DANCE LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW.
It’s one of the biggest events of the convention, the Dance Competition! Talented individuals don their fursuits and show off their stuff – to music! Please read the following rules carefully, and then fill out the form at the bottom of the page.
ENTERING THE COMPETITION.
Prelims are being held virtually and in person this year. When you sign up for the dance competition, you have the option to send in a video of your complete act. Video edits for this must be minimal, as using ANY special effects will disqualify you from consideration.
We prefer that video files are shared via Google Drive. You can also send a link to a video on YouTube, Dropbox, or another video hosting service. Please make sure you submit your music file as well!
If you do not want to apply by sending in a video, you can still sign up for the dance competition and show up for prelims in person to try out for the finals.
Entering the Anthro New England dance competition in person is simple. Fill out the form below, submit your music to the link provided in the form, and make sure you arrive to the preliminaries at the scheduled time and place in your fursuit. That’s it!
Both solo and group performances are welcome in the Anthro New England dance competition. Be aware — if there are 3 or more group performances in the dance competition finals, we’ll make a separate category just for groups.
YOUR FURSUIT.
For the sake of this dance competition, a fursuit consists of a full fursuit head, at least two hand paws, and a tail (unless your species has no tail). You’re welcome to wear a partial fursuit, a full fursuit (plantigrade or digigrade), or even a quadsuit.
MUSIC.
APROPRIATE CONTENT.
Your song needs to be appropriate for a PG-13 audience. Please, no swears, inappropriate language or themes, slurs, or excessive sexual undertones. People of all ages love coming to the dance competition, and they should be in an environment that’s comfortable.
LENGTH.
Performing by yourself? Solo entrants can compete with music less than 2 minutes in length and a minimum of 1 minute 30 seconds. You can cut your music yourself, or the DJ will fade it out at the 2 minute mark.
Groups can compete with longer music — an additional 30 seconds for each member of the group beyond the first person. For example:
For a 2 person group, the dance can go up to 2 minutes and 30 seconds: 2 minutes initially, plus 30 seconds because of the second group member. For a 3 person group, this would be 3 minutes (2 minutes + 30 seconds + 30 seconds), and so on.
SUBMITTING MUSIC.
No one likes forgetting their flash drive. We are gathering music for routines in advance so there are no issues on the day of performances.
We’ll also screen music to make sure it’s the right sound quality for our speakers and is appropriate for the audience. Please note, your music must be submitted with this form prior to the convention – no exceptions.
Please be sure to title your song entry in the following format:
FURSUITNAME_FURRYNAME.mp3
ex: Copley_AnthroNE.mp3
PRELIMINARIES.
THE BASICS.
If you’d like to be in the dance competition, your first performance will be in the preliminaries, unless you are submitting by video. If you do submit by video, you are still welcome to attend preliminaries.
The dance competition preliminaries will take place in the Harbor ballroom. We will announce the exact time as we draw closer to the date. Keep an eye out for the schedule!
You’ll need a few minutes to warm up, so we suggest coming in 15 minutes early.
THE PRELIMARY COMPETITION.
We want you to be comfortable performing your first time around, so the preliminaries will be closed to the public. If you can, ask your handler or assistant to wait outside unless you require their help. Don’t sweat it, we will have water and staff to help you stay cool and calm.
Preliminary judges will observe each act. Don’t worry, these judges aren’t the same as the judges in the finals — so your big hits and fancy footwork won’t be spoiled. If there are more than fifty acts in the preliminaries, each performer should be ready to dance to just the first 1 minute 30 seconds of their routine for the preliminary judges. They will then use a pre-set scoring system to rank each person trying out. The top entries in the rankings will be invited to the dance competition finals.
FINALS.
THE BASICS.
If you move on to the dance competition finals, you must meet in the Main Ballroom 30 minutes before the start of the event on Saturday.
We hate to say it, but late performers will not be allowed in the finals. We will announce an exact time for the dance competition soon. Every competitor must be on time.
THE FINAL COMPETITION.
The order of competitors will be announced when you arrive (don’t worry, we’ll post the order of performers backstage for your reference).
When it is your turn, you will perform your act, remain on stage for verbal judging, then exit the stage. When all acts are finished, all finalists will be welcomed back to the stage for a fun group freestyle dance while judges finalize scores.
SCORING.
Judges will consider every dancer’s musicality, originality, technicality, crowd appeal and overall performance. They will rank each dancer until they have a list of the top ranked performers. Prizes will then be rewarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place dancers.