COMPETITION DETAIL

We loved Dance Xplosion! The comp ran smoothly & the staff was super nice! The awards were fun & engaging

We attend this most years, but a few tough things this year. Overall awards were tabled to one award session at the end of each Regional weekend because of COVID. Dancers adjudicated at a lowerscore (gold, xtreme gold) than some others in the same category (platinum) were given category 1st place by mistake. Nationals were better with regular award sessions, we attended Glenns Falls. The venue was practically unbearable for the dancers to perform in because they wouldn't turn on air conditioning during a terrible heat wave. Many kids were getting sick and dehydrated because there wasn't even a vending machine where you could buy water. They were out and there were no vendors in the building.

We just attended Nationals in Glenns Falls. We always love Dance Xplosion but this was rough. I know times are tough so they had to find a sports arena to hold this at. This was fine. However 1) there was no one affiliated with the comp helping direct people arriving where to find dressing rooms. It took us 25 minutes after we got into the building to find anyone who would help us. 2) They turned off the A/C in the venue 4 out of the 5 days of the comp, in 90 degree heat. Dancers were overheating and becoming dehydrated and vomiting every day backstage. 3) Dance studios were calling the shots for who went when. Our dancers were called up by the staff and another studio came and tried to push them out of the wings and go ahead of them. Even the backstage staff got frustrated because the director(s) wouldn't support them trying to stick to the schedule.

Not the most tech savvy or updated comp but it is FAIR and the judges give great feedback to the dancers. One of the only comps we've been to that does not favor large or recurring studios or studios who do their nationals. I feel this comp strongly encourages ALL styles of dances and typically has a diverse judging panel with males and females and a range of ages and ethnic backgrounds. I also love how they seem to hire dancers who are still IN the industry and are current -- judges who love concepts that go beyond the standard kick, turn, jump routine. When the judges give special awards their commentary is always thoughtful and connects to the dancer's performances. My dancers always love the awards ceremonies which are exciting for all ages. Just a great overall competition and I STRONGLY recc it as an owner.

In April 2018, my studio and I attended Dance Xplosion (Hackensack). This is one of my all time favorite competitions so I'm happy we went again. The venue itself is nice, but parking is limited, so I have to walk a long way to get to the place itself, the boys dressing room is AMAZING. It was huge! It was by far the nicest dressing room I've been in. The judges are always amazing, they are fun to be around and they are just nice people in general. The judging is tough, but fair. The staff that work there are always amazing. The backstage manager gave me notice of how many routines were before me when I competed my solo, the awards are my favorite of all time, the handouts are awesome, the kids and audience are always excited for awards. The one thing I would say about this competition that isn't as good is that they don't run on time. Routines often at this competition will still be competing until 12AM with awards to follow. The Hackensack location was a little bit better, but they were inconsistent. They ran on time for most of the weekend, but there were still times that they were running late or early. Other than that, this is my favorite competition I've ever gone to and I'm glad to have been able to go there.

I went to Dance Xplosion (Sparta) in 2016. The competition ran okay, the venue was beautiful. The judges were amazing and fun to be around during awards. The staff are very nice, the awards are my favorite awards of any competition I've ever been to, and the competition overall is epic!

My studio attended Sparta Regionals this year in June. The venue is pretty good, and the atmosphere of the competition is great. The staff is amazing, and really pleasant to be around. The judging/scoring is good. The award sessions are amazing, and the backstage crew/staff have such great personalities. But one complaint I have is that the competition schedule is a little hectic. Some dances don't even go on stage until almost 11:30PM, awards sessions often don't end until Midnight or later. That problem leads to the other problem of Dance Xplosion having too many dance studios at the dance competition. There's so many routines due to overbooking that dancers suffer from it because they have to dance during late night. One time at a competition Dance Xplosion overbooked so bad that they had to make another room to judge dance routines, two venues were going at once. It was raining that day, so you had to go from the main venue walk across the busy street in the rain, back to the other building to watch a dance, just to repeat the process over and over again. But the positive things about the competition weigh over the negatives to me. I hope we come back next year, but hope no one has to perform too late at night.

