EP 53: The Nationals Debrief

Nationals are over, but the real opportunity is just beginning. Learn how to turn judges' critiques into a strategy that transforms your next competition season.

In Episode 53 of It's All Relative, Cara Dixon shares why Nationals feedback may be the most valuable resource dance teachers and studio owners aren't fully using. While many studios celebrate awards and rankings before shifting into summer mode, Cara explains why competition critiques, dance adjudication feedback, and judges' comments can become the blueprint for stronger technique, better choreography, and more intentional dance training.

Rather than focusing only on scores, this episode teaches you how to identify patterns in competition feedback, uncover the root cause behind recurring corrections, and build a dance training curriculum that prepares dancers for an even stronger season ahead. If you're a studio owner, dance teacher, or competitive dance coach, this episode will help you transform Nationals into your biggest learning opportunity.

Cara talked about:

• Why Nationals feedback is one of the most valuable tools for improving dance technique and studio training
• How to identify recurring patterns in judges' critiques instead of focusing on individual routines
• The difference between aesthetic corrections and root-cause technique corrections
• How to transform competition feedback into a structured dance curriculum for the next season
• Why strengthening dance fundamentals before choreography leads to stronger competition performances

5 Key Takeaways from Cara

1. Review your Nationals feedback with fresh eyes.
   Don't just listen for scores. Compare Regionals and Nationals critiques to identify repeated corrections and technical patterns across your dancers.
2. Look beyond the correction itself.
   Ask whether a judge's comment is an aesthetic correction or whether it's revealing a deeper technical issue, such as alignment, pelvic placement, turnout, or muscular engagement.
3. Turn critique into curriculum.
   Instead of drilling choreography, build your next season's technique classes around the recurring fundamentals that judges consistently identified.
4. Train the foundation before the choreography.
   Use the summer and early months of the season to rebuild technique, alignment, breath, timing, and movement quality before adding performance demands.
5. Use outside feedback as an advantage.
    Judges provide an unbiased perspective. Rather than viewing critiques as criticism, use them to refine your training system and create measurable growth for the next competition season.
6. .

Nationals should never be the finish line. They should be the starting point for your next level of growth. The most successful studios aren't simply collecting trophies. They're collecting data, recognizing patterns, and using every piece of feedback to create smarter training and stronger dancers.

