Fursuit dance competition

The Midwest FurFest Fursuit Dance Competition has been a premiere event at the convention since 2011. It’s a place for the best dancers in the fandom to strut their stuff and entertain a massive audience while they compete for the glory of coming out on top.

The dance competition is open to both solo and group performers. Dancers may choose to audition at the convention or submit a video as an audition, with finalists performing in the main event on Sunday afternoon. Please review the rules below before submitting your application!

Signups for the 2023 Fursuit Dance Competition are open now through November 19th!

Rules

Signing Up

Please sign up using the online form above after reading all of the rules. Signups are open through Sunday November 19th, 2023 EST. Signing up in advance is REQUIRED by the competition organizers. LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Please note that we cannot accept applications to try out from minors, even if they have an accompanying guardian, due to rules set by Midwest FurFest. All competitors must be 18 or older. Badges will be checked. If we are able to change this, we will let folks know ASAP via social media.

NO ON SITE REGISTRATIONS WILL BE TAKEN. If you are unsure if you will compete, feel free to register and then if you do not show up at prelims, or if you notify the fursuit dance competition team in advance, you will be simply marked as dropped.

We will only be allowing interested persons to sign up for the Solo Division OR the Group Division. You will not be allowed to compete as both a Solo entry and a Group entry, even if you would be wearing a different fursuit. We want to ensure the most people possible have a chance to perform. 

Group Entries
For those competitors entering for a group performance in the finals, only one member of a group should submit a single sign-up form on behalf of the group, and this person will be the one responsible for sharing all competition communications with the rest of his/her group. If there are three or more groups that enter, the competition will be broken to include a separate group category for awards.

Solo Competition Categories
Solo performance dancers will all now be in one category as the Novice and Veteran categories have been removed. We feel that when we established Novice and Veteran categories years ago, the dancer community in the furry fandom was at a different place. Now, we find that every year, every conventions sees new talent and old talent melding naturally. Midwest FurFest believes that the approach FWA and AC have taken to not have a Novice and Veteran category has worked very well and that we will get the best array of talent the attendees have to offer each year, while still having lots of fresh and new faces. We look forward to everyone still signing up for the Dance Comp and giving it their all! 

Music Submissions
Music should be appropriate for all audiences All competitors are to have their music uploaded to the following online drive location by Sunday November 19th, 2023 at 11:59pm CDT: this year we are using Dropbox File Request, a link will be sent to you with your confirmation email. Please submit files in as high a quality as possible, minimum 192Kbit .MP3 format. See further limitations on performance music within the Finals section. Music shall be limited to 2 minutes long if performing solo, however 30 seconds may be added on for groups (maximum 3:30 minutes long)

Video Submissions
For 2023, dancers may choose to audition via online video submission; see details below.

Costume Restrictions & Expectations

Appropriateness
All competitors are required to wear appropriate clothing and costumes, free from profanity or inappropriate accessories, at the discretion of the competition organizers.

Completeness
Both full suits and partial suits are allowed to compete, but costumes should be arranged that no skin be exposed or visible at any point during the performer's showcase. 

Audition Alternative
Competitors may audition during preliminaries in an alternate version (i.e. partial) of the same character intended to be performed during finals. In order to do this, the performer must inform the dance organizers in advance of preliminaries.

Minimum Requirements
All competitors are required to wear, at minimum, the following components of a fursuit when auditioning and through the performance:

• Fursuit head: A full-face costume mask that fully covers the dancer's whole head, but can include head designs that use the performer's eyes.

• Fursuit hands: Costume gloves that fully cover the dancer's hands, but cannot include store-bought gloves lacking further modification.

• Fursuit feet: Costume feet that fully cover the dancer's feet and/or shoes, but can include feet designs that are sockpaws or shoe spats. Any special requests for other shoes used for auditions such as tap shoes must be submitted to us prior to audition. 

Video Auditions

Auditions may be submitted online. Dancers will be given a link to upload their entry, and are responsible for including their music with their video submission. Video auditions will be judged in the same way as in person auditions.

The video audition should be limited to 1 minute. If your performance is a few seconds over, we will not penalize you - but any excessive overage of the audition time limit will not count to your scores.

