Ohio Dance Masters is an association of dance educators who come together to help further dance education for many children and teens. During the weekend of November 16th-18th, they held a dance convention for dancers to attend. Dance studios could enter routines to compete in the competition. The routines were split up by the age of the dancer/average age of the dancers and the division that they were entered in. There are three judges that sit in front of the stage to judge each performance and decide their awards. The judges are educated in dance, and some have even grown up in the ODM program.

There are different types of awards that a dancer/group of dancers can receive. Everyone is given an adjudication award. One may get bronze, silver, high silver, gold, high gold, or platinum, with bronze being the lowest and platinum being the highest. Bronze and silver awards are not typically given, and high silver awards are becoming rare as well. The dances with the highest scores will receive a high score award ribbon. The amount of high score award ribbons given depends on the number of dances entered into the age division and category. The judges will all give out two to three special awards for routines that stand out in some way to them. Also, dancers can get an overall, which is first place through eighth place. Lastly, there are awards for the best choreography, the most entertaining piece, and for the studio that brings the most students.

Janes School of Dance spent countless hours preparing for this competition. Forty-eight entries were entered for this competition, including an “Oz” production with the whole competition team. “Oz” is a seven-minute number where the audience can sit back, relax, and enjoy traveling to the mysterious land of Oz with Dorothy. This routine was awarded a Platinum and the Most Entertaining award in the elite category, which meant that it had to perform later that night at the Miss/Mr. Dance competition.

JSOD also attended ballet, tap, jazz, and their choice of hip-hop or modern class at this competition. At the end of each individual class, the teacher will give out a shining star award to a student that stood out to them for some reason. For this competition, a student from JSOD received the ballet shining star award.

Excluding “Oz”, JSOD brought six group numbers. The awards for these dances are listed below.

• “Put it on me”- High Gold award and 2nd runner-up
• “Outlaws”- Platinum award
• “The Secret of Bamboo”- High Gold award and Most Entertaining
• “Swing it”- High Gold award
• “The Garden”- High Gold award and a high score award
• “Elle’s Engagement”- High Gold award

The following results were from JSOD solos.

• Four Platinum Awards
• Seventeen High Gold Awards
• Seventeen Gold Awards
• Ten High Score Awards
• Six solos placed
• Five solos received a special award

As soon as JSOD returned home from Dayton, they were back at work for another performance that occurred on December 1st, 2018 and they are now at work for another competition in January. The grind never stops.