Tekkoshocon X Dance Competition
One of its kind on the US convention circuit, the Tekkoshocon Dance Competition gives individuals and groups a chance to show off their skills in front of a crowd. If you love to dance, enjoy performing with your friends, obsess over "odotte mita" videos on YouTube, or are driven by your desire to share one of your favorite artists with the world, this competition is for you! Interested? Read on!
Eligibility
You must have a valid Tekkoshocon X attendee badge in order to participate in the dance competition. Eligible badge types include weekend and premium badges, artists, panelists, dealers, press, and minions. Preregistration for Tekkoshocon X is recommended but not required. Time and personal schedules permitting, staff and guests may present dances while the judges are deliberating over the final results but will not be eligible to win awards.
An individual may only enter once per year, either solo or as part of a group. A group may consist of a maximum of eight people.
Qualifying Round
For the qualifying round, entrants must submit a video of themselves performing the qualifying song. If entrants are competing as a group, the group must submit a video as a unit. If entrant is competing solo, he/she must submit a solo video.
Qualifying Song: Berryz Kobo - Ryuusei Boy
You may upload your video to YouTube, Veoh, or Flickr for judging consideration. A link to the video must be sent to dance@tekkoshocon.com by Wednesday, February 15th at 11:59 PM EST. In the email, you must include the full (real) names of all of the members of your group.
Entrants will be notified of their status by Saturday, February 18th. Finalists (those appearing in the contest at Tekkoshocon) must submit their final song choices for each round to dance@tekkoshocon.com by Sunday, March 4th (see below).
Finals
The finals, live on stage at Tekkoshocon IX, will consist of two rounds. Finalists may choose to participate in both rounds or in Round 1 only. In addition, finalists will perform the qualifying song as an ensemble.
Round 1: Finalists perform the official dance to a song of their choice (between 2:45 and 4:45 in length).
Round 2: Finalists perform their own original choreographed dance (between 1:30 and 3:00 in length) to a song of their choice.
All finalists will be required to attend a rehearsal at Tekkoshocon X prior to the competition (date and time TBD). During this rehearsal, music will be submitted, the order of performances will be decided, the group song will be rehearsed, and finalists will learn the location of stage entrances, exits, and changing facilities.
Song Selection Notes
1. Songs must be relevant and appropriate for performance at a Japanese pop culture convention. At least one of your songs must be recorded in the Japanese language. Japanese language singles by foreign artists such as SNSD, BoA, or TVXQ are legal.
2. Contestants may not select two songs from the same artist. For the purposes of this competition, all "Vocaloid" songs are considered to be performed by the same artist, so please select no more than one.
3. At the time of submission, finalists are asked to provide both the title and artist for each song they select as well as a link to PVs/concert performances/animated dance sequences as appropriate.
The contest coordinator will happily answer any questions regarding song choice. She can be reached at dance@tekkoshocon.com.
Scoring
Contestants will be judged on technique, execution, music synchronization and stage presence. In special categories, ties will be broken by the technique score. Judges' score sheets will be returned to independent entries AFTER all awards have been presented. Both rounds will be scored the same.
Scoring is as follows. Each category is worth a maximum of 10 points:
Showmanship
+ Expression – Do you show the emotion of the song?
+ Team Image- Did you all throw yourselves into the dance completely?
+ Crowd Appeal – How well does the crowd love you?
+ Projection – Does the dance make others want to join you?
Spacing and Formations
+ Eye Contact – Do your eyes meet the crowd and judges or are you staring off into space?
+ Creativity – How you use the space provided?
+ Spacing - Do you use all space given or stand in one spot?
+ Variety – Are your formations consistent or do you switch it up?
Transitions and Use of Floor
+ Use of Participants – Do you use all members your group?
+ Clean Transitions- Do you fall after a hop or land smoothly?
+ Creative Transitions- Do you fly in the air and do complete backflips into the next dance step?
