Jack n Jill Competitions

[Pacion]

Have you ever done one? If so, why :lol: If not, why not? If you had to organise one, how would you make it a novel/new experience?

No Sabor, putting strawberries in a tub of champagne and having contestants bobbing/ducking their heads into the tub to get the strawberries with their teeth just would not do :roll: :roll: :lol:

[Laura]

I don't know, sounds like a great idea to me.

I've been in a bunch of informal ballroom and latin Jack-and-Jills where names are pulled out of a hat. I think they're tons of fun.

[etchuck]

No, we just had all the leaders line up and the followers line up in front of them. Someone else picks a random number and the followers shift positions. I prefer doing this three times, with judges assessing individual leaders and followers to call-back.

Now, the fun part would be to draw a DANCE out of a hat. In my other experience JnJ's were swing-only.

[kwa445]

Jack and Jill is so fun to participate in! At our comps, it's usually swing and cha-cha but one time, they played a polka for the final round and it was hilarious! Hardly anyone knew much polka so they just made things up. They're very fun. :)

[Pacion]

kwa445, I can imagine the looks of amazement/surprise on the participants faces :lol:

[dr daffy]

not to sound incredibly ignorant, again, but what are jack and jill competitions? heh :oops:

[Pacion]

Jack and Jill competitions, based on my experience are ones where you basically give you name to the organiser. They then put the females names in a hat/box and the :x :lol: select a name. You then dance, as a couple, in the impromptu competition through the various rounds until a winner is declared. :D My experience is limited to salsa but as has been mentioned, they may have started within the swing community.

If you are lucky, you might be paired up with someone you have dance with socially or is very good or just loves having fun. If you are unlucky, well, you still have fun, no matter what :D

[etchuck]

Yes, it's a random couple-assignment competition. Basically, you are judged on your ability to dance to just about anyone. Sometimes a JnJ can be split by ability level (beginners/novice, intermediate, and advanced).

There is one dance coming up down here in August in which there will be a Jill and Jack competition (meaning, reverse role AND random coupling) in ECS/lindy. I think there are a few dancers here actually practicing for that fun competition. I cannot fathom why... ;)

Some videotaped results from our last swing Jack-and-Jill can be found on the other website heckzapoppin (a swing bb) (http://www.heckzapoppin.com/).

[dr daffy]

oohhh thanks for explaining :D

that sounds like SO much fun! i wanna do it, haha... it really sounds like an awesome experience :)

[etchuck]

dr daffy:
If it's not too far, I'd say check out this event (http://www.atlanticdancejam.com/), which someone of my team really wants to attend. I'm more skeptical that our group would go next year, but that's me.

[pygmalion]

Sounds like fun. Might be worth going just to experience hand dance. 8)

[cl5814]

Jack and Jill's are awesome to watch and participate. I would encourage anybody to give it a try. It gives the social dancer that doesn't wish to compete a taste of what competing might be like. At last year's USABDA dance during national ballroom dance week (NBDW) they held a J&J and it was a huge success. It definitely attracted more people to the dance but was promoted as a fun activity and done informally(eliminated the nerves factor) but well organized. I believe they are doing it again this year.

[dr daffy]

etchuck, that event looks pretty cool... these things are pretty awesome... i'd love to do something like this

[HF]

Does Jack-and-Jill also mean that the song is chosen by random?

[dancechica]

In my circuit of west coast swing, yes, the music is random too. However, since they play the same songs over and over, convention after convention, you pretty much know the song by then.

[dancersdreamland]

oohhh thanks for explaining :D

that sounds like SO much fun! i wanna do it, haha... it really sounds like an awesome experience :)

Ditto! And don't worry, I didn't know what it was either...

[leftfeetnyc]

I've been competing in J&Js for the past year and love them. They're a lot of fun and you often get to dance with a variety of people you normally wouldn't.

Recently, I've been running into one guy at WCS events over and over and we keep drawing each other over and over.

Normally there are prelims (and sometimes semis) where you line up (men facing women) and rather than pulling a name out of a hat, the women rotate to the right a certain number. This is done three times so you get three partners and three songs to dance to. More if the judges need more time. People are judged as individuals and the multiple songs show how well you do with different tempos.

In finals you get one partner and are judged as a couple as teamwork is an important part of dancing. Most often everyone is dancing at the same time, but some events will do a spotlight finals where you and your partner dance alone.

The music as mentioned does tend to get repeated a lot. The past two weekend I've heard Mya's "Sophisticated Lady" and the Shark's Tale version of "Car Wash". Recently, a few WCS promoters are chosing new music such as doing a theme of blues only or 60s music.

Rotation changes by event, sometimes the MC will ask a person in the audience for a number from 1-8, at an event in Reno they used playing cards and had random people pull a card and the rotation was that number. Some events use a die.

I think they're great...granted I'm doing well in them at the moment. I think on a more casual basis...like at a studio doing them for fun, you can make them a lot goofier and not as serious as at major events. I've seen ones where the couple had to do a certain number of whips per dance, same sex (aka bookend), reversed roles, etc. People can get really crazy with them off the competition floor.