Knowing the Rules
What is Modern Jive (MJ)
Modern Jive is also known as Ceroc, LeRoc, Le Jive. This list is not definitive as these are brand names but all are Modern Jive.
Definition of a Dance Teacher or Professional Dancer
Minimum Age
Competitors must be at least 15 years of age to participate in these Championships.
Judging Criteria
Modern Jive is above all a fun social partner dance and judges will be looking for dancing that encourages lead and follow partner dancing at its best and will consider the following in their judgment.
Judging criteria includes:
- Connection / Teamwork between dance partners
- Musical interpretation
- Content / Variety / Contrast
- Timing
- Technique
- Showmanship
Dance wear
Please note: Competitors are not allowed to wear any form of clothing that promotes any dance organisation or dance event whilst on the dance floor. Please respect this rule.
Competitor numbers
- Must be pinned on at least the top two corners.
- Must be worn on your back, hips or bottom. Do NOT wear on your arms or legs.
- For couples/trio competitions, only the leader wears a number.
- In the preliminary rounds of Take a Chance and Jack n Jill both leaders and followers wear their own distinctive numbers. Only the leader wears a number once you subsequently become a dance couple.
Competition Category information
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Scoring Method
Number of Judges Required
The Relative Placement Scoring System assigns an equal numerical value to each Judge's raw scores, so that each Judge has an equal vote in the final outcome. Relative Placement is now widely accepted internationally at major dance events and is the scoring system used for all competitions.
Explanation of the Relative Placement Scoring System
A minimum of 5 Judges is required for Relative Placement, but the use of 7 or 9 Judges is recommended.
An even or odd number of Judges may be used for call‑backs in the preliminary and semi-final rounds.
An odd number of Judges are used in the finals to minimize the possibility of ties.
Preliminary and Semi-final Rounds
In the preliminary and semi-final rounds, a call‑back system is used. In this system, each Judge selects couples for call‑back to the next round, but does not rank them in any particular order.
The Scorer converts each Judge's selections into ordinals: 1 for all those selected, 2 for any alternates, and 3 for all those not selected. Contestants are then ranked according to the total number of 1s, 2s, and 3s received from the judges.
The Head Judge then determines how many individuals or couples will be promoted to the next round. The decision is based on returning close to a predetermined percent of the contestants and/or where the natural break in the rank occurs.

Tallying the Final Placements
In the finals, each Judge must place every couple in rank order (1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, etc.). In finals, the Judges will concentrate on placing the top six couples.
Raw scores (9.5, 8.9, 7.6, etc.) are used only to determine a Judge's order of placements. If a Judge submits only raw scores, the Scorer will convert them into ordinals, (1, 2, 3, etc.) for Relative Placement.
Duplicate placements are not permitted. If a Judge mistakenly provides duplicate placements, the Scorer will alert the Head Judge, who will request that the Judge in question provide unique placements for each couple.
A couple must have a majority of Judges' votes to be awarded a final placement.
If no couple has a majority of votes, then the next placement is added to the previous placements (1st through 2nd, 1st through 3rd, etc.) until a majority is reached.
If two or more couples have an equal majority, then the numerical value of the ordinals for each couple is added. The couple with the lowest sum gets the higher position. If the sums for two or more couples are identical, then the next placement is added to the previous placements for those tied couples only.
The Head Judge's scores are used only to break any remaining ties.
Independent Scorer
All competitions will be scored by an independent and impartial professional scorer who is well versed in the Relative Placement Method, and unconnected within modern jive.