Judging for dancing

[Whoshe22]

When the judges are judging the different types of dances, is there a set of criteria they all look for. I noticed with the buckskin dance there are different styles of dancing and didn't know how they compare and how they are judged.

Sheila

[MissFancyChick]

yeah a lot of powwows put different styles together. its a financial ddecision most times, or time management. I dont see how fancy and jingle or grass and fancy feather can be judged against each other, much less southern cloth against northern buckskin, etc...

[WhoMe]

When the judges are judging the different types of dances, is there a set of criteria they all look for. I noticed with the buckskin dance there are different styles of dancing and didn't know how they compare and how they are judged.

Sheila

Whoshe,

Once in a while there are criteria given to dance judges either in written form or verbally by a head dance judge. But more than not, this does not happen.

When there is no stated criteria, each judge is free to interpret who is a good dancer on according to their own bias.

Winners of dance contests dictate the direction of evolution that a category will follow.

If a dance winner has a unique style and wins alot. You can be sure there will be plenty of those who will imitate their style in order to also win.

[bahnisiain]

a couple of years ago i was asked to judge a contest for golden age grass and fancy combined at a small pow wow. the men in these two differant styles had no problem being toegether. i think there were 5 all together for both styles. what we 3 judges decided were how well they moved and how well put together were the regalia was.