By shifting your mindset from scores to strategy, you'll enter the next competition season with greater clarity, stronger technique, and a curriculum designed to help every dancer reach their highest potential.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to It's All Relative, the podcast where dance technique meets purpose, progress becomes visible, and passion fuels the path forward. I'm Kara Dixon, co-founder of Relative Motion, and our team is made up of professional dancers, teachers, and choreographers here to make high-level training feel doable, measurable, and exciting again. Whether you're a teacher searching for fresh cues, a dancer craving more clarity, or a studio owner chasing a bigger vision, this space is for you. Each week, we'll break down complex technique, dive into real studio strategy, and share tools that spark transformation from the inside out. Because in this community, we train with intention, we lead with love, and we know that better dancers start with better teachers. So let's grow, let's move, and let's rise together. Because at the end of the day, it's all relative. Hi friends, and welcome to episode 53 of It's All Relative. This is so exciting because we are officially in year two of our podcast, and today we're gonna kick off this episode talking about nationals. Now, for most of us, maybe nationals are just wrapping up. A couple of nationals are still going on through the end of the month. So you might be right before your nationals, but a lot of us are right after nationals have just ended. And so what I want to talk about today is the idea of what to do with the information that we're receiving from the judging we're getting at nationals. So one thing that strikes me is that a lot of studios, from what we hear from competitions, are not listening to their nationals' feedback. Once they are going offstage, it's all about where do we end at the end of the season versus where do we start? What awards, what are our scores? Where are we sitting compared to other studios in the nation? How do we feel about that? And then after nationals, we all unplug just a little bit before summer session starts, maybe, or before our next season starts, before we jump into high intensity choreo for next season, maybe some summer intensives. But a lot of times after nationals, teachers and studio owners are just unwinding for a second. After our regionals, we are preparing for nationals. So we're listening to all the tapes, we're hearing all the judges' feedback. But after our nationals, a lot of times from what we're hearing from competitions, the feedback isn't really getting listened to. Very little is actually being heard. And so the judges are sitting there for a week straight watching these numbers and all of their growth from regionals until now and talking about it and sharing about it and giving last-minute critique and advice and like all the things, and it's going unheard. And so one thing that we want to talk about today is what can we really take from nationals? I know it feels like this pinnacle of the season, and we've earned it, we've done it, and we've gotten to our highest point for the season, and now we're all gonna unwind, which we need to. Everyone needs to reset, everyone needs to unwind a little bit after this pinnacle of an event. However, what can we take from all that information we're getting from nationals? How can we digest it? How can we still look at it and reset for next season, especially before those high-intensity choreography weeks are really intense? Master teachers are coming in and we're doing our intensives for the summer and all the themes to kick off next season. What can we have in our hand as tools to really make the most of that? So we're gonna talk about that today. And one story I would love to share from all my time at Nationals, I loved this so much because I had judged at so many regionals throughout the course of this one season. And I was actually gonna be on the adjudication panel for this company's nationals, really excited. It's interesting because I wasn't at every regional, but I was at several. And so there were so many dances at nationals that I had seen at regionals. And so we're scoring like all the dances. We're getting to the point where we're about to score performance of the year. And one dance really stands out. Like, oh my goodness, performance of the year, it has to go to this studio, it has to go to this dance. It was so good. To the point that I was seeing it for the first time. I'm like, wow, this is amazing. And the studio owner actually came up to the competition owner after the whole event, after they won everything, after they swept, and they basically said, We listened to the advice that your judges gave at regionals and we took everything to heart. And now we're so grateful that we're here at Nationals. We can see the growth, but we're also grateful that your judges saw the growth. Then the competition owner came back and told us that. And I was thinking, man, okay, I don't remember. They were like, You were actually at the regionals. And as I was thinking about this dance, I could remember this dance now. Before I thought, man, this is the first time I'm seeing it so good. But when the competition owner told me that, I had to think back to the regionals that we were at. And I was like, oh my goodness, now I can remember this dance. And this dance was not a shining star at regionals. It was actually to the point where I didn't even remember it. And I could remember clearly some of the things that I had thought about this dance at regionals. And interestingly, how the studio owner took all the critiques from my judges, which I happen to have been one of them, now that I thought back to heart, and now they came to Nationals, it was almost like a brand new showstopping performance. They swept, they did so great. And it makes me think, okay, so what now if we listen to some of the feedback from Nationals? I know a lot of studios are kind of like we have to unplug, and we do. But if we prepared with that feedback before the next season started, what could that next season really look like for us? And so after the reset, I want to talk about a couple of things that we can do to really prepare ourselves for the next seasons. One, think about what you're hearing at every regionals. I know that we're hearing the critiques, we're hearing the feedback at every regionals, we're trying to take those internationals for those specific pieces, but let's go deeper. Can we make a list? Take out a piece of paper, make a quick list of the main corrections that stood out time and time and time again from our regionals that we were like, oh, this is for this choreography, this is for this choreography, this is for this choreography. And instead of thinking about it for that piece, let's write it all down and see which pieces we had overlapping feedback for. And then actually go and listen to our nationals tapes. Once we have a moment to decompress, go in and listen to the nationals tapes. And I want us to look about through patterns, not specifically in relation to that choreography, but in relation to our fundamentals, in relation to what's