+ Seamless Transitions- Do your transactions come off smooth and effortless?
+ Flow – How well do your moves work with the space provided?
Style Execution
+ Use of Floor – Do you make use of movement in high AND low planes?
+ Body Control – Does you body move in complete rhythm and sync?
+ Body Isolation – Do you keep yourself in one place or do you "float" as you dance?
+ Body Placements- Do you place yourself in the right spot at the right time?
+ Sharpness – How cleanly are your dance moves seen by a large crowd?
Synchronization and Precision
+ Technique – Were your Techniques appealing or appalling?
+ Timing – How well did you time your moves with your song?
+ Sharpness – Was every member of your group moving as a unit and doing unison moves in the same way?
+ Clean – were your moves clean? And to the standards of our contest?
Style Specialties
+ Visual Appeal – Did your Costume go with your dance/song choice?
+ Leap Form/Technique – How well were your leaps and air steps? (Applies to jumps, skips and hops)
+ Turn Form/Technique – Did you make your turns on time and stay standing?
+ Variation – Did you use a lot of leaps and turns or did you hop back and forth in one place?
+ Partner Work – If you have a partner how well did you guys work together?
Choreography
+ Floor Work – Did you make use of the stage?
+ Variety of Moves - How many different moves did you show us?
+ Unique Combinations - How many combos did you score?
+ Ripples/Levels – Was the dance a more advanced dance or something simple?
+ Pace/Tempo – was the dance upbeat or slow? Did you perform well to it? (Slow dances are just as epic - and hard - as fast paced ones!)
+ Use of Music – Did your song selection match what dance you picked? Or did you do ballet to a para? (This doesn’t always work)
+ Complex Moves- How challenging were the steps?
+ Difficulty – How hard was the over all performance?
+ Rhythm – Were you in sync and have great balance with both the song and each other?
+ Transitioning – Did you go from one step to the next with little to no problem?
Routine Difficulty
+ Energy/Pace – Was your performance as lively as a j-pop concert or were you sluggish?
+ Synchronization- Did you keep the time and coordination of both dance and song? Was everything in unison?
+ Precision – Were your moves performed sharply and in a uniform fashion?
+ Timing – Were your moves done with proper timing?
+ Clean Routine – Was your dance clean?
Overall Execution
+ Entertaining – Was your dance enjoyable and fun to watch? Did it leave us at the edge of our seats?
+ Energy/Pace – Did you have strong energy and kept up at the right pace?
+ Creativity – How creative were you in performing your dance?
+ Appropriate Costumes – Was the costume appropriate and go with your song or did we have to ask you to get off the stage? NOTE: "Costume" does not necessarily mean "cosplay"! While a group performing "Hare Hare Yukai" could choose to dress as characters from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, dressing as your own school's version of the SOS Brigade, aliens, explorers, or wearing any kind of bright, sunny outfits would be appropriate and could potentially net you points.
Overall Routine Impression
+ Appropriate Moves – Did you impress the judges and audience with your dance?
Resources
Eager to get started but not sure where to begin? The following is a collection of official YouTube channels of Japanese recording artists and other artists releasing in Japan. These artists are regularly covered by the "odotte mita" artists you see on YouTube.
Avex Network (Ayumi Hamasaki, Koda Kumi, EXILE, SNSD, TVXQ, BoA, Tokyo Girls' Style, others)
Berryz Koubou Channel
Mano Erina Channel
Morning Musume Channel
C-ute Channel
S/mileage Channel
Stardust Digital (Momoiro Clover)
Tokyo Girls Style
Up Front Channel (The Possible, Canary Club, Gokujo! Mecha Mote Iincho, Hello! Project, others)
Super Eurobeat Official (Para Para artists)
AKB48 Channel
SKE48 Channel
Buono Channel
SUPER☆GiRLS Channel
Tokuma Japan (Perfume, Vanilla Beans, others)
