Conventions

"Dancing stimulates the mind, body, and sole. It has been proven to increase cognitive strengths and prolong life; that is the Miracle of Dance." - Lai Rupe's Choreography
              There are many different things that are involved to make a great dancer become an exceptional dancer; one being the dancers ability of picking up choreography quickly which also leads to being trainable and applying corrections quickly and effectively. These qualities can make a dancer shine above other outstanding dancers.
               A thing that tremendously help improve these things in a fun, challenging environment is a dance convention. You can attend dance conventions pretty much anywhere; their are endless amounts of them. Dance conventions are competitions plus their are classes you can take there. The class taking part is the part that will really expand a dancers abilities. The convention will have a number of the top dancers and choreographers in the dance world there teaching you combos.
               When you sign up you are signing up for all the classes at once and their are different age rooms so you are with dancers around the same age as you. You get a number and have to wear it all weekend so the instructors have some way to identify and remember you if you are a stand out dancer. There are usually around 6 classes a day. You can go to all around conventions where you get all classes from hip hop, jazz, modern, contemporary, ballet, tap and improve, or you can just go to an all genre convention, like monsters of hip hop is an all hip hop convention.
               Every genre is taught by a different professional instructor, this can be very stressful and push a dancer outside of their comfort zone but it is also a great growing experience and will help the dancer in the long run. Since each combo has a different instructor you are learning how to deal with different teaching styles and also might get to try some styles you have never done before. Not only do you learn how to adjust to new dance styles and teaching styles it also helps you become a more spatially aware dancers since their are hundreds of dancer in one big room attempting to dance all at the same time.
             At the end of the convention there is a ceremony where the instructors pick dancers who really stood out and were exceptional. These stand out dancers receive scholarships of some sort to honor their talent and hard work. These scholarships can range from a free admission to next year to asking them to go on their convention tour with them and be helpers for free. I think that every dancer should go to a convention of some sort during their dance career because it is one of the best things to help a dancer grow.