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Why learn how to judge?

21.03.2022 | Autor: Robitzky

Today's dance world is full with contests. The ecosystem of Street dances including Breaking looked completely different just a few years ago. Nevertheless we need to acknowledge that the competition world is still young and fragile.

Some soft drink companies, the biggest sports brands and even the Olympic games have our attention now. The reason for the interest is clear. Battles of greatly skilled performers create great spectacles. We live in a current hype in which for example some of the best Breakers in the world can easily make a living by winning a few of the bigger organized contests. That was unthinkable two decades ago. The world is fully connected through social media today and artists fly from continent to continent to share their knowledge, to compete and perform. The technicality and performance skills have gone through the roof and it seems it will never stop evolving.

The problem


Sadly, I see at the same time that the interpretation and the cultural meaning of the dance form Breaking as well as how the performances are assessed do not get much attention. That creates a dangerous imbalance within the cultural belief and knowledge system.

To elucidate my opinion a bit more I would like to offer a little look at the most prominent representations of our cultural gatherings that we call jams. Almost everywhere they are replaced or under the roof of organized battles. That is not a bad sign if jams with their free spirited exchanges are also still happening inside these conventions and elsewhere. It only indicates where the greater interest lies in today. In the beginning of organized competitions we were all happy that dance contests existed. They were fora (forums) in which we all flourished. It was at a time when backstage areas were the places where most of the action happened and where “call outs”, for the majority of dancers “the real battles” have taken place. The actual contests were more or less side events for everyone involved. The big stage was a window to a larger audience that paid for the event and made possible that the accommodation and travel for the majority of the dancers was taken care of.

In matters of judging, the organizers came up with a meritocratic system of eligibility.

Their best possible solution was to invite judges that achieved a great status in the dance community due to their history within the arts. It was a great solution at that time.

These judges were not specifically educated as judges they just had more inside knowledge than most. That means at least to a certain extend they had more trust than anybody else and it was adequate enough. In many cases these judges also had to explain their assessments in feedback rounds after the battles. Daring situations occurred. The decisions were made, but how did they come about? Dancers were full of pride, often emotionally charged and wanted explanations. The contestants were getting insights on their skills after the battles. They wanted to know how they could improve. Sadly, often these talks get out of hand. Competitors were getting aggressive and threatened the panel. Judges may have chosen the wrong words and on a few occasions a biased audience started small revolutions. All this and more caused an end to this important feedback ritual. Organizers feared for the security of their events and staff and the judges sometimes feared for their lives. More and more competitions came out of nowhere. The dancers became better and better, but the judging format stayed the same.Then the competitions created a market within the scene. They became an easily accessible theatrical format for a broader audience. Since then, organizers, promoters and sponsors gain more control over the cultures outlook. Red-Alert should be rung as soon as it smells like certain entities want to solely use the art forms as a vessel for their own benefits. That means as long as they are interested in the cultural development as a whole and as long as they respect the inherited values it should not bear a problem.

It is time to create a bit more awareness within the dance community, so we can see the signs clearly when they are there and we know what to do.

I fear that if we keep letting people decide more about this dance culture, that do not know much about it, we might even go through another exploitation era like in the early nineteen eighties again.

I just mentioned that current dance competitions in the urban dance community are mostly theatrical spectacles. This may sound weird for some people. I could have called them great shows or incredible entertainment as well. I love them, so don't get me wrong here. Watching the performances and getting inspired by all these talents coming on stage are amazing experiences. Being there and having the possibility to connect with other dancers is just another great benefit for any dancer.

They are just not what most people expect them to be: Fairly judged dance competitions. It is far from it. Hereby I include some of the biggest contests out there.

Just do not expect that the performances will be always assessed in a fair and righteous way when the jury never got schooled on how to interpret dance or when the value system that the competition is using does not allow any insight into the making of the assessments.

In most battles they either point left or right to say who won. At a few other events they hold up flags or cards with the name of the winner or show the winners name on a screen after pushing a button on a device. There is nothing that indicates how the decision was made. Is that sufficient enough? There are no recordings or indications by which we could comprehend or reproduce the thought process of the judges. That means we cannot find out whether the judge is corrupt, just took a quick guess, did not pay attention, is biased or actually made a very good assessment based on justified values. For the current generation of competitive Breakers this procedure seems perfectly fine. For the most part the dancers are a lot younger than the judges and they believe they should respect their elders. Today, barely any questions are asked.

