Fursuit Dance Competition

Location & Times

Preliminaries

Friday 1-4pm @ Panel Room 7

Finals

Saturday 7pm @ Main Stage

How to Compete

  1. Sign up and submit your music (please make sure the quality of your music is 256kbps or higher). Go fill out information about yourself or your group and give us your dance music. We’ll take care of the paperwork and have everything ready for you! Entries must be received by May 28th.
  2. Familiarize yourself with our rules! Nothing more embarrassing than being fouled on a technicality!
  3. Friday 1-4pm - Compete in the preliminaries. You’ll perform for a panel of judges and our production team. Bring your best to have a chance at Finals. We’ll post the results and tell you who qualified for the finals!
    NOTE: What you perform at prelims must be what you intend to perform in the finals.
  4. Saturday 7pm - The big showdown. The cream of the crop will perform in front of a live audience at the con and for the live stream broadcast around the globe. Win prizes and respect.

Sign up here!

Audition Process

The audition process will work the same as it has in previous years. Competitors will be performing their entire routines for three judges. All performers will be scored using the same system, and the best 20 to 25 acts will advance to the finals. Upon entering, you'll be expected to pick a time during the audition process that you'd like to show up at, that best fits your schedule. If no time works for you, you'll be allowed to send us a video audition. Please make sure your video audition is only unlisted, and not private.

Eligibility Requirements

  • Fursuiters only. This is a Fursuit dance competition after all! You need a head, hand paws, foot paws or costume shoes, and a tail to enter. If you choose to wear a partial, please make sure you wear clothes that cover your bare skin!
  • All entries must have music for their routine, submitted with your entry form. Sorry, we will not take submissions at the convention. Keep it clean! Furries of all ages will be watching and listening so make sure the lyrics are radio appropriate.

Categories

Solo Acts

All acts should register as a novice or veteran. You’re encouraged to compete in the Veteran category if:

  • You’ve placed in a dance competition before. (If you’ve placed in three or more, you may be moved to this category if you signed up as a novice.)
  • You’ve made it into competitions where you survived preliminary cuts.

If you don’t fall into these categories, consider signing up as a Novice instead!
NOTE: Novice and Veteran may be combined for the main competition, based on how the preliminary judges score the acts.

Group Acts

Groups should register as novice or veteran based on their most skilled member, or based on what classification the majority of members in their group fall under. If there are less than 3 group acts, groups will be placed into the veteran or novice category based on how they signed up, or compete with all the other contestants for the same prize.

Performers are eligible to compete in both a solo routine and a group routine.

Rules

Be respectful!

Treat your other competitors with respect, as well as the staff running the competition. If you ever have a disagreement, always discuss it politely; it’s not that serious, after all.

What you perform in the preliminaries must be what you intend to perform for the actual show!

This allows our prelim judges to make the most informed decision in choosing the best acts for the stage.

Submit your music ahead of time.

All entries must have music for their routine, submitted with your entry form. Music selections should be ready to play for your final performance, in .MP3 format, and at least 256kbps.

Solo routines can not be longer than 2 minutes, and all routines must be at least 1:30

Routines not edited to be 2 minutes or under will be faded out. We encourage custom edits or mixes and recommend you choose themed music that compliments your routine.

Groups are allowed to add 30 seconds to this per additional member

As an example, 2 members get 2:30 and can go as long as 4 minutes if they have 5 or more members.

Keep it clean!

People of all ages will be watching and listening. Don’t go overboard with any vulgar content in your performance.

Sick/Nervous Group Member? The show can go on.

Groups who qualify for finals may substitute or drop one individual in finals as long as it affects less than half the group. (ie. a 2 person group must find a substitute in case one person cannot perform).

Have fun!

In the end, remember most of all: This is just for fun! If you don’t get in, don’t get discouraged. We’re all dancers here, and the world is our stage; not just this one. Good luck, and see you out there on the dance floor!

Sign up here!

Judging Criteria

During both the preliminaries and the main stage event, judges will be using the ballroom system, wherein competitors are ranked against each other in real-time, to make sure no one is forgotten about in the decision making process.

These are some of the aspects our judges will be looking for; some judges consider different aspects more important than others!

Foundation

  • Your musicality; how well the character of the dance/choreo fits or emphasizes the character of the music.
  • Your flow; How well do you transition from one part of your performance to the next?
  • Your execution; the cleanliness of your moves.

Variety

  • The diversity of the moves in your performance.
  • Your tempo; Are you dancing at the same speed the entire time, or changing it up occasionally?
  • Your levels; The use of your y axis. Are you changing up your stance while performing your moves? (Standing, jumping, bending, crouching, being on the floor, etc.)

Technique

  • The complexity and finesse of your moves.
  • Travelling. When navigating the stage, are you employing any footwork (spinning, gliding, housing, leaping, etc.) or merely walking around?