The Stakes: 3/18/26

“Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made” — Ted Shawn, modern dance pioneer

Students regularly express embarrassment about how much they are affected by competitions, as if it’s cringeworthy to care.

Beyond the time, energy, and money we invest in dance, it’s our own bodies and movement we submit for judgement— and those judgements can feel like they extend to more than just our performance in the time that a judge was watching us: it can feel like an indictment of all the work we’ve done prior, what we’ve chosen to express with our bodies, and even our bodies themselves.

Those are stakes worth caring about, even if placements and advancement don’t carry as much weight for you.