Sometimes a few dancers have doubts and some people hold bad grudges. Really weird decisions might be doubted for a minute, but then the next battle comes up. The games continue. None of those judges that made these decisions were ever held accountable. Seldom a judge was outcast and was never booked for a job again. If that was the case it came with additional bad behavior. Today a judge can basically point all the time in the opposite direction than the other judges and the decisions are still respected. “Maybe he saw something the others didn`t”. The vast majority would say that it is okay and legit, since it is an art form and people of art are entitled to have their own opinion. Are they serious! Ask the judges what was going on in their cerebros. Squeeze the judges like lemons. Get all the vital stuff out. If we want this dance culture to grow further, we need to change our thought and learn how to respect the performers again by giving them the ability to learn from what the judges saw. Imagine you are a sponsor and you are willing to support Breaking competitions. I doubt you would invest high price money if you cannot be certain that the winner was evaluated in a fair and neutral way. If you find out that a few dance celebrities without a judging education are entrusted with your investment and they vote by hand without any questions asked, you surely pull out your assets. There is too much room for corruption.

Who is to blame?


In today´s competition world the judges are mostly still chosen by their status in the community and not by their competence in the field. That is a fact.

It is this naïve handling for more than three decades that brought us to this point. This is the entire community´s fault. It is too easy to blame the organizers and promoters for the current bad state of affairs. It is just basically a mix of carelessness paired with unknowingness. Together it makes us ignorant. There is also no mischievous thought involved. Everybody that knows, but does not speak up or does not address this concern is guilty.

We must be aware that most contest organizers do not know of the grave errors that can occur if the judging system in use is not really thought through. To indict the organizers for their choice of judges and their choice of handling the judging process would be wrong. Usually the organizers trust the activists, in particular the dancers in their environment to contribute to the events. We cannot really blame the contestants either. They are mostly rather busy working passionately on their art form and they naturally do not spend much time on this concern. Organizers and dancers are the people that seem to have the biggest interest in the culture´s flourishing. With knowledge manpower and connections to the entire community they build the needed confidence in prospect to make their events successful. The sad truth is that most dancers stop caring once they stop competing. Some of them stop dancing completely. For the vast majority of the dance community the goal never was to become the best or to find out who is the greatest. They want to have fun and share common values by playing around. Winning or losing is not taken that seriously. It is the majority of dancers that does not really care. Therefore information on the subject of judging and dance interpretation is very rare. Here it becomes very evident why this field is still in its infancy. Unfortunately a lot of people are also mainly switched on autopilot when it should be about taking political decisions inside the community. They choose the ternary way and push the responsibility away. Often they surrender to the fact they won't be heard anyway.

At the end that means among the hundreds of contests we have on the planet there are only a few people that seem to have a personal interest to educate themselves and be ready to take responsibility.

Yes, Everybody in the community that is concerned with competitions should be held accountable, but it is mostly the people that do not compete and that don't organize that need to get back in the game and take position. We are all in this.

Solution


The only possibility I see how we can efficiently uplift Breaking culture at this moment is by learning how to interpret Breaking with everything in it and then to become a judge. Then, with the use of a computerized system we can identify what is going on in the judges heads, since it can record their thought process by their use of different values. Once we have more detailed transparency of their decisions we can find out about inconsistencies and we all can grow deeper into the meaning of Breaking.

When we came up with new ways of making the assessments of judges available at competitions by creating the Threefold or the Trivium, most people were not ready for it. We took epistemological risks when we were asking the community for feedback. With respect to this culture it was very necessary to start a conversation about judging.

I was very hesitant to publish my ideas first, since I realized for a lot of people they were very controversial. The majority of the community thinks very conservative. It will take time for an acceptance of new ideas. Going too far from the general consensus opinion will always create static. Usually the information about “what it really is about” is complex and it travels slowly. False statements and lies travel much faster and undermine every good project. Even just solidified conservative opinions can choke innovation before it comes to a surface. This leads to a publication bias. People fear for their future and reputation, so they hold back.

I engaged with a lot of people about all the subjects of judging. Ushering these ideas to the broad community via social networks did not lead anywhere since a lot of known people couldn't speak up openly and were scared of being attacked. Coming together as a private group the same way as a crew, we worked out many different ideas for different occasions. The same way as crews work on tactics, moves and routines for any possible occasion. If we get more judges educated and involved we can save our values in a much better way, since they are all also learning how to articulate what the dance is all about.

Please learn about dance interpretation. Please join the judges group we are building or form your own crew of judges and be part of the discourse on judging. As long as we move out of this unbearable and disrespectful situation towards all competitors and the culture of Breaking.


I would like for you to consider this Paragraph as stimuli. Every intrigued mind and skeptical opinion helps build discourse. This document is merely a testament to the state of knowledge of the present time and it should be treated as such.


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