We attended the Woodbridge, VA competition in 2017 and I'm very glad I only took soloists, duets and trios. I attended this competition so when I opened up my studio I thought I'd bring my own dancers. Lets start at the beginning, it took us nearly thirty minutes to find someone to tell us where the dressing rooms were and a check in. Then, they wouldn't work with one of my mini soloists who had two solos ( same goes with my teens but they were able to tough through it ). Since all of the solos were crammed into a single 3 hour session (after a late start!) she didn't have a lot of time to change. Flooring was slightly bubbled, called dancers out in the wrong order. Finally, the atrocity that was awards. My dancer was called up for fourth, it was great! Until they called up a dancer who had forgotten her routine and froze on stage for a few eight counts and ran off crying at the end for first. I'm not upset that my dancer placed fourth, I'm upset that I had to explain to my dancers why she was handed a second place plaque, but they called her for fourth, and then why the girl who ran off in tears placed above her... Unfortunately, I don't think we can return to this one.

We attended DXP Nationals in Wildwood this past weekend. I was dismayed by the poor communication, the errors with registrations and the way they handled our inquiries regarding their errors. If their motto was anything like their attitude, it would be "you may be the customer, but we're always right - even when we're not." Our studio didn't attend but a few soloists from our studio were invited to participate in the Xtreme team - which was a postive experience and the opening number was fantastic! The competiton dates were posted as July 10 -15 but just 15 days before, on June 25, we learned that they wanted the team members to register the Sunday evening before (7/9) and that the judged classes started 8:30 am Monday, followed by 3 & 1/2 hours of Xtreme team rehearsals with the title solos competing later that same night. Our dancers were basically dancing all day and all night. Fortunately we were able to add a night to the beginning of our accomodation reservations, although that added to our expenses. The registration form said the judged classes offered "include Jazz, Hip Hop, Tap, Lyrical, Contemporary and Ballet." Contestants were required to take Lyrical Tech and 2 more for a total of 3 out of 4 classes. In reality, they offered only 4 styles: Lyrical, Tap, Jazz and Hip Hop for 45 minutes each (no contemporary and no ballet). The registration form did not indicate that the registration included a party ticket - so we purchased them for an extra $25. Upon arriving at the venue Sunday evening, we were handed backpacks with wristbands that served as party passes. There were no written directions, schedules or explanations. Had we not heard shouted announcements we would not have known that we had mistakenly purchased extra party tickets. When we asked for a refund, they tried to push it off on the home office. Then they refused to refund us, suggesting we try to sell them ourselves. Finally 4 days later, we showed them a picture of the form whereupon they had to admit did not indicate a party ticket was included and they ultimately gave us a credit for t-shirts or videos or whatever but this took several requests, a phone call to home office, 5 DXP staff members and 4 days of persistence by 3 moms. (Thankfully I had taken a picture of form before I mailed it). They ran chronically, consistently and unapologetically late. The pageant and the challenges were unenthusiastic and boring, except for the dancers. Contrary to other reviews - they did not throw monkeys or anything else for awards. On the postive side, this compettion did attract some outstanding talent! The dancers were great and the parents were nice. We had pleasant company while standing for an over an hour outside the door to get let in for the pageant because, while they told the dancers to come at 6:00pm instead of 7:00pm for an 8:00pm start, they did not open the doors until 8:00 and did not start until 8:42pm. The judging seemed fair but there were no comments or feedback on the sheets, just circles for improvement needed or X's for "good job." If we attend DXP again, I would be cautious - question everything and expect nothing.

We attended the Worcester MA Regionals! Overall, we had a great time! BUT I have one huge con: The critiques came 4 WEEKS after the competition had ended! Not only that the videos were off with the music by 2 seconds, the quality was the lowest quality video I've ever seen, and it would skip around, and the judges comments weren't heard, it was just mumbling. Also, for solos, why do males have to compete separate from the girls? I would have like for everyone to compete against everyone, and have a separate category for title. Other than that, we had a great time!!!!!

