COMPETITION DETAIL

By far the worst competition I ever attended in 13 years! Unfair all the way around! Very unorganized awards & boring nationals no fun for the dancers at awards! Competition location in Sturbridge, MA and Hyannis, MA were both disgusting. MC was rude to dancers in Hyannis 2024! Judges lack skills in all genres and favor studios that have been attending EDC and attend elite dance teams from previous years! Title dancer awards were seperated from overalls and dancers never received special awards or adjudications! Its just a very messy competition all the way around and i can go on for days but if your looking for a fun, fair and professional competition...this one is not it!

These children and young ladies spend countless hours honing their craft! Some dedicate more time than others because it’s their passion rather than a pastime. Parents sacrifice valuable hours and tens of thousands of dollars to support their children's dreams, taking pride in knowing they have chosen a healthy and positive pursuit. Therefore, when attending a competition, especially nationals, we expect the judges to prioritize skill and dedication over pity, participation, and commercial interests. Unfortunately, it was evident that this was not the case for at least 75% of the time during the 2024 nationals competition in Hyannis, MA.

We had an amazing time! The only downside is the location- didn’t love the wide open gymnasium. Everything else was excellent!

The judging at this competition is horrible. They hardly gave any critiques and the ones they did give were barely helpful at all. These judges also clearly had a bias towards tricks even when done poorly. Some of the comments they made in the critiques were really just questioning the theme of one of my dances and I wish they wouldn’t put that in there because now I can’t show my dancers. Don’t say that you don’t understand a certain piece because if my kids hear that, they’re going to think that I don’t know what I’m doing. The scoring was definitely weird considering all of our dances placed in completely different orders than usual and we go to a lot of competitions, good ones at that. Another thing is that they said one dance was the cleanest dance of the night when it was an absolute hot mess... and that was one of my dances, so I would know it didn’t deserve to place over some of my other ones that did a better job. We will not be returning to EDC as I do not feel that the judges have any clue what they are doing. They also didn’t even have a livestream in a freakin pandemic!

Just returned home from Nationals! What a great event!! A lot of top notch studios with nice teachers. My dancers are ready to get back to the studio and work hard. They were inspired! We had a blast with the scavenger hunt & it created such team bonding. You will see us again next season!

Completely rigged - Nationals were awful- way too much crazy with scores !!! some studios who could barely do cartwheels got platinums and the studio that does standing layouts and team back tucks perfect with no technical issues gets the same score ???? Or when you attend a Regional and your solo gets elite platinum with an almost perfect score with a very competitive grouping and does a better job at their national competition but only gets a platinum?? - when everyone in the audience comes up to your dancer and says wow that was rigged - including the top two soloist who said no way I was better not sure what is happening?? I think it is well run but maybe get the judging in line unless of course you are friends with the people who organize this competition ... Too bad that it is not consistent.

This competition was ok. And by that I mean kind of boring. The venue was incredibly small and unorganized! Our kids had to get changed down the street and run to the theater it was being held in their costumes. The costume awards were a joke. On the website it says that it must be an original design and the child that won was wearing a book costume. The judging was very biased toward a studio that goes to the companies nationals and has been going there for years. Overall not impressed.

Wonderful competition. Everyone is extremely friendly. Judging is fair. Runs on time. We do their regionals every year and did their nationals. Looking forward to regionals Feb 2018!

Okay comp. Schedule was good, ran a little ahead. Staff very nice. Awards short and too the point. One major negative is the scoring. Scoring range is way to big....everyone received Elite Gold or Platinum and some of the dances that received Elite Gold were really good....and some were really bad. There needs to be better differentiation especially in the Elite Gold level.

This is a joke of a competition. The owner did not order enough awards and told little children their awards will be sent in the mail!!!!!! People pay so much money to attend and then their 7 years olds leave without their award! Insane. Judge didn\'t say one positive thing on critiques and were offensive. 10 year olds sexually booty popping win top score. 18 year olds are marked down for \"provocative\" dancing. Very strange experience. They did run on time. But to me competition is supposed to be a positive experience and this was not!!!!!