really going on with the technique here. And this is really important because one, a lot of studios are going to have either their faculty or guest faculty coming in and choreographing for next year. And can we choreograph in a way that's working with the fundamentals, that's re-engaging the fundamentals, that's building up? But also, can we build our training in a way that's going to support any choreography that our teachers are bringing in, any choreography that our guests are bringing into our dancers? So looking at the patterns, are there patterns within the feedback that we're getting? Are there certain notes that are happening consistently throughout our performances? The cool thing about going to a competition and getting this feedback is not the score. The cool thing about is this outside moment to not specifically bring someone into your studio, but bring your studio somewhere that an unbiased eye is looking at your dancers and saying, these are the fundamental critiques that I am seeing. Now, what I want us to do from there is I want us to think how can we look at the critique and say, okay, is this an aesthetic-based critique or is this a root cause-based critique? Because a judge is watching your dancer so quickly. We have a minute and a half to four minutes to see everything that you're bringing to the stage. We're looking at the choreography, we're looking at the technique, we're looking at the performance quality, we're looking at all of it. And it's a quick look. And so a judge with fresh eyes is trying to look at the dancers and pinpoint how are they bringing the choreography to life? What does their technique look like? And are they able to really perform this? And so when we're looking at the technique, a lot of the things that a judge will say is are gonna be very aesthetic based. Press higher onto your releve, tears down, use your turnout, straighten the back of your knees. Now, a lot of these things are gonna be aesthetic based. So what we have to do as the teacher that's in the classroom of these students day in and day out is we have to look at the aesthetic part of it and we have to say, okay, where is this really coming from? Is the correction really the correction, or is the correction coming from something else? A lot of times dancers might have a sway back. It's not because they're releasing their back. A lot of times it's because their pelvis is out of alignment and they're releasing their lower abs. The front body is actually releasing into that back body, and now the back body's collapsing. And so is it really the back when we're mentioning the back, or is it coming from something else? Is it coming from the pelvis? Is it coming from the lower abs disengaging? Looking at overall what we're hearing over and over and over again. What are the repeats that we're hearing? What are the patterns that we're hearing? And then we're going to try to change it from critique to curriculum. So what we need to do is we need to look at what's happening, look at what we're hearing, look at where it's coming from, and then plan out okay, in order to get this correction to be better this coming year, it's not about the choreography. It's not about having them drill these performances over and over and over again. It's about figuring out where the fundamentals are going wrong. So that no matter what the choreography is, the dancer's crushing it. They're nailing these skills. And so we're gonna look at the fundamentals. We need to put them in order. Okay, what is lacking and is one thing going to trickle into the other thing? So, for instance, if we fix your feet first, but your pelvis is out of alignment, is the pelvis going to continue to pull your feet in the wrong direction? We've worked feet, feet, feet, feet, feet. We're not seeing the change. But if we fix the pelvis, will now we be able to push off the floor with the feet even better? Will we be able to really stretch through our alignment more because the pelvis is holding us in place? We're not relying on the lower leg to really do it. If it's a foot correction, is it really a foot correction? Or are we not working through the lower leg and really powering up the feet? Are we really not stacking the joints between the ankle and the ball of the foot? So just looking deeper at it and then which correction should align first? So once we start to figure out the order of what we want to see our dancers do, go back and look at the corrections and think, okay, should we hear these critiques in a new way? There are so many times when I'm adjudicating something and I'm looking at the choreography, and often the choreography is not the problem. So when you're listening to your critiques, if you hear something that feels choreography based, is it really the choreography or is it the dancers? Maybe it feels like the choreography doesn't have life in a certain moment, but is it because the dancers aren't really utilizing the energy? Are they not really reaching all the way through their back and out of their fingertips to make that moment come to life? And so now the choreography itself looks not full. It doesn't look like it's built around the dancers. When really, if the dancers developed their upper body more, if they spent every moment filling up the music, if they added more breath to this moment, the choreography would come to life. It would be different. And so instead of honing in on, okay, we need another choreographer to come in, we need our faculty to really step it up with their choreography because we're really not scoring that high. Are your dancers struggling to fill those moments? Are the moments really beautiful, but the dancers aren't taking the breath? They're not taking the time, they're not using every second that counts in that moment. And so looking at the critiques from that eye, too, are you hearing something about the choreography? And it's not even that the choreography is not there, it's that they didn't add the breath in that moment that the choreographer wanted them to. And what were the real details there? And is that something that we can also build into our curriculum? So a lot of times in ballet, for instance, you'll hear a ballet teacher and they're talking about as we're going into that grandpleie, make sure that the lower body and the upper body is coming to each moment at the same time, that it's not lower body, upper body, or the arms don't finish first and we still have two counts of music. Are we taking all that time and filling all that space and finding the breath in those moments? And a lot of that is going to be built at the ballet bar. Even if it's the contemporary performance, even if it's their jazz performance, even if it's their lyrical, all that breath and all that timing, a lot of that upper body, lower body connection and timing is going to come from their ballet bar. A lot of that breath and really filling the space in the movement. If I think back to my training, I felt like I developed that in ballet, where everything is so slow and it's easy to finish your grandplié by the six and have two counts to hold. But really to find that breath and take every second, the four counts down, the four counts up, and