Every year its the same old thing with Dance Xplosion. They don't bring anything new to the table or offer anything worth while. They also give excalibur awards to novice divisions which makes no sense. Judges critiques are never any helpful and they barely say anything. Thats if you get a critique that works! Most of the time you can never hear the judges or they never pressed record!

We were very disappointed in our regional competition this past season. We have competed at Dance Xplosion in years past, and even attended a national competition that was very well run. But this past year was very poorly run. Judging was extremely rude and unprofessional in their critiques, to the point where the teachers refused to let the dancers listen to some of them. The competition was very small (one day) and instead of spreading the studios out through the day, studios were literally placed in situations of having back-to=back routines with the exact same dancers. Of course, by the end of the day, our studio had our two production numbers, with the majority of the girls in both dances, back-to-back, with judges openly making comments about being irritated at our studio for having to wait. Not sure what the solution is to this in a one-day competition, but it was not a positive experience.

Awesome competition! Backstage guys are so fun and nice! We love going here!

The judges’ comments were extraordinarily rude! We attended on 4/24/16 in Milford, MI. Although our studio and my child scored extraordinarily well, critiques went like this: \"You look a little tired, but I\'m not surprised since you are in so many dances.\"(They only had 6 studios enter, so our girls were forced to do all their dances in one day) Near the end of one 11 year-old\'s jazz solo, they said, \"I\'m still waiting to see you dance.\" For our jazz production number, the male judge didn\'t make one comment throughout the whole routine until the end when he said, \"That looked like a cheer leading routine - I\'m not judging a cheer leading routine.\" For our group hip-hop number, the most helpful comment was that they needed to \"work on the hip-hop aspect of this dance\" and the meanest comment was when they made fun of the girls’ facial expressions. **Other cons: 1) The judges spent a portion of each performance looking down texting on their phones and missed the first 10-15 seconds of almost every routine. 2) Scoring is done by hand. 3) Venue had no concessions and cramped dressing rooms. 4) Program doesn’t list scoring levels 5) Judges backgrounds are unknown. **The pros: 1) The staff threw stuffed monkeys to some of the girls prior to the awards ceremony, which the kids loved. 2) The competition was run efficiently. 3) We were allowed to photograph (but not video) our own studio. 4) They sold a nice variety of sweatshirts, sweatpants & a few blankets – although nothing else. No socks, pins, highlighters/pens for the program, etc. The program was only $5 (This may have been due to the fact that we were at a very small venue – only one day – but it was still nice.) 5) The girls loved that they gave trophies for first place in EVERY category – even if there was only one entry.

Venue was good. Dressing areas were fine until largest studios showed up and took over the decent dressing rooms, forcing all smaller studios to dress in a boiler room/hallway. Judges were okay, though the usefulness of feedback varied widely from dance to dance. The awards ceremony was appalling. The judges awards take up an hour and seem to be just an opportunity for the judges to take the stage and listen to themselves talk.

Love the monkies!

A nice competition with very supportive judges and staff. My only request, as a parent, would be for a different format to the program as it was a little hard to see all competitors within the same age and skill category.

This is a great comp ! Friendly staff and willing to move things if you are not ready ! They always remember everyone ! Very fair !

Somewhat disorganized. Jammed dancers with numerous dances back to back and then were upset when dancers were not ready in a 1 minute quick change.

It was a great comp!! I loved attending nationals!!!

Great Competiition!!! Judging was fair, the staff very helpful and the owner was a delight. They ran right on schedule or early everday. Everybody had a wonderful time. We will definitely be returning.

Review Has Been Locked - Terms of Use Violation

This competition should come with a WARNING LABEL:ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK! Unprofessional,Disorganized,Unethical It\'s ashame how a once great competition can be the worst in the business now! Very,Very Sad

At one time, this was one of the best competitions. However, I\'m sorry to say, this isn\'t the case anymore. Since it was taken over by new owner/operators, it has gone steadily downhill. Where my studio was once consistent attendees, it\'s been off our list for over 2 years now. I\'m sorry I had to give it one star. But, giving no star is not an option on this site.

