COMPETITION DETAIL

The convention has great energy, and a truly fun warmup for all the dancers on the first morning. The owner Jacky obviously loves kids and loves dance, and it shows. Out of all the conventions we have attended, this had the best hip-hop and jazz classes, and all the kids loved trying ballroom for the first time. I also really enjoyed the parents' dance class. The scholarship audition process is either loved or hated. The kids audition during lunch on the first day, and those who receive call backs get a number bib. If your dancer doesn't get a number, they will not get a scholarship. On the positive side, many of our studio's kids who did not get a number said they enjoyed the scholarship audition, so I think the audition process itself is run with positivity and support. No one seemed deflated by the process, which does happen at other conventions. I also did not like that lunch was reduced to 15 minutes- this wasn't a healthy way to schedule things for young children. On the negative side, it's a lot of stress on the call-back kids, as they all re-audition on Sunday morning at 7am. The number of scholarships awarded seemed less than in other competitions, so getting that callback does not guarantee a scholarship. My only other negative was that one teacher in particular did not seem to enjoy teaching kids, and commented that he was really only there to work with the best of the best. I saw a few kids walk out with their moms, and that was really unfortunate. The competition is a mixed bag. The Judges were very qualified to judge tap and musical theater, which isn't always the case at other comps. The commentary could be more specific in what details the dancers needed to improve on ("more ballet training" isn't that helpful when probably every dancer there is in ballet). Every dancer gets a LADM pin, but it's generic and doesn't denote a placement. I would like at least 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place pins given. My favorite part was that the competition ran on time, and the awards actually finished ahead of schedule, which was very much appreciated. I do think the dressing room for girls was way too small, and saw many dancers making a run to the bathroom in desperation for space. The girls' dressing room should have been double in size.

My daughter loves the convention teachers and classes. She hates the audition process as do most of the kids and parents. If you get a number on day one, you are in the running, if not, you are not in the running for anything. At first it can be a relief that you can just take class, but then the teachers pulling out the kids with a number into a separate group, doesn't really help that or push the kids to try harder, especially when there is no feedback as to why they didn't get a number, etc. The classes are awesome and the teachers are great for the most part. As a parent of a teenage girl, I do not like that all of the faculty are young men, their mental and visual biases are hard wired and show. Overall, it is great. It would be the premier convention and very popular if they changed their audition process and added some more female teachers.

Competition: I was not crazy about this competition. Many of my complaints had to do with the venue. There was one large dressing room that was packed. You could barely move in there. One nice thing that LADM did have was a person in the dressing room with a headset on to let the dancers know who needed to head to the stage. As for judging, it seemed like a very biased event. There are a few studios in our area that travel around the country to attend various LADM events and they seemed to walk away with most of the awards. Some were warranted but not all numbers killed it enough to sweep everything. There were also teams that had their dances choreographed by some of the judges which seems like a conflict of interest to me when they are judging. The awards are sad. They truly need to give the dancers a pin or something for participating. Parents spend a lot of money on entry fees and for them to walk away with nothing is poor and cheap. Convention: We really liked the teachers. They were great with the kids. The dances were age appropriate. I think the way the choose scholarships is odd. It doesn't necessarily give the students something to work towards in the classes.

LADM is a studio favorite. The faculty is always amazing, classes are never too big, and they keep it fun. The competition always pulls some amazing talent which helps the dancers really strive for their best.

My daughter just completed her third LADM Convention in Denver. Over the last three years we have enjoyed the experience very much. 2016 brings an exciting new backdrop with lots of lights and multimedia video backgrounds. My daughter has won free regional scholarships for two years, and was a Teen finalist this year.We go to a lot of conventions and one different experience here is that the teachers do not usually pull out student demonstrators toward the end of each class. I think it makes the kids work less hard because there isn\'t a \"reward\" of potentially being a demonstrator. It was an interesting difference from most of the conventions we attend. Because the scholarship auditions are held at lunch on the first day of convention, the kids find out who \"gets a number\" on day one, they come back on Sunday morning to do final Scholarship auditions, and then winners are announced at the closing show on Sunday. This worked great for my daughter because she was a finalist, but if she weren\'t I think it would be disappointing that only the kids who \"got a number\" on the first day won any of the multiple and generous scholarships given out at closing show. We loved the faculty, especially new addition Curtis who is just fabulous. We also really liked Christian\'s optional lunch talk on dance and higher education - promoting college for our aspiring dancers - something we don\'t hear enough of in the dance industry. Because Christian works in commercial dance and is on faculty at USC Glorya Kaufman\'s Dance program, he is very credible and we appreciated his effort to teach the history of dance as well as his practical advice. We listened to competition awards and they were VERY confusing, need a better system of articulating and differentiating dancers for awards. Overall, a wonderful, organized convention with enough space - thank you for not overselling! We thought the teachers were great, with strong jazz emphasis, low Contemporary. Highly Recommend!

