Judges are not well-qualified and take their job way too casually. Watching the routines with their feet propped up on the table kind of casual. The studio gets no tapes on performance judging-- only handwritten notes. One judge was a former dance student who is currently studying to be an EMT. Another actually listed \"Mary Kay Consultant\" on her bio. Two judges were dating one year and spent more time looking at each other than the dancers. Our studio has said they are NOT going back.
We attend the Boogie Fever competition also run by Dance Machine. It is geared for recreational dancers and is well organized and fun in general. I agreed with the scoring of our routines and it is a good choice for students competing for the 1st time, as recreational and minis/petite. We opted not to take our senior team to Boogie Fever because we felt they needed more of a challenge.
One of the worst competitions we have been to. The owners use their dance parents to help run the competition even when their students are performing. The scoring system is on a sliding scale...ummmm yeah right. The owners are extremely rude to parents and dancers. The awards were cheap pieces of paper and cheap trophies. Even though my daughter won several top awards, and her dance studio\'s groups won several top awards, we were very unimpressed with this competition. I would never go back!
Sliding scale scores? Who ever heard of such a thing?
Unprofessional, unorganized, and just lazy. I will never go back.
Pretty good. Awards took forever.