The purpose of the Cutie Awards, as I understand it was:
To recognize and reward talented offerings from singles, couples, groups, venues, products, events, service providers, and vendors of and to the dance community for the previous year with a ceremony and some type of decision-making process that isolates one or more entities for their oustanding achievement(s). To that end, the Cutie Awards was a good start.
A primary purpose of this post is to start a dialogue by offering ideas to get people contributing to improving the process by making it more equitable or at least give the appearance of being more equitable than 2012 by creating ways to honor those offerings whose talent is, while notable, their reach as far as exposure might have them at a disadvantage of the more well-established and well-exposed talent. due to venue size, attendance, performance schedule, number of performances, culture, or newness while not penalizing those who are getting great exposure.
Below are an assembly of ideas posited to me by people as well as a few of my own.
I don't want to end up just being a loud opinionated-voice that is a non-contributor and for a second time yet....when asked to participate in the 'process'.
I was hoping someone else would step forward (this being such a hot-seat) with ideas but I guess someone needs to take a chance and start it off.
I wanted to have at least have several ideas to contribute not just from me but from others as well and and so here are a list of 16 ideas that you are invited to voice opinions in in a way that helps to advance the chances of having a 2013 Cutie Awards:
I welcome additions and modifications to the list of ideas since this is has been deemed OUR process.
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If you voice disapproval, please, please try to provide an alternative. If you say you are REALLY opposed to one or more ideas then please idenfity ideas that you do show support for, if any.
1 - Divide award categories into 2 groups...the large exposure (red) and the small exposure (blue) entities (singles, couples, groups, venues, products, events, service providers, and vendors) This means each category could be voted on in each group. If you are up for an award as an individual and you dance at a large venue, or large and small venue, then you will qualify as a blue-group contestant. If exposure does not factor into it then that entity (singles, couples, groups, venues, products, events, service providers, and vendors) will fall into the red-exposure group.
2 - Red vs Blue would take into account, a) group membership size (25 as dividing line?) , b) average traffic c) number of weekly events (1 vs 2 or more?) d) aggregate weekly traffic
e) number of videos posted on DQ, f) approx. number of videos posted featuring the an individual, g) size of venue a dancer belongs to, h) frequency with which their name or identifier appears in DQ
I think Nottoo could decide 'dividing lines' but if she wishes to remain completely uninvolved in the process then maybe a poll should be posted and people can vote on where dividing lines from a multiple choice should lie?
3 - Each group (red-blue) could have a panel (could be last years winners for RED?) that decides who the 'decision-makers' will be?...even how many? The panel can elect themselves or others as decision-makers. The decision-makers then decide which
rules they wish to follow including max. number of nominees and how nominees and winners well be decided.
Decision by votes or by the judges themselves for example or a combination. This would work well for the Red group with lots of options. The Blue group would need to be selected perhaps from non-winners and perhaps even the unnominated
if the idea is to recognize a wider pool of talent from the less-exposed. Those who wished to be on the panel submit their names and then there can be a vote.
4 - Every contestant up for an award is allowed time to submit a 90-second video of their performance or collage such that voters have a chance to witness all nominees for a given category. Those entrants having to do with choreographed-to-a-tempo should have
because its unfair to edit a video to make the performance follow the tempo if you are judging ones talent to match dance and tempo to submit unedited works to be fair.
5 - If 4 is adopted then voting should be done solely on the 90 second video and perhaps submission of other videos should be suppressed during the open-voting category. Seems unfair to allow long videos to compete against short videos.
6 - Major-Entity Voting - Each entity gets 1 vote and you can't vote for yourself or for anyone in your Major-Entity must have existed prior to the current year. The definition of a major-entity can be honed and refined but in essence it would be a venue or something of similar weight.
7 - The margin of win between 1st and 2nd place should be posted (this adds some transparency and credibility)
8 - Previous winners are ineligible to win in same category in 2 successive years
9 - Previous winners are ineligible to be nominated in same category in 2 successive years
10 - Allow sponsors pay to perform at the award ceremonies - equal value - money for recognition
11 - The prior year's winners serve as judges for the subsequent year.
12 - Nottoo or an specially-appointed person decides winners in case of ties.
13 - Only those nominated in a category can vote for a winner in that category. If you don't vote you are eliminated from becoming a winner. You can not vote for yourself.
14 - You can be nominated for an unlimited number of categories but you can only win in X categories. If nominated for more than X categories then you must choose which X you want to be
considered for. If you win more than X then the person with the 2nd most votes wins..And so on. You must prioritize the categories from most to least desirable.
15 - Allow a 'Best and Favorite' choice for each category such that a person who feels unqualified to judge technical merit can still voice their approval for the most likable entity. You could only
vote for one or the other but not both. You could end up with 2 winners...A best and A favorite OR you could just take the one (best of favorite) with the most votes.
So You Think You Can Dance boasts that it is about Americas Favorite Dancer, so the idea of acknowledging Favorite is not foreign to dance contests.
16 - A new category should be added for those venues that are training-grounds for new talent since they should be honored for their unique goodwill offering. I think here just being nominated and just letting new people know that such places exist where you can learn and make mistakes without the scrutiny that comes from established venues would be worth this new additional category.
This might fall in the Blue group.
It appears that some offerings here go the extra mile to try and satisfy all involved in a more fair balanced way.
It this list appears to be garner a large outcry of sham, too one-sidededness or feel there is an agenda one way or the other then I will remove it as fast as I put it up without blinking an eye.
And this is Yummy's and others taste of things
Yummy
