Friday, April 24, 2026
How to Keep Studio Rivalries From Turning Toxic
Dance Magazine: From the moment dancers arrive backstage in their matching studio jackets, competitions can ignite healthy feelings of pride, unity, and belonging. But what happens when team spirit crosses the line into resentment, or even hostility, towards other competitors?
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4 comments:
I grew up dancing and continue to have a deep appreciation for dance; this is why competitive dance has always been a conflicting subject for me. On one hand, it gets more people interested in dance, and creates a new part of the industry, but on the other hand, it creates a lot of insecurity that people carry with them for the rest of their lives. The interviewee in this article actually sites insecurity as the reason for toxic competition.
Looking at competition dance as a whole, outside of the reasons for the rivalry, I think it’s important to look at the nature of it, and wonder who is being left out. Since this is a technique based scoring system, who has physical advantages? Are there certain genres of dance which have non-western influences that don’t fit into the technique categories? Since dancing is something that is deeply personal and an expression of feeling, can the insecurity and need to prove oneself as sighted in the article come not from the individual studios, but from the nature of competitive dance itself?
Honestly, rivalries are very very fun to watch for me at least, especially the ones at state thespians. Florida Thespians are incredibly competitive, for no reason as well. There are some troupes that won’t even smile at other groups and walk like a military, then act like apes around certain groups being like they’re better or something. I quite enjoy watching those, then you have those that boo other troupes as they walk by, that’s fun as well. You also have people making fun of other troupes behind their back, which again is very fun to watch. While these are really unhealthy, I don’t think you will get rid of them ever, rivalries will happen regardless of what you do, it’s just human and perfectly normal to occur. It only, in my opinion, should be stopped if its a violent rivalry or turns into hate speech, but if it’s just “we don’t like them” its fine.
I’ve had my experiences with rivalries in high school, and they’re just kinda stupid in my opinion. I don’t think I’ve ever had rivalry towards someone but it was very clear who did at my high school theatre. The main issue always came from the awards at Virginia Thespians and at the end of the year with all the high schools shows they chose as their critics' performance. Some people at my school were so obsessed with obtaining these awards and would get upset if they weren’t recognized. They seemed to take offense when certain people did rather than themselves because they thought they’re equal or more talented. The idea behind theatre is entertainment not competition, so it was all so ridiculous because we should all be supporting each other rather than competing with each other. It came to a point where my theatre teacher almost got rid of our school from participating in the local critics program.
As someone who used to dance and have fitness who dance, I know firsthand these studio rivalries get out of hand. Honestly, despite being a “reality” show and likely being overplayed, Dance Moms’s drama between studios isn’t that far off from how extreme and intense it can get. I think there's something to be said overall about toxic and unhealthy environments in the entertainment industry and how dance studio drama plays into that, but overall it is yet another part of toxic entertainment industry culture and we should work to phase it out as much as possible. I’ve seen how it can destroy relationships and how people act around watch other. The same level of rivalry and toxicity can also occur between members of the same studio and it is extremely damaging mentally and sours all potential relationships you could have within your studio, especially with how some dancers tend to gang up one person.
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