A single dancer performing a routine that blends dance with acrobatic skills such as balances, flexibility work, rolls and tumbling, judged on technique, stage presence, execution, choreography and overall appearance, and placed in a skill-level band by score.
An acro solo is one dancer performing one routine in which dance and acrobatic skill share the stage. Typical content includes held balances, deep flexibility positions, rolls, walkovers, cartwheels and other tumbling elements, joined together by dance movement, travelling steps and choreographed transitions rather than performed as a string of separate tricks. With no partner or group, the dancer carries every lift of the body and every change of direction alone, so strength, control and safe landings are as visible to the panel as musicality.
On the Time to Shine Dance Competitions template, which this page is written from, Acro Solo sits among about twenty solo styles. Entrants do not enter one open section; they enter a division set by years of dance training and by age. There are three experience levels: less than two years, two to five years, and five years or more. Each has its own run of ages, from 4 and under for the newest dancers, and the two higher levels run on to 18, Adult and Mature Age. A separate Masters division is open to dance teachers. Age is counted as at 1 January of the competition year.
A round is a single performance on stage. The dancer is announced, the music starts and the adjudicator watches the whole routine, writing a critique as it unfolds. The score is out of 100 on five lines: Technique 40, Stage Presence 25, Execution of Performance 20, Choreography 10 and Overall Appearance 5. The total decides a skill-level band rather than a first, second or third place: Platinum Plus from 97, Platinum 93-96, Double Diamond 87-92, Diamond 80-86, Emerald 70-79 and Ruby 60-69. Several dancers in one division can therefore earn the same band.
Routines for dancers with under two years of experience run to two minutes; every other division runs to three. Boys and girls compete together and no language requirement is printed. For a coordinator using eTalenter the item is handled like any other solo: register the dancer in the right experience level and age division, record the adjudicator's mark out of 100, and the band follows from the score. The template does not print rules on which acrobatic skills are allowed, on mats or on music, so none are stated here; coordinators should publish their own, with safety in mind.
Where Acro Solo is run
In eTalenter data Acro Solo appears on 7 dance templates, all of them Australian dance eisteddfods, festivals or competitions, including Time to Shine Dance Competitions, where it carries 40 age and experience divisions. Acro sections have become a regular part of studio-based dance programmes in Australia, the United Kingdom and North America as acrobatic dance has grown as a studio discipline.
- Australia
- United Kingdom
- United States
Key facts
- Individual entry; boys and girls compete together; no language requirement.
- Divisions on this template: three experience levels (under 2 years, 2 to 5 years, 5 years or more) crossed with single-year ages, plus Adult, Mature Age and a Masters division for teachers.
- Time limit: 2 minutes for dancers with under 2 years of experience, 3 minutes for everyone else.
- Scored out of 100: Technique 40, Stage Presence 25, Execution of Performance 20, Choreography 10, Overall Appearance 5.
- Result is a skill-level band by score (Ruby 60-69 up to Platinum Plus 97 and above) with a written critique.
- Idea starters, not rules: a routine that opens on a held balance and returns to it at the close, a flexibility sequence linked by dance steps, a floor-work passage timed to a musical change, a theme such as a clockwork toy told through sharp balances.
On eTalenter, Acro Solo is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 7 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Acro Solo is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to 2–3 minutes where a limit is set.
What judges look at in Acro Solo
What a Acro Solo panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Technique (40): secure balances held without wobble, straight lines and pointed feet in flexibility and tumbling, controlled take-offs and landings, and skills that are clean rather than rushed.
- Stage Presence (25): confidence and expression through the difficult moments, with a face and focus that stay connected to the audience instead of showing effort or worry.
- Execution of Performance (20): how cleanly the planned routine is delivered, with skills landing on the music, no visible recovery from a slip and a clear finishing pose.
- Choreography (10): acrobatic skills joined by real dance movement, using changes of level, direction and tempo, with difficulty matched to age and experience rather than a list of tricks.
- Overall Appearance (5): fitted, safe clothing that suits the style and does not restrict or slip during floor work, with tidy hair and presentation.
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Acro Solo under Scoring Setup, or start from the full group dance judging criteria guide.
How to prepare for Acro Solo
How entrants and their teachers usually get Acro Solo right on the day:
- Choose the experience level by total years of dance training, not by age, because it decides who the dancer is marked alongside.
- Include only skills the dancer can perform cleanly every time in rehearsal; a simpler skill done well earns more under Technique than a harder one that fails.
- Link each acrobatic skill to the next with dance steps or a deliberate pose, so the panel sees choreography and not a series of separate tricks.
- Warm up thoroughly, with extra attention to wrists, shoulders, back and hips, and ask the teacher to check that skills are suited to the dancer's age and strength.
- Check with the organiser about the stage surface and whether mats are allowed, and rehearse on a surface as close to it as possible.
- Cut the music to the division limit, remembering the two-minute cap for the under-2-years level, and finish a few seconds inside it.
- Run the full routine at performance effort at least three times in a row to build the stamina that acrobatic work demands.
- After a lower band, read the written critique with the teacher and fix one technique point and one performance point before the next event.
Frequently asked questions
Is Acro Solo judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter's templates it's most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
What is an acro solo?
One dancer performs a single routine that combines dance with acrobatic skills such as balances, flexibility and tumbling, judged as one performance on technique, stage presence, execution, choreography and appearance.
How long can an acro solo be?
On the Time to Shine template, two minutes for dancers with under two years of experience and three minutes for everyone else. Other organisers set their own limit.
Is acro the same as gymnastics?
No. Gymnastics is judged on apparatus or floor skills. In an acro dance solo the acrobatic skills are part of a choreographed dance routine and are marked together with performance and choreography.
Is it judged against other dancers or against a standard?
The template reports a skill-level band from the total score and a written critique, so the result is the band the marks fall into rather than a printed first, second or third place.
Want the full judging picture? Read the full group dance judging criteria guide, or browse every dance competition item.
Try Acro Solo in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Acro Solo, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
