How They Are Scored

Like figure skating, dance is an extremely subjective sport. The National Dance Alliance picks judges to rank teams on technique, staging, difficulty of routine, uniformity of performance, creativity of choreography, and overall audience impression. Whereas choreography and performance are central to the first categories, audience impression incorporates things like dance theme and costuming.

Each team’s performance must not be over two minutes and 15 seconds, and must incorporate a 30-second section of “pom”-style dancing, a 30-second jazz section, and a 30-second funk section. Pom is more precise, with straight-angled jumps and props, while the funk section incorporates hip hop moves and contemporary pop music.

One judge does not score but has a clicker which he or she hits every time any one dancer is off or a mistake happens. The other judges rank teams on a scale of one to ten in each category; the average of all those scores, minus the clicker judge’s deductions, becomes the team’s overall score.