How Does Judging Work at Highland Dance Competitions?
By Nicole Odo, RSOBHD Judge
The world of competitive highland dance can be a lot to wrap your head around at first. It’s an individually judged sport, and parents will often ask “what are the judges looking for?”
We’re going to break that down today, and also give insight into how the scoring system works!
I’m going to write this from the perspective of how I judge, but know that all judges have their own slightly different methods for how they go about choosing their top dancers from the group.
Competition Day
I’ll start by giving you a run down on how a typical competition works for a judge.
Before the day of the competition, the competition organizer has divided the dancers by level (Primary, Beginner, Novice, Intermediate and Premier – this depends on your dance card), and also by age. As I’m also a competition organizer, I can tell you that we always attempt to make the age groups as evenly sized as we can based on registration numbers, but it’s not always possible (sometimes there are 15 x 8-year-old Beginners and we can’t split that!).
At the competition, when the age group / level of the dancer is called, they’ll go to the line-up area to prepare to dance on the stage. Dancers go up on stage typically in groups of three, but judges will sometimes take four at a time for the Fling, and if there is only enough for two at the end of a group, you might see that too.
Example – 11 dancers in a group
- Group of 3
- Group of 3
- Group of 3
- Group of 2
While the dancers are on the stage, the judge is evaluating:
- Timing – maximum 10 marks
- Technique – maximum 80 marks
- General Deportment – maximum 10 marks
Judges typically receive a sheet with three columns: dancer number, dancer score and comments.
There’s one sheet for each dance for each level and age group.
Judging Process
To give you a bit of insight into MY thought process when I’m judging…
At the end of the day, the goal for a judge is to watch the entire group and pick who they feel the strongest dancers are according to the defined technique of highland dancing (this is what all our dance textbooks are about + what your teacher is teaching you!).
If I go back to the group of 11 I talked about earlier, on my sheet I’ll know where are 11 dancers in the group (the competition organizers fill that out beforehand).
When the first set comes up, I’ll give a score to each dancer out of 100, but note that this is a “placeholder” / ranking system.
Basically, I look at the three dancers on the stage, and I assign their scores based on who I feel was 1st, 2nd and 3rd from that set.
Then when the NEXT set comes up, I’ll rank this set by 1st, 2nd and 3rd as well, but I’m now also comparing to the last set, and have to slot them in so I now have scores that would rank them 1st to 6th place (hopefully I haven’t lost you).
The judging sheet could look like this:
- Dancer number: 100, Dancer score: 67
- Dancer number: 101, Dancer score: 72
- Dancer number: 102, Dancer score: 83 (during set 1, I would have decided this was my 1st place dancer)
- Dancer number: 103, Dancer score: 70
- Dancer number: 104, Dancer score: 75 (when this set came on, I would have thought they were stronger than dancers 2 and 3 in set one, so would give them a higher score accordingly)
- Dancer number: 105, Dancer score: 86 (when this set came on, I would have decided that this was my NEW 1st place dancer and given a higher score accordingly)
… and this would continue on for all 11 dancers in the group.
As mentioned earlier, there is also room for comments on the judging sheet. Judges have a list of official deductions from the RSOBHD based on the levels.
For example, a Novice dancer will receive -5 points for missing the start of the dance, and will be disqualified for dancing consistently off-time. If I have an official deduction like that to give, I have to put the reason in the comments.
I’m someone who writes A LOT in the comment section of my sheets, but to anyone but me, it is literal non-sense. I fill it with abbreviations of things I noticed, and use a lot of checkmarks, X’s and ~ to track what I thought.
From my own practices with judging sheets, and from my experiences as a competition organizer and volunteer, I can tell you that there isn’t much else you can gather from the comment section of a judging sheet.
What I Look For
In terms of what judges are looking for, it’s whoever is doing the technique most precisely according to the textbook, is dancing on time, and who presents well on stage. Some general things that stick out to me are:
- Turnout – Highland dance is ALL about turnout
- Elevation – I personally love an effortlessly elevated dancer
- Precision of movements – Are dancers hitting the right positions?
- Upper bodies – Are arms & upper bodies staying steady?
- + As dancers move up into the levels and are doing longer dances – Stamina! Judges can tell who is tired at the end because the technique will start to slip
- No errors!
My tip for parents is that if you sit and watch the group, you can also probably identify the dancers who stick out. Whoever stands out on stage to you, possibly sticks out to the judge as well. Judges just have to have a LOT more technical background to be able to make the official decision BUT
you can usually get a feel for who is the strongest dances in the group by watching closely.
I also highly encourage any dancers who are just starting out to also do this! Pick a group (possibly not your own if that stresses you out), watch all the dancers, and pick out who you think has the best technique, presentation, etc. It will give you an idea of what the judge is also trying to do, and shows you what really sticks out on stage!
The Scoring System
To confuse you further, the score a judge gives out of 100 is not the value of the award they receive. Here is the official scoring system:
- 1st place – 137 points
- 2nd place – 91 points
- 3rd place – 71 points
- 4th place – 53 points
- 5th place – 37 points
- 6th place – 23 points
This means that my theoretical first place dancer from earlier, whom I gave an 86, would get 137 points overall.
If a dancer got: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 1st, that would be = 137 + 71 + 53 + 137.
The dancer with the highest total points is the one who receives the overall trophy.
My Tips
As a parent or competitive dancer, you don’t need to understand the ins and outs of judging. That’s the judge’s job!
But I think it’s important to know how the number on the judge’s sheet differs from the value of your placing. Also, shifting your perspective and knowing that your score doesn’t always indicate that you danced badly. The judge is just trying to pick out who is technically the best on that given day, and judging is about who stood out (in a good way) in a group.
Every group you compete in is different, and every judge you dance for has different personal stylistic preferences!
SO – stay positive and keep working hard on all the corrections your teacher gives you ❤️
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