As a studio owner I am very disappointed and discouraged with this competition. It\'s decline is ongoing, it lacks any customer service and continues to follow the same formula of failure...bad scheduling, poor staff and communication, inadequate dressing areas in venues, continuously running late, awards that are far too long and unnecessary. In this day and age there are so many great quality events that clearly reinvest our hard earned entry fees into making the competition better for the students. Being a studio that was a loyal supporter we will not be returning.

I havnt gone to many competitions but this one was definitely unorganized and very out dated, the regional i attended was bigger than the national competition and still at times noone knew what was going on. Wont be returning

We have attended DXP for many years. Unfortunately, we will not be returning again. It seems as though this competition has declined. The past few events we have attended have been chaotic and not an enjoyable experience for the studio and our dancers. There is no communication, the set up was incomplete, the owners son was not helpful, the awards ceremony last way too long, and their backstage personnel was unorganized. This seems to be a theme for the past few years. It doesn\'t have the organization it used to in the past. Its a shame because we used to enjoy this competition every year.

love it

Loved it!

Wow, what a difference a year can make! Both regionals and nationals were proffesional, on time and extremely positive. Judging was strict but the feedback was helpful, in the past xtreme platinums were just given out to anyone but I feel like this season they were actually earned and well deserved. Nationals this year may have been the most positive and uplifting competition that I have ever attended. This competition has definitely made some major improvements and I highly reccomend it, 5 stars!

So fun, friendly, professional! Judges focus on technique, performance, and artistry! Wonderful staff!

Staff running the competition were friendly and helpful, and it moved along well. Tap scored well, lyrical and contemporary was a little hit or miss. Unfortunately, this competition was laboring under the burden of the venue . Security guards at the venue were screaming at the kids, we were moved all over the place when the backstage changing area got too crowded; even the concession workers were screaming at everyone! Under stress , I believe some people were less than polite . We all have to remember that adults set the tone for the girls . If the adults are not polite and kind to one another girls would not be either. I think with a different venue, it would\'ve been much more enjoyable.

Judging seems to be somewhat fair, however, they overbook and venues can\'t accommodate the space for the dancers. There was no room in the dressing room AT ALL due to studios spreading out, and the comp did nothing to help. They did not want to be bothered. Fun awards.

Definitely not my favorite competition. They totally favor attitude over technique for the younger dancers, which I don\'t really like. Also, it\'s just really disorganized backstage - no one warns you when your number is coming up, there are no dressing room assignments, dancers are hardly given any time to change. And I intensely dislike the whole \"loudest studio\" thing during awards - we\'re there for dance, not for which parents have the most time to make signs and crowd surf.

Never again. We attended this competition last year. I am happy to report it was not on our schedule again this year. The competition ran at least 3 hours behind. This was because a really large studio attended the competition and they failed to take into account that the had scheduled the same dancers to perform in 3 or 4 routines in a row. That\'s not the studio\'s fault, the competition should know better. Also, they allowed ridiculously large props. We\'re talking things that arrived on semi trailers. If it takes you 20 minutes, a team of 10 dads, and some of the competition staff to set up a prop, you shouldn\'t be allowed to bring it. Again, not the studio\'s fault. The competition should regulate this. Also, awards were a little wonky. My daughter won her category (the age/type of dance) but placed behind a girl in the same age/type in the overall awards.

This competition is not what it used to be. It\'s actually quite sad at how greedy they have become. They must have lost their love and passions for the children and the art of dance. Their fees are super high and they give out the tiniest little awards for both solos and groups. They are only in it for the money. They had two rooms running all weekend just to take in as much money as they can. As a studio owner it makes the competition not very enjoyable and the parents don\'t like it. The awards were 2.5 hours this past weekend!! We were pulling our young kids off stage because they shouldn\'t be sitting on stage for that long!! Also I have not received my critiques yet so I cant speak on how good the judges were but they seemed well qualified. I hope they can change or else my studio will not be attending again.

