The “comp kid” image has come a long way. Once viewed as over-the-top performers who prioritize tricks and trophies, competition dancers now fill the ranks of top colleges, conservatories, and companies around the globe. Competition studios are training dancers who aren’t just ready to win—they’re ready to work professionally. And the dance world is now making space for them to thrive.

At dance competitions, participants from the same studio often end up not just performing alongside but also competing against each other in solos and group routines—all within the same weekend. The situation can be stressful, confusing, and awkward, particularly for younger dancers. But it doesn’t have to result in comparisons and tears.

Many of today’s versatile competitive dancers can highlight a choreographic phrase with a thrilling tumbling pass, kip-up, or aerial. But when it comes to acrobatics in competition routines, there’s a fine line between a captivating performance and a highlight reel of tricks. Finding the sweet spot between demonstrating a dancer’s skill and entertaining an audience—and the judges—is key.

While full of excitement and fun, competitions are also mentally and physically taxing. It’s easy to find yourself run down after months of rehearsing and performing for hours on end every week. How can both teachers and dancers keep normal fatigue from turning into burnout? By recognizing the telltale signs and making small but meaningful changes.

Contemporary dance doesn’t have a codified technique. True to its name, it looks remarkably different now than it did 10 or even five years ago. And at this point it’s several generations removed from its closest competition-world ancestor, the “lyrical” style of the 1990s. With its blend of lyrical, modern, postmodern, and commercial dance, comp contemporary is full of possibilities. Here, three competition-dance educators share how they’ve seen the genre evolve.

For many dancers, being part of a competitive team is just a short chapter in a long dance journey. But the personal bonds built at competitions and conventions can last a lifetime. These three pairs of dancers who forged their friendships on the comp circuit show that having a tried-and-true teammate in your corner can make a big difference in the professional dance world, too.

Keeping competition routines in tip-top shape is always labor-intensive—but especially when the number is the work of a guest choreographer, who may have set it months ago and probably isn’t available to oversee the cleaning process. Here’s how to polish even the smallest details of a guest artist’s routine without altering the piece’s integrity.

Judging dance competitions demands a unique blend of skills, from articulating useful corrections on the fly to staying focused for hours at a time. With just a few minutes to see and score each routine, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by everything you may want to say—or, worse, to have nothing to say at all. Here’s how to stay organized, alert, and constructive during long judging days.