Trash the Trophies: How to Win Without Losing Your Soul: Hamilton, Chasta

In the world of competitive dance—biased scoring, skimpy costumes, and toxic rivalries are the additional line items of a bill that exceeds thousands of dollars.

Time and money are at stake for parents, but reputation is also at risk for students and studios.

With no regulation, this third-party industry leaves you asking yourself the same question after every competition: Is it worth it?For Chasta Hamilton, six years of sending dancers to competition was six years too many.

She swore off competitive dance and rewrote her curriculum to focus on the whole person within each dancer.