I have enjoyed this competition in the past but seems like it has gone downhill. It\'s almost as though the owners love for the company and passion for dance has been lost. Hope you can get the competition back to what it was because we miss it!

Awards are way too long, and too much of the time is spent just screaming or pandering to the studios (special awards for excellence in a genre just happen to work out so that each studio gets one, for example). There is a bit of favoring sass over technique for the younger dancers. Also, at our event the printed schedule had no correspondence at all to the actual order of the dances.

Their competitions ALWAYS run behind, at one point we were almost 2 hours behind! The were jumping around in the program so much we had no .clue when our dances were going. However, the awards are fun and they did a lot of fun things plus spoke about bullying, etc. Scores were fair, we had fun, just hate how they are never on time!

"Review Has Been Locked" - Violation of TOU

It was okay. Kind of a trashy competition dances wise though. Dancers had almost zero technique and relied on their faces to get them through. Ran a little behind, but I don\'t mind that. Awards were cute.

Since this was out first competition we attended I really don\'t have anything to compare too. I felt the judges did a good job, it ran on time, but the awards were way to long, it was exhausting to sit through.

I have to agree with all the other reviewers. Our studio did Nationals and everything ran late!! The awards go on way too long. Who needs all that stupid stuff when you are running hours late? and isn\'t it a dance competition? The pageant was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen!

Was my favorite competition but nationals was such a mess I\'m not sure if I will be returning. Almost always caters to the largest studios and rewards them for spending the most money on entrance fees when they should be paying attention to their actual dancing.

Refuse to go back. Not on schedule, caters to studios that have entered the most dances, awards are fun but have gotten to the point that they just drag on forever - especially when you have young children involved. One of my staff saw the Director and someone working in the shop lip locked (not the place), and has become WAY too accepting of bad dancing and inappropriate dancing. Rarely anything over the entire weekend is under a Platinum, tons of Xtreme Platinum. Have attended for a long time and watched it go from a convenient decently run local competition for our studio to attend to what is now what many of our dance parents consider to be classless. It isn\'t worth the money anymore to attend something conveniently located - we are taking it off our \'14-\'15 calendar.

Nationals were terrible! They started late every day, and all events were late. The scheduled judged workshops were changed with no communication. The Xtreme Challenge night and Pageant night went on way late! It was difficult to plan breaks so your dancer could eat. I believe it is incredibly disrespectful to disregard so many people\'s schedule and keep 8 year olds up to midnight!

So poorly run. We just did nationals and just like regionals, they ran late the ENTIRE TIME. They never apologize or offer an explanation which is the worst part. They kept saying they did everything \'for the kids\' but running late just made it harder for the kids to get breaks to eat and rest. They started late every day, even opened the doors 45 mins late one morning, I thought there was going to be a riot. They started the challenges late running til past midnight. The backstage staff was clueless and they have no one in the dressing rooms making sure numbers are ready so they don\'t follow an order at all. They keep you backstage forever , not able to tell you when your kids are on and then without a warning they\'ll throw them on last minute. We got asked for several times for our music moments before our kids were to go on and everytime I\'d go the soundtable it was sitting in front of their faces. We made the best of it and we scored very well but no amount of monkeys and \"fun\" awards could make up for the lack of professionalism and organization. After 15 years you\'d think this father son team would have gotten it together by now. We will not be going back.

Love this comp

Fun! Only negative is that the awards were waaaaaaaay too long. We will go back but I hope they fix that.

Love this competition. Awards may run a little longer than others, but it is a lot of fun for the kids. On our last day, the director held a graduation ceremony for the senior dancers. Although, I didn\'t have a child graduating, the whole ceremony brought me to tears. Great energy.

Our second year attending this one again running way behind this time 2 1/2 hrs behind schedule and noone danced by the schedule alot of jumping around but fairly judged and tapper friendly.

Awards are way to loooooog!!!

Really fun and exciting event.. But run poorly and unorganized competition. Awards are also super exciting, but I don\'t think the adjudications matter until overalls.. Everyone gets a platinum, and you just hope the close scores fall fairly.