Amazing faculty, they took time to educate the kids in a meaningful way. The classes were very full, but that\'s par for the course. Overall we left better than we came and are excited to return!!

Our daughter competed at LA Dance Magic in Chicago 2016. We were impressed with how well the competition ran. There were a lot of very talented studios in the Chicagoland area that competed. The judging seemed very fair. The hotel venue was very nice for the competition and convention classes. The convention classes were awesome with amazing and inspiring teachers. We would love to attend another one in 2017!

One of the best conventions out there. Love the staff, they remember the kids from year to year. Never over sell so there is always room for the kids to dance. Competition is tough, but the critiques are great.

Love Ms. Jackie and her staff!

What a great weekend spent at LADM! My daughter had an amazing time at the convention and the competition was a blast. The talent was unbelievable across all studios there. It was a great way to start off our competition season.

best convention ever! great judges!

Competition is great and high quality teachers for convention. I just wish that it wasn\'t so crowded in the convention. We pay a lot of $$$ for my kids to not be able to see or to tap dance on carpet!

One of my fave dance comp experiences. As the mom of a male dancer, it was amazing to have so many male dance teachers. Looking forward to attending with the studio again in 2016.

We took a small group to the Chicago event. Thought the teachers were extremely approachable and down to earth. Excellent experience!

The judges could be more helpful in their critiques. I know you don\'t get to see a dancer\'s journey, but repeating that the dancers need more ballet through an entire number is not helpful with improving them, or inspiring them as a dancer. Your customers pay lots of money to attend these comps to learn. I\'m not saying to be easy on anyone, but \"be critical, helpful and inspire\". I believe this is what LADM is suppose to be about.

This faculty is simply the best - so many conventions have arrogant teachers who don\'t have time for the kids,,,not the case at LADM. SO down to earth and real. They really teach the kids so much more than dance. They inspire every dancer to share their own unique talents and feel good about who they are as individuals. We absolutely adore Jackie and her entire staff. They are a class act.

We love LADM! Teachers are great and accessible to the kids. Competition is tough, it is a great experience.

Positive, upbeat and professional staff. Studios are given a flashdrive of the dances with the judges making comments as the students are dancing. The feedback was helpful, not just generalized statements. We would definitely attend again.

Just a fabulous experience. No hassle, just inspired dancing and happy dancers:)

They are the best! We had the most inspiring weekend of the year with them. I can\'t say enough great things:)

Very fun and energetic competition! Excellent with all levels of dance. This is a great competition if you have a young dancer just entering the competition world. They are very welcoming and have special classes geared towards the little ones.

Awesome faculty! Our kids had an amazing weekend!

My favorite place!

Inspirational and fun:)

If we could rate the convention and competition separately, I would. Convention was amazing. Great classes, great teachers, great auditions - five stars for convention. The competition part was SO TERRIBLE it brought this whole rating down to 2 stars. For starters, it is the only competition I have ever been to that gives nothing out to the kids in group numbers. The studio gets a big plastic medal, and that\'s it. Not everyone at our studio gets to have solos, so for the kids who went and spent $600+ for convention and a few competition group numbers, they went home with literally nothing. No pins, no anything. Ridiculous. Then they give out 1st through 3rd in EVERY category. Which I suppose is ok, but if you are going to do that, give out more than 1 overall for the whole group. If my kid places first in hip hop with a platinum but they are the only hip hop number, how do I know where they placed compared to, say, the first place tap number with a platinum? It makes one number per category awards sort of worthless. In addition, if you are going to give out 3 places, please make 3 different medals for that. My 2 girls who got 3rd places in their category received 2nd place awards because you only made those 2. How does that differentiate them from the girls who actually won 2nd place? As many other people have said, numbers ran so out of order it was ridiculous. They were literally just asking who was ready and putting anyone on stage who was dressed. None of my kids could watch any of their teammates because no one had any idea when anyone went on, and half my parents missed their own kids because they were busy with siblings, and their child was grabbed and put on stage because they were in costume. Lastly, please change how you do your adjudication videos. That one video with sliding the tracks thing is completely inaudible. Even when you slide the track, the judges are all talking so loud that they are being picked up in every mic so you can\'t hear. Worthless.

Excellent convention. The teachers were amazing how they worked with my daughter. Organized and on time. My daughter was challenged and inspired. The show was organized and on time. My daughter left motivated and appreciated everything she learned.

Loved the faculty...somewhat crowded on the convention end of things. But left with happy and inspired girls.

