There is always a debate about competitions in classical dances. With classical dance forms gaining popularity since the past few years, the need to speak of the competitions is just right. Bharatanatyam dancer Ganesh Vasudeva has some pretty useful and relevant suggestions and alternative. Your comments and feedback are welcome.
Ganesh Vasudeva:
I see many competitions in SF Bay Area for Bharatanatyam students. These competitions awards 1st, 2nd, .. prizes to participants. This makes me sad. There are many problems within the structure of this competition (like non-dancers judging) and IN the structure itself. To me, structure of these *ranking* competitions themselves is a problem. If a student wins 1st prize does it mean he/she is a good dancer? No - it simply means they danced better (for the lack of better word) than rest that day. 1st prize doesn't mean a student dances well. On the other side of that coin is - If there are 10 very good competitors, does it mean that the person who got 10th place is a bad dancer?
No! It just means that they didn't as well as the other 9 dancers that day. In the end - this ranking system doesn't say anything about a dancer's dancing. My issue is even bigger than this. Such competitions don't encourage collaboration but competition. What we need is growth based on collaboration.
Many education systems (I don't don't mean just dance education) in the world have done away with "ranking" system and instead opt of grading system and also adopt many reforms to encourage collaboration. I hope organizations stop competitions and think about other ways to encourage students. For example, students who participate can be given feedback from senior artists, or organizations can just provide a place to showcase talents of youngsters doing away with judging, .. I think students can be encouraged in many ways.
I hope parents stop sending their kids to these competitions, teachers stop sending their students to these competitions. Are there any 'well-thought out ' point of views I am missing? And better alternatives to competitions?
PriyaLasya, (C), Do Not Copy, Copyrights Acknowledged
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