Just attended Dance Xplosion last weekend, it was a great competition. It was a little long, ran smoothly.

I thought this was great

This competition was poorly run. 3 times in one weekend they screwed up our music. All were dances with young children who just started competing last year. Then they gave a Top 3 award to a child who came out on the far corner of the stage and refused to dance, bumping children who came out on stage and actually danced well (the \"bumped\" kids were not even from our studio, so this is an unbiased opinion). The backstage staff was lacking in number and abiity. The MC came out for awards and talked way too long about other topic than awards. Then he proceeded to screw up who won what repeatedly. Our kids did very well, but the whole experience was so painful that the experience was tainted.

Fun Competition. Only downside this year was how large it was with 1000 entries. Overall a good experience.

LOVE. Fair. Consistent. Equal recognition throughout the weekend. I just wish that they hosted a National competition in a location besides New Jersey as it is so challenging and expensive getting over there. Host a National competition in SC or FL and we will be there every year!!

We were so pleased with dxp competition this year !!! We attended one of Rich Jr\'s competitions and it was a blast ! It was so professionally run and was either perfectly on schedule or even running early !! The awards ceremony was definitely much quicker and smoother this year BUT still just as fun and exciting for the kids and audience alike. The judging was very fair and there were plenty of golds, xgolds, platinums, and xplatinums given out.. unlike other competitions we\'ve been to that seem to only ever give out one medal. We came runner up to the Xcaliber award and the kids were SO excited. Overall it was a wonderful experience and they have definitely stepped it up. I hope they continue to improve because they are our favorite of the season so far, would give 10 stars if i could !!

This competition in the past has been excellent and very fair--one of our favorites. Unfortunately with their addition of a new level \"xcellerated\" there is some confusion as to which level studios should place their students resulting in some off the wall awards. I hope for next year they are more specific or at least deduct from entries and move them to xtreme if they are blatantly in the wrong level. Very confusing for dancers in a truly intermediate level.

We had a great time at the Wildwood Nationals. My Only real complaint was that the Novice awards were WAY to long. The other awards were long as well, but maybe break it up into two sections or something. Other then that Loved the experience!

Fun competition. This competition was a breathe of fresh air, with their innovative, interactive awards ceremony. The parents dancing in the audience, and on stage was a blast! This competition definitely made it fun for the parents, too. The judging was fair and the competition attracted good talent.

My Daughter Loved This Comp. Awards Were A Lot Of fun

Not the greatest experience ever. Comp was running way aheaad, thought that we were going to get out early, then they held awards and dragged them out. Judging was fair and consistent.

Awards are way too long, enough with the lets get loud award. Never runs on time!

Great competition that draws people from out of state. Awards are longer than most competitions but they really get the kids and parents moving and having fun during the awards.

The competition seemed to be very fair and judged more on creativity than other conventions. We have been twice and enjoy it. The only con is how long awards are.

This competition has always been very fair. I love the atmosphere and the energy they create. The backstage staff is extremely helpful and nice.

We always enjoy attending Dance Xplosion. The judging always seems very fair! The Director is very accommodating and very helpful!

We had a terrible experience here and will never attend again. The awards ran until midnight because the competition allowed many schools to go out of order - there were fights between studio owners at 11pm about which dancers would go on next and fights between parents because the dressing rooms were so small. It was the worst experience I have ever had at a competition. The venue was way to small - way overbooked entries and on one of the nights I got back to my hotel at 1am and had dancers going on stage at 8am the next morning. This is a mismanaged mess. The awards take forever and the scores are questionable - they \"forgot\" that one of our groups placed 3rd overall and never announced or corrected. I had to ask three times.

Ehh, not our favorite competition. Awards are decent, but judging hasn\'t always seemed all there. They don\'t have a photographer, and the venue we\'ve attended has always been just mediocre. It\'s not a bad competition, but there\'s really nothing special about it that makes it one of those really memorable competitions.

Good competition and judging seems very fair. BUT PLEASE......shorten awards. And the screaming contests are torturous. Awards would actually keep us from coming back. Other than that, very good.