Please submit your video in as high quality as possible, in MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV, or WMV formats. We also encourage all competitors to submit videos that are filmed horizontally, or “landscape”, instead of a vertical fashion if you are filming with your phone. 

The link to your video audition should be viewable by our judging team - if uploading to a platform such as YouTube, Twitter or Google Drive, please make sure the privacy settings are changed so that anyone with the link can view.

All songs must be PG-13 censored - a radio edit “clean” rating in other words. Please remove/minimize any profanity that is in your song or mix.

Videos must be shot in one take and show full body performance - Please refrain from adding major effects/editing while making your audition. You are not making a TikTok. We will not accept any video submissions that is deemed too much editing.

Groups have the option to have an in-person preliminary tryout at the convention during the day of in person auditions. If your group would like an in-person tryout, please fill out the sign up form and indicate “in-person tryout” in the special accommodations field.

Preliminaries (Friday or Saturday, TBD)

Competition Style
Prelims this year will be choreography prelims. Due to the addition of online auditions, there will only be one day of auditions if you choose to audition in person. Every competitor will be called up to dance to 1 minute of their song and the judges will select the finalists based on that 1 minute of dancing. Due to the massive amount of signups and time constraints, dancers tryouts will be kept to 1 minute to ensure prelims can be completed in a timely manner. You will be allowed to leave once you try out. We ask that, if you are able, you stay and cheer on your fellow dancers. The list of finalists will be announced on the official @FurFest Twitter account. We will also post the results in the headless lounge. 

Judging
Prelims judges will be different than finals judges. Prelims judges will be asked to work together to narrow the prelims competitors down to 20-25 finalists. Judges’ decision considerations can include, but are not limited to,character performance, execution/technicality, difficulty, creativity,musicality, etc. Judges will score dancers on a scale of 1-20 in each category mentioned and the dancers with the highest scores all around will be qualified to the finals. In the case of a tie, prelims judges will then deliberate after all the dancers have tried out to go over each other’s papers and notes and select the finalists. 

Group Competitors
All groups will also be trying out with their choreos but 2 minutes of their music will be played to account for the fact that groups have longer performances. 

Finalists
The competition will have 20-25 finalists depending on prelims judges deliberation. 

Finals (Sunday Afternoon)

Attendance
Finalists must arrive at the finals venue at least 30 minutes prior to the event, though we urge you to come earlier if possible. Programming schedules may or may not allow finalists the opportunity to block their routine on the stage. The order of final acts will be shared at the event. If a dancer does not show up by the time the first final act is called to perform, that act will automatically be scratched from the competition. Dancers are expected to be in full costume and ready to dance as of the beginning of the performance preceding theirs.

Runtime
Solo performances are to be no longer than 2:00. For each additional person in a group performance, an additional 0:30 is allowed per person, with a maximum time of 4:00. For example, a two-person performance can be max 2:30, and a four-person performance can be max 3:30, but a six-person performance is restricted to max 4:00. Music should be cut and edited for final performance. If the music exceeds the max limit, the music will very swiftly fade out at the max limit. Additionally, routines (music and choreography) should be censored to a radio edit rating. Not adhering to this rule can result in disqualification.

Competition Style
Finalists will dance their performance routine on the convention-provided dance floor which is a raised stage facing the seated audience with the judging panel at the front and center of the audience behind tables. It is assumed that the music will begin when competitors are in the middle of the dance floor. However, if the music should begin at an alternative cue, it should be made known to the competition team during the staging time prior to the event to notify A/V.

Judging
Judges will be asked to rank all acts within the same category in comparison to each other, and are encouraged to rank each act that has competed as the performances go on. Therefore, by the end of the competition, each judge will have independently given each finalist a placement, with no ties. See the example below, where for 1 judge, the first finalist is rank 1 after the first routine, but has dropped to rank 3 by the fourth routine:



Placement
The final marks from each judge will be added together, (1st place gets 1 point, 2nd gets 2 points, etc.), with lower overall scores achieving higher ranks. In the event of a tie, individual judges’ marks will be considered to break the tie, where the finalist with more better ranking placement wins.

Questions?

Please email fursuitdancecomp@furfest.org.