I love this competition! Our 4th year attending & I wouldn\'t miss it. The judging is fair, the event runs on time, the staff is wonderful & the owner is very personable. They give out quality awards & their merchandise is the best. I attended the Milford, MA competition this past weekend & the talent level was top notch! We\'ll see you at Nationals!

Positive notes: The competition was run on time. The woman overseeing the acts backstage was very friendly and helpful to the contestants. The video/photo company hired for this event was wonderful. Negative notes: The awards were extremely confusing. There were solid routines that received a \"gold\" and routines where the participant(s) forgot their routines who received \"elite gold\". There were many very basic beginner routines who placed higher than those with a higher skill level. One studio received high gold and platinum for every routine, even those in which contestants forgot their routine and one in which a participant fell. I understand judging is subjective, but I felt as though there were several incredibly amazing routines (not from our studio) who placed beneath this studio\'s sub-par routines. Please know, this studio had many routines who absolutely deserved to be at the top. It just really felt incredibly biased and we\'ve never really seen this at a competition. Competition held February 27-28, 2016 at Milford High School, Milford, MA

Staff is excellent. Very helpful with answering any questions you have.

Overall a good competition.

Great competition! Very friendly staff and judges! Fun awards but not overdone! Overall it was a nice, positive, enjoyable experience for everyone!

We attended the Danvers Convention. My dancers learned so much from your teachers! We all left feeling very inspired & ready to work hard. Thank you!

My studio & I had a great time at your Nationals! Everything was spot on from the Venue, Judging, Staff & Critiques. What a great experience for my dancers & parents. See you next season!!

One of the best competitions I have been to in a long time! The venue was great,the staff was friendly,the entire weekend ran on time. The judging was spot on & the critiques were very helpful. Looking forward to Nationals this summer!

Not sure if we\'ll be returning. The venue was nice and staff was great. However, judges critiques were so vague. One judge kept singing the songs instead of giving feedback. How can my students learn from such behavior? Agreed with scoring but found it to be a waste of time after listening to critiques.

Very impressed with the competition in Worcerster, Mass.Everyone we met and saw was respectful of dancers, families, and studios. The employees were nice at the t-shirt counter even after long days of standing in a tight space.The dances moved along and they even ran a little bit early.My kids did really well too which is always nice when there hard work pays off.

Attended in CT. Was well run, on time. Look forward to attending again.

What a great competition! Ran on time, owner & staff were very friendly, scores we spot on. Got a lot of great ideas from the judges in our critiques! We have decided to go to Nationals!

We looked forward to our 1st time at EDC. For the most part, we were very pleased. Received our schedule early, staff was friendly, and everything was organized and ran as scheduled. We also left looking forward to next year. After receiving our critiques, however, I doubt we\'ll return. While we agreed with the scoring, we received very little in the way of useful feedback. We look forward to judges\' insights so our dancers can grow and develop.

Just had another amazing competition weekend thanx to professional & awesome staff at EDC!! Hands down our favorite comp every year... Looking forward to 2015 EDC Nationals!

As always we had a very positive experience at EDC. The staff is wonderful and very helpful. Ran on time and backstage crew was very upbeat and positive with all the dancers.

this was our 4th year attending EDC and as always, we had a wonderful experience! The staff is always very friendly, approachable and easy to work with even when we have large pieces that require taking over all of back stage and quick changes within production pieces The atmosphere at EDC is filled with positive energy & excitement for all dancers/studios. The judging and awards are always fair. The award ceremonies are fun & not too drawn out or too long and the Special Awards are always focused on positive attributes of the dancers and the teams like role model, grace, technique, entertainment. We will definitely continue to come back to EDC!

This is my 4 year taking my dancers to this comp. we love it! Fantastic staff! It runs on time sometimes even ahead of schedule. Judging seems fair. Nationals are always a great time!

My dancer\'s, parents & teachers love this competition! Just had our parents meeting & this is the first competition that we schedule every season.

Love EDC! Great staff, ran on time, wonderful awards & fair judging. See you next year!

