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About AIDA

The Alliance of Illinois Dance Adjudicators

History and Mission

In mid-2014, a group of 5 IHSA dance officials met at a local Panera to discuss strategies to advance and improve dance team officiating for the IHSA.  Although they came from varying perspectives within Illinois competitive dance (coaching, choreographing, officiating, IDTA, TDI, UDA, ISOA, IDCA, NDA, etc), they all shared the same passion for the preservation of the Illinois high school dance team competitive experience.   After seeking the guidance and feedback with a number of similarly invested coaches and officials, as well as withstanding a lot of deliberation and debate, the decision was made to proceed with a new IHSA officials’ organization that would be devoted specifically to the sport of dance.

 

A Constitution was drafted and submitted to the IHSA who approved in early 2015.  

 

Simply put, the purpose of AIDA is to foster and promote the sport of competitive dance in Illinois by providing for the recruitment, training and ongoing education of IHSA competitive dance team panel and technical officials.  AIDA will work in full cooperation with the IHSA and their mission to enrich the experience of its student dancer athletes.

 

So…what does that mean for its member officials?

 

  • AIDA leadership will actively recruit both veteran and new talent with strong dance-specific backgrounds to officiate for IHSA and other requested dance team events

  • AIDA will support the continued development and growth of its members by:

    • Conducting continuing education clinics and advanced training in dance performance, dance team genres, numbers management, rubric and score sheet sub-caption interpretation and scoring

    • Offering live, real time pre-season training events so officials are confident of their skills early in the competitive season

    • Maintaining an active observers program in efforts to promote accountability and consistency as well as to give timely, objective feedback.  AIDA will actively work to promote an official’s strengths; but also objectively identify challenges and assist each official with their specific personal goals for improvement

    • Actively seeking available regional invitational assignments

    • Participating and representing AIDA in IHSA advisory and officials events

 

What does that mean for competing coaches, teams and dancers?

 

  • AIDA will increase the confidence of IHSA dance judges and officials by fostering cooperation, building solid relationships, and creating open, transparent communications amongst dance tech and panel judges, the high schools of Illinois, athletic directors, dance team coaches and the IHSA

  • AIDA will work in cooperation with the IHSA to promote competent and consistent dance team officiating by:

    • Representing, disseminating and encouraging consistent NFHS spirit rule interpretations and IHSA score sheet rubric applications to its members

    • Recognizing the importance of technical skill, athleticism and creativity in the application of IHSA scoring evaluations regardless of the genre or genres of dance presented

    • Keeping a keen eye to the continued evolution and trends of the fluid aspects of dance as sport; its impact on officiating practices and implications on scoring sub-captions

    • Assigning competent officials specific to the needs and requests of the contest hosts and participating teams

 

Contest hosts can access an AIDA invitational manual will detailed recommendations, strategies and checklists for a smooth-running, efficient and successful contest day. 

 

At the core of the aforementioned mission statement and goals is the shared passion for dance and what it has meant to each of the founding members as participating dancers, coaches, choreographers and current adjudicators.  The founding members each come from “competing” venues of dance; but each saw through the small differences in the philosophical approaches to competitive dance in the shared value and effort to unite as a true alliance for the sport of IHSA dance, its teams and student-athletes.

 

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