They were very organized and actually ran ahead of schedule. The dances were sometimes out of order which could make it hard to follow. My daughter enjoyed the classes. The teachers were positive and encouraging. Would definitely attend again.

Had an amazing time! Wonderful faculty and great atmosphere.

Good convention and competition. Things ran on time. The final show was great. The tap teacher made the announcements and was so entertaining both with her humor and her dance ability. I love the opportunity for the kids to learn for great teachers who give it their all. I also like the kids being able to see the teachers perform. I think this teaches the kids so much. The comp was difficult to follow as every dance was out of order on the program.

we had a overall good time at la magic. The competition was ontime and fair scoring. My only complaint with the competition is they went out of order the whole time so it was difficult follow. The faculty were amazing and really tried to connect with everyone. I think they need to break up the rooms a little more. they have jr\'s for under 12 and senior for 12 and up. For the older kids in jr\'s it was a bit easy and childish. But some of the 12 year olds in the senior room were getting swallowed by the big girls. Great closing show and we loved the new venue in Provo, ut.

Love them! Been going every since I was 10 and am graduating next year. Staff genuinely cares. Whether I win or lose, always have something to take away and judging feels fair. Promotes the true dance industry starting with building character. Encourages technique but not to the point of strain where they can\'t see potential. Amazing vibe and energy. Overall fair judging. Very constructive critiques. One of my favorites. Oh! and Platoon, their photography, is phenomenal too. Always the best pictures and dvds. I am very picky about mine and- because I do a lot of tap and fasting moving, high energy jazz- it\'s hard to catch me in a moment, but they get me almost every time!

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Thank you for a great weekend in Chicago! Teachers were great and my dancers especially loved Ayodele for tap. She was awesome! Thanks to Jackie for running an inspirational, challenging and well run weekend!

Our kids loved it! Thank you to the staff for being so attentive and caring. Can\'t say enough about what a positive experience it was. We had a great time! TY

Have attended this Comp/Convention for the past 3 years. We love them. They limit the solos per studio so you are not there for days just watching solos. The conventions are not over booked and the teachers are great with the kids. I like that after the children audition, they make a final cut and then re-audition and everyone is allowed to watch. The kids really show their stuff then the results are announced during the final show. The closing show seems long and drawn out after a really long weekend, but what can you do. Overall, I would recommend this comp to everyone. I would rate as a 5 but the price keeps me from doing so. I find most conventions/comps overpriced. I can\'t say enough about the instructors, they are just awesome to watch and take the time to talk with the kids about more than just a combo. Keep up the good work Also one extra about the company that does their photos. They have always been the best photos taken though the years. I hate that they have judges heads in them, but the photographer always gets the step or trick at it\'s best. However the livestream is always horrible, but I think it may be the venue and not the company. Critiques were very good as well. At times they talked over each other and you had to listen a few time to understand what was said, but they were helpful and my daughter took the good and the bad and hopefully has learned from them.

Having the opportunity to see LADM from both behind the scenes and with our studio, there is a reason they are so popular. The entire crew is nothing short of impressive from a people and knowledge standpoint. Whether its Jackie and her always inspiring attitude, Huggy who is the happiest guy on Earth, and any of the faculty members, they are definitely there for the dancers. We consider ourselves lucky anytime we\'re around them.

havent been able to attend in two years because of conflicts but my son will definitely make one or two cities this year!!!!

It was okay. The awards were ghastly plastic huge necklaces. The classes and faculty were okay.

Our dancers had a great time at LA Dance Magic. The show ran on time and the instructors were top notch,

I have not attended LA Dance Magic but wanted to rate them anyways for this reason. I rated them as an error on my part, confusing them with Dance Magic, Inc. (not LA). My experience with Dance Magic, Inc. (not LA) was terrible and I reviewed it accordingly. Within 24 hours, I was contacted (not directly from LA Dance Magic but from them through this site) asking if my experience was possibly with another competition. After research, it was discovered that I made a mistake on my review. I was very impressed with their attention to detail and their willingness to work with me to righten the wrong. I do not know of the competition/convention itself, but I can say that my experience with LA Dance Magic was highly professional as well as friendly.

The convention is great! No matter the level the child is at there is a class for them. The teachers are amazing and make each child feel special. The competition is good my only issue is everyone competes at the same level, but the judges are fair and the lighting is the best I have seen at any competition.

This convention was one of my daughter's favorites!! She will definitely attend again.

We attend LADM every Feb. in Dallas, TX. It is an event that our students look forward to all year long. They are a class act. It is by far our hardest competition each year and we still have a fantastic time. Jackie, Dave & Huggy really have their stuff together!! Thank you!!