A year ago I would have given this competition 4 stars. This years judging left something to be desired. While I love the family atmosphere this place provides I will not subject my children to rude comments by a judge. Constructive criticism is ok but when you are hurting a child\'s self esteem that is not ok in my book.

The owner and staff are great! We did regionals last year and loved it but didn\'t understand how the routines scored so differently at Nationals. How can that be when we are given time before nationals to make the corrections recommended by your judges and then come back with a lower score? This year\'s Regionals seemed to score similar to the difficulty level of Nationals so we are hoping that we aren\'t surprised again come Nationals. My only complaint about this year\'s regionals was that one of the judges spoke INCREDIBLY FAST. I know she is giving corrections, but when you are spitting out 10 corrections in less than 10 seconds, that\'s a problem. It came off as though she cared more about filling up the allotted time to speak rather than actually watch and appreciate the dances. Hope this improves and we can continue attending EDC.

This was my first experience as a dance comp Mom. The comp ran smoothly as far as time was concerned, ended a little behind schedule and was some swapping around of routines. The end of the first day was extremely frustrating when they overbooked the amount of dancers they had and did not allow them on stage for their awards. This being my daughters first competition she was extremely upset and frustrated that she was not able to have that experience on stage. Very poor planning on behalf of the comp management team as per the building representative that was there informed us they knew in advance this was going to be an issue. As a Mom it was offensive that some routines that were very inappropriate regarding costumes and dance moves were allowed to compete and placed on the higher side. That shows the dancers that go onstage with and age appropriate routine and costume that distasteful wins. These routines placed high and I felt set a bad precedent of what dance is becoming. Twerking and stripper pole moves should not be allowed in youth age categories. The judging was not consistent. It was hard to determine what the judges were looking for and what routines were placing well. Because of this we will not be attending the Elite Nationals. Very negative opinion.

My dancers & I love this competition! We have been attending since their first season. Very family friendly. See you at Nationals!

Way overbooked studios so when it came time for awards not all the kids were welcomed to the stage. A bit disappointing. Also very displeased to report inappropriate dance routines seemed to score very well. Not impressive to me. We opted out of Nationals because we disapprove of twerking and strip moves.

Was good but i think the girls should express themselves more

Really really nice owner. nationals were great and regionals have always been a good experience, I like the ribbons they\'re very nice and love the gifts given to title winners. Only issue with this competition is that the judging is not consistent. At one regional event we attended only 2 routines received the \"elite platinum\" award but at another they were given out so often that they lost their value. Could\'ve been the talent level but still felt a lack of consistency in that aspect. Overall nice competition, constantly growing and does the live video judging which is always nice.

Average compared to the ones we have done. Ran on time. Nice backstage staff. Venue was a bit small, and scoring was way too easy. Platinum was the rule, not the exception. I know you don\'t want kids to feel bad, but when you hand out the platinum like candy, it no longer means much.

Elite is our favorite competition of the year!

As an independent dancer my daughter had a terrific experience at this venue. We did not feel like we were at the competition without a studio. The owner is more than helpful and the entire atmosphere of the venue is amazing. Regionals and Nationals were so well run.Can\'t wait to go back this year!

We liked their format and it ran on time. Nice experience.

Awesome backstage crew keep things running smoothly! Realistic scoring, attracts solid studios. Our dance families rate this one high! I do too :o)

This is one of the best (if not the best) competitions I\'ve been to. It is always run smoothly and on time. The staff is friendly and helpful. The judges give very helpful comments/critiques. They all keep the environment positive and fun for all the dancers.

Hands down on of the best competitions I have ever been to. Friendly professional staff. Runs on time. Great judges with great critique tapes. LOVE LOVE LOVE this competition!

Staff was very professional, ran on time and smoothly. Very fair judging and great vibe all around. We loved it and can't wait to go again.

Great experience at this comp! Crew was awesome , (kept things running on time) , super organized.....lots of attention to detail..these people really care & do their best to make the overall experience enjoyable. Judging was thorough & fair