really finding the space between the upper body and that breath and that alignment and lining it up with the lower body, that's coming from our ballet bar. So if we're getting corrections like that in our choreography, bring those dancers back into the space in ballet and honestly, maybe even make the bar and ballet go even slower. Make sure that they can really fill the space, make sure that they can really find that breath, make sure that all of fluidity is matching up. And so taking those choreographical corrections and instead of really tweaking the choreography, now look, if they say the choreography is too mature for this age group, it is, right? If they say, hey, I prefer not to see those moves on a young dancer, take them out. But if it's a matter of, okay, I'm finding that the dancers aren't really understanding the timing in this choreography. I feel like they don't understand this moment in the choreography. Bring them back to times in the training that they have to go longer, that they have to take more time. And then we want to close the gap before the season starts. So as we're moving from critique to curriculum, we want to close the gap before the next season starts. So a lot of us might not have a ton of time with our dancers. This is a great time to find just technique without adding choreo in. Now, there are gonna probably be a lot of studios that you're bringing guest choreographers in over the summer. We're trying to get all the choreography done. But we go back to class and instead of it being choreo heavy, like it might be closer to our shows, closer to recital, closer to the kickoff of our comp season. It's still great to keep rehearsal separate from class. It's still great to have your own rehearsal time and keep class as a technique class. I always encourage that. But especially September through November, those class times need to be fundamentals, getting all the language back, getting all the skills back, making sure that we start where we left off and we get to that next level from there, that we're not just on a treadmill for technique. And then if we can get them before that next season starts, if we can have a solid period of time where they're thinking about only technique over the course of the summer, we can really leverage these moments. We can really take the critiques from nationals and leverage them when our dancers are a little bit fresh, right? They have a little time off in the summer and then we get them back and we get them fresh. So one thing that we do with our company is we do in studio workshops. And the cool thing about this, some teachers in studios actually plan them like right before nationals because they're like, we just want them to hear all the technique things right before our biggest event of the year. But most studios are planning these right before the season starts. And what we do is we work hand in hand with them and we're like, what are you seeing technically? What do you want to build technically? Where are they starting? And what are some goals you have for them? Where do you notice that they've plateaued? And what can we do to get them to the next level? And the cool thing is, especially with our apparel and the visual, that dancers start to make these connections and then make the corrections. And so they're seeing it on their body and it has this way of unlocking them. So they're not worried about the choreo, they're not worried about their rehearsals, they're not worried about all these things. They're starting fresh, they're going into a new season. So you, as the studio older, as the teacher, hearing these critiques from nationals can say, hey, we reached our pinnacle and these are the critiques that we're still getting. And going into the new season, can you, as a fresh eye and a fresh voice with our dancers, come in knowing that these were their corrections and knowing that this is our starting point? This is our highest level that they ended the season with, but it's also our starting point for the new season. We'd like to build from here. And we can help you dissect, okay, this actually feels like more of an aesthetic correction versus a root cause correction. Let's really look at your dancers in the studio space with unbiased eyes and figure out it's hard when you're the teacher that's in there day after day after day and you're giving the corrections over and over again, right? To take a step back and be like, okay, actually let's start fresh. Like, where can we start from here? And so it's really cool when our team comes in because we haven't really seen your dancers, right? We're just going from what we've heard from you. We're going from sometimes some studios will send us videos of their latest performance. And like, what do you really see is going on here? Which is cool. And so getting that gap from last season to close before the next season starts, seeing where they were at their pinnacle and then starting them fresh from there. And so we love doing that. But if we're not in there with your studio and not in there with your students, find a way to see fresh eyes for yourself, find a way to regroup, to connect, to get the critique to go into curriculum, to close the gap before next season starts. And I promise you, if you have that downtime and then you take the strategic analytical time to really listen to those critiques from last season and prepare yourself, this next season will start in a way that's dramatically different. A way that you can really get this start. So you're not on that technique treadmill, so that you're just running full force ahead and your dancers are right there with you. They're right in line. You guys have the same goals, you have the same vision, and you start the season so powerfully that it's unstoppable. That you as a teacher, that you as a studio owner, and that your dancers are unstoppable and that this next season is like nothing you've had before. And I am so excited about that for you. If you want more information on our studio workshops, find us at relativemotiondance.com or you can find us on Instagram at Relative Motion Dance and you just message us the word studio and all the information comes to you. But we would love to be in person with you, helping you with this process. And until next time, we can't wait to talk to you next week. Now, look, next week's episode is going to be how burnout isn't just for dancers, it's also our competitive teacher that needs to reset. And so our next episode is going to be all about the competitive teachers reset. And we would love to see you there. Talk to you next time. That's the wrap on today's episode of It's All Relative. Thank you for spending your time with us. We believe what you bring to the dance world matters, and we're honored to support the way you teach, read, and inspire. If this episode moved you, made you think, or gave you something new to try, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss what's next. You can connect with us anytime at RelativeMotion Dance on Instagram or visit relativemotiondance.com for more tools and training. Until next time, keep growing, keep leaving, and keep dancing with purpose. Because remember, it's all relative.