A single young dancer presenting a routine they have choreographed themselves, judged on technique, stage presence, execution, choreography and overall appearance, and placed in a skill-level band by score.
Student Choreography Solo is the dance section where the routine is the dancer's own idea. Instead of learning a piece from a teacher and being marked on how well it is copied, the entrant arranges the steps, picks the music and decides the shape of the dance, then performs it alone. It rewards the dancer who is starting to think like a choreographer: someone who can hear a phrase of music and decide what the body should do with it.
On the Time to Shine Dance Competitions template, which this page is written from, it is one of about twenty solo styles. Entrants 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 runs through its own set of single-year ages, from 4 and under for the newest dancers, and the two higher levels continue to Adult and Mature Age. A separate Masters division is open to dance teachers. Age is counted as at 1 January of the competition year. The template does not print who may be treated as a 'student' or whether a teacher may help, so organisers should state that in their own conditions.
A round is one performance on stage. 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: 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 on this template runs to three. Boys and girls compete together and no language requirement is printed. Note that Choreography carries only 10 of the 100 marks here, so a clever idea cannot rescue weak technique. 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 say which style the routine must be in, so none is stated here.
Where Student Choreography Solo is run
In eTalenter data Student Choreography Solo appears on four Australian dance templates: Time to Shine Dance Competitions, where it carries 40 age and experience divisions, an under-sixteen song-and-dance challenge with restricted-level age divisions, a performing arts festival with two older age divisions, and a regional dance festival. A student or creative choreography section is a common extra in dance eisteddfods and festivals that want to encourage young dancers to compose their own work.
- 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 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 built on one repeated movement motif, a dance that answers a poem or a rainy-day sound, a piece that travels through three levels of the stage, a dance that tells a short story with no props.
On eTalenter, Student Choreography Solo is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 3 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Student Choreography 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 Student Choreography Solo
What a Student Choreography Solo panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Technique (40): the largest share, so the steps the dancer composes must be ones they can do cleanly, with control, balance and correct placement at their own level.
- Stage Presence (25): the dancer must perform their own idea with conviction, with focus and a clear reason for each moment rather than a nervous walk through the plan.
- Execution of Performance (20): the routine is delivered on the music without stumbles or lost counts, and finishes on time and on the final beat.
- Choreography (10): the composing itself, judged on variety of pace, level and direction, use of the music and a shape with a clear opening, build and ending.
- Overall Appearance (5): costume, hair and presentation that suit the idea and are worn neatly and safely.
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Student Choreography Solo under Scoring Setup, or start from the full group dance judging criteria guide.
How to prepare for Student Choreography Solo
How entrants and their teachers usually get Student Choreography Solo right on the day:
- Enter the experience level by total years of dance training, not by age, because it decides who the dancer is marked against.
- Start with the music: listen several times and mark where it changes, then give each section one clear movement idea.
- Compose within what the dancer can already do well; simple steps in an original order mark better under Technique than ambitious steps done shakily.
- Build a clear shape: a distinct opening position, one section that builds, and a finishing pose that is held.
- Cut the music to the division limit and rehearse against a timer, remembering the two-minute cap for dancers with under two years of experience.
- Film each rehearsal, then watch it with a teacher and remove any move that is repeated without a reason.
- Run the full routine at performance effort at least three times in a row, in the costume and shoes to be used on the day.
- After a lower band, read the written critique and choose one choreography point and one technique point to change before the next event.
Frequently asked questions
Is Student Choreography 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.
Does the dancer have to choreograph the routine themselves?
The name says it is a choreography section, but the template does not print who may help. Check the organiser's own conditions on teacher input before entering.
How long can a student choreography 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.
How much of the score is for the choreography?
On the Time to Shine template, 10 of the 100 marks. Technique carries 40 and Stage Presence 25, so performing the idea well matters more than the idea alone.
Is it the same as the Student Choreography section?
It is the solo version on the same family of templates. Other templates run a student choreography section for duos, trios, troupes and school groups, which is a separate page.
Want the full judging picture? Read the full group dance judging criteria guide, or browse every dance competition item.
Try Student Choreography Solo in eTalenter
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