A single dancer performing a lyrical routine that turns the emotion and phrasing of a song into flowing, controlled movement, scored out of 100 and placed in a skill-level band.
A lyrical solo is one dancer, one piece of music and one routine in which the movement follows the feeling of the song. Lyrical sits between ballet and jazz: it borrows the extension, turns and leaps of ballet and the grounded weight of jazz, but its purpose is expressive. The dancer is expected to show the story or mood of the music through sustained lines, smooth transitions and a face that stays connected to the meaning of the words or melody.
On the Time to Shine Dance Competitions template, which this page is written from, Lyrical Solo is the third of about twenty solo styles, after the two jazz sections. Entry is by experience level and age. There are three experience levels: less than two years, two to five years and five years or more. Ages run from 4 and under up to 16 for the newest dancers, and from 6 or 10 and under up to 18 plus Adult and Mature Age for the other two levels. A separate Masters division is open to dance teachers, and age is counted at 1 January of the competition year.
A round is a single performance. The dancer is announced, the music starts and the adjudicator watches the whole routine while writing a critique. 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, so several dancers in one division can finish in the same band.
Solos for dancers with two years or less of experience run to two minutes and every other solo to three. Boys and girls compete together, no language is needed, and a dancer may enter the same genre more than once with different routines. Organisers run a lyrical section because it shows a different side of a dancer from jazz or hip hop: control, breath and musical interpretation rather than speed or power.
Where Lyrical Solo is run
In eTalenter data Lyrical Solo appears on 15 dance templates, all Australian: Time to Shine Dance Competitions plus regional eisteddfods and dance festivals in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian outback. It is a standard solo section at those events, usually alongside jazz, contemporary, classical and tap. Lyrical is also taught and competed in many other countries, but this page claims only the Australian use shown in the data.
- Australia
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 2 years or less 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 with a written critique; no points are printed for placings.
- Idea starters, not rules: a routine built around a slow ballad and one clear emotional journey, a piece that moves from stillness to a single big sustained leap, a number built on one repeated phrase that grows each time.
On eTalenter, Lyrical Solo is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 15 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Lyrical 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 Lyrical Solo
What a Lyrical Solo panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Technique (40): the largest line. Extension, turn control, balance, landings from leaps and a lyrical line through the arms and torso. Wobbling pirouettes and flexed or sickled feet lose marks here first.
- Stage Presence (25): connection with the music and the audience. A lyrical dancer who performs only the steps, with a blank face, scores low even when the technique is clean.
- Execution of Performance (20): smooth delivery of the planned routine, with transitions that flow rather than stop, timing with the phrasing of the music and no visible recovery from slips.
- Choreography (10): a clear shape with a beginning, build and ending, good use of the floor and levels, and movement that matches the music at a difficulty suited to the dancer's level.
- Overall Appearance (5): a costume and hair that look finished and suit a soft, flowing style; a small mark but one of the easiest to secure.
- Interpretation across all five lines: choosing music and steps the dancer can truly feel and control, rather than a showy piece that exposes weak technique.
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Lyrical Solo under Scoring Setup, or start from the full group dance judging criteria guide.
How to prepare for Lyrical Solo
How entrants and their teachers usually get Lyrical Solo right on the day:
- Choose the experience level by total years of dance training, not by age, because the division decides who the dancer is marked alongside.
- Pick music whose meaning the dancer understands, and have the dancer be able to say in one sentence what the routine is about before choreography starts.
- Spend rehearsal time on the 40 technique marks: slow turns on balance, controlled extensions and quiet landings, practised without music first.
- Mark the phrasing of the music in the choreography so movements arrive on the swell, not simply on the beat.
- Practise the performance face on video and rehearse the entrance and final pose as carefully as the steps.
- Cut the music to the time limit and finish a few seconds inside it, remembering that dancers with two years or less have two minutes.
- Run the routine twice back to back in the real costume and shoes a week before the event to build stamina for the closing section.
- 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 Lyrical 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 the difference between lyrical and contemporary?
They are separate sections on this template. Lyrical is led by the emotion and flow of the music with ballet-influenced lines, while contemporary has its own entry and a broader, often more grounded movement vocabulary.
How long can a lyrical solo be?
Two minutes for dancers with two years or less of experience and three minutes for everyone else.
Do dancers get first, second and third place?
Not on this template. Each performance is scored out of 100 and the dancer receives a skill-level band with a written critique.
Can a dancer enter more than one lyrical routine?
Yes, the template allows the same genre to be entered up to three times, each with a different routine.
Want the full judging picture? Read the full group dance judging criteria guide, or browse every dance competition item.
Try Lyrical Solo in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Lyrical Solo, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
