Spotlight Dramatic or Solo?

[sampaguita]

EDIT: How do you know if your program is better suited to ISI Spotlight Dramatic or ISI Technical Solo? Are you allowed to skip some required elements in Spotlight?

[Skittl1321]

You can always skip elements, but then you won't get the.points for them, so you would be unlikely to place well.

Isi assigns judges to look for.specific things, not every judge gives an overall score.

I don't know the difference in the catagories.

[hopskipjump]

I'm not sure of a category called 'solo', you would need to look at the rules.  If it is all under the umbrella odf artistic skating then you are limited by you level for what you can so (for example it will say fs4 and below if you are in fs3-4).  In any case with artistic, there isn't a technical score.  Dd did an artistic with USFS and people watching really seemed to like it, it isn't as frantic as getting in every required jump and spin needed in a free skate her coach could choose what went best with the music and dd's skating skills.

[Skittl1321]

Based on these descriptions http://www.skateisi.com/site/sub.cfm?content=events_national_event_descriptions

I would assume solo is "artistic solo".
And it appears there are no required elements for either Artistic or Spotlight.


I have to say I don't really understand the difference between Artistic and Spotlight.  I would say that if you already have your program, if it doesn't fit the "theatrical performance' requirement of Dramatic, it would be better to go with Artistic solo.

Artistic:
"Skaters perform a program to music with emphasis on strong edges, flow, choreography, innovative moves and musical interpretation. There is no score for technical ability in this event. Event level is based on skater's freestyle test level.

Spotlight:
"This is an entertaining & "fun" routine that emphasizes the skater's acting ability and not technical skating skills.  There is no score for technical merit in this event.  The skater must pass a test for Tots, Pre-Alpha to Delta or Freestyle to determine the spotlight event level.

Spotlight events are divided into three categories listed below. Please mark the correct category on your entry form.

a) CHARACTER – a famous or easily identifiable character.

b) DRAMATIC – a theatrical performance that sets a mood and evokes an emotional response.

c) LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT – an entertaining or light-hearted performance.

[hopskipjump]

The difference between artistic and spotlight is usually spotlight includes props and artistic does not.

[sampaguita]

I'm referring to Technical Solo. For Pre-Alpha - Delta, they call it "<Level> Solo".

[hopskipjump]

We have Solo Comp - there is no music - just compulsory moves
or a check box for level name (ie Delta or Freestyle 3) for the "technical" program (with music).

If yours is Solo Comp - you have specific moves you have to do without music.  You can't leave one out or you are missing scores.

If it's the free skate technical kind of program, it's without props and includes required elements.

If you can't do one of the required elements for your level, artistic might be a better choice.

LOL - maybe asking your coach is the bet choice!

[sampaguita]

Yes, it's the freeskate with music type. :-)

[hopskipjump]

That makes it easier!  Are you allowed to skip some required elements in Spotlight? 
There are no required elements.

Dd always did the free skate with ISI.  Then we added USFS and she got an artistic program.  For the first time we could see real artistry with her skating.  Without having a list of required elements she could really showcase what she does well.

You really don't know until you try!  I think ISI makes the trying inexpensive and fun.  You might even considering doing a free skate and for the spotlight doing a two skater spotlight.  It looks really fun. 

[sampaguita]

Thanks, hopskipjump! Delta routines last 1 minute long -- I already have a whole (yes!) program in mind with all the required elements, but I don't know if I can do the inside 3-turns. I was thinking of doing Spotlight Dramatic, but since I squeezed all the required elements in 1 minute, I think the current program lacks artistry.

[Skittl1321]

At least around here- kids go ALL out for their spotlight events- awesome costumes, impressive props.   I think it would be hard to take a technical routine and compete it as a spotlight.

If your event was designed with all the required elements of technical, go for it.

Just attempt the inside 3s.  If they don't work - that's fine, you'll get some credit for trying (none for skipping, though you always could). Chances are other skaters have bad elements too.

Remember you can do your elements more than once.  They only score the best attempt.  We put my worst elements into my ISI program twice.

[sampaguita]

Remember you can do your elements more than once.  They only score the best attempt.

Cool! I thought everything gets averaged out, so your bad attempts will also get scored. I'll probably have the program modified to have two tries for the inside 3's.

[Skittl1321]

Unless ISI has changed the rules, when I was a judge it worked this way:
Each judge was given something specific to score.  They only look at those elements.
(For example, I was given "time" and "bunny hop" for one event)
Only the best attempt at the particular element is scored.

We are given an score range to stay in.   So everyone gets something between 2.0 and 3.0 for their best bunny hop attempt (and just a "check" for the time being correct, or a deduction).  The groups were never larger than 6, so the first skater - if they did an okay job almost always got a 2.5 (a little higher if they were the best I'd ever seen, a little lower if they were the worst).  That meant the next skater, if they did better would get a 2.7 or worse would get a 2.3.  This made it so that I could put skaters between them as needed.  Some skaters did receive the same score, but the referee asked us to avoid that. 

Then, the referee added up all the points and averaged them and came up with the placements.