2016 NDEO Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award APPLICATION Information The Award The National Winner of the Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award will receive a $500 monetary award/scholarship. The National Winner, Finalists, and Honorable Mention recipients will all receive a certificate as well as complimentary registration for NDEO’s National Conference in Washington, DC from Thursday October 6­Sunday October 9. The award recipients will be publicly recognized for their award and have the opportunity to attend student workshops and regular conference sessions to learn more about the field of dance education. A performance opportunity will also be provided. ​
(Please note: Travel and lodging costs are not included in the conference registration. Traveling with a parent chaperon is recommended. If traveling with a dance teacher chaperon, teacher must pay conference registration fees.) Background The National Honor Society for Dance Arts (NHSDA) serves to identify those honor students of junior and senior high school age for nomination for the ​
NDEO Artistic Merit, Leadership and Academic Achievement Award​
, the highest student dance award in the nation. There are two levels of adjudication: State and National. At the state level, the top applicants are selected to receive a state award and are then forwarded for adjudication at the national level. There will also be National Winners, Finalists and Honorable Mentions. Personal congratulatory letters from NDEO's Executive Director are sent to the school district superintendent, school principal and state program arts coordinator. Student Eligibility The applicant must be an​
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inductee of the NHSDA and a high school junior or senior student (16­18 years) studying dance in any private or public high school, dance studio/academy, performing arts center, or community center. The student's NHSDA Chapter must hold a current Institutional Membership in the NDEO. State Affiliates NDEO has the following State Affiliates that support the NHSDA and may have state level adjudications: AZ, CA, CO, FL, MA, MI, MD, NC, NJ, NY, UT, WA. Applicants who reside in a state where there is not an NDEO state affiliate should select the ​
Other States​
category when completing the application. Applicants who reside in a state that has an active NDEO State Affiliate that supports the NHSDA, may be eligible for a state level award. In those instances, the top two students from that state affiliate will be forwarded to the national office to be considered for national adjudication. Deadlines You should hit the SUBMIT button in the online application no later than Friday, February 19, 2016. ​
This then triggers an email to be sent to your Chapter Sponsor requesting that they upload the Award Recommendation Letter by February 26th. The State Affiliates that support the NHSDA will complete their State Level Adjudications and forward their results to NDEO's national office by March 28th. National Winner, Finalists and Honorable Mentions will be notified by email on or after May 1st​
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. Awards Criteria and Rubric Award Criteria Applicants are rated based on the strength of their technical and artistic merit, leadership, four essay questions, GPA, recommendation letter and resume. Each criteria is worth 100 points for a total score of 900 possible points. The applicants are judged in three main categories. Artistic Merit​
: The Nominee must demonstrate artistic and technical excellence in dance. o Technical excellence as seen in video o Artistic Merit as seen in video o Essay #1: Choreography 2. Leadership​
: The Nominee must demonstrate outstanding leadership in and outside of the field of dance at the school, community, state, and/or national level. o Recommendation Letter o Resume 1.
Application deadline is 2/19/16​
. For assistance with the online process, send email ​
support@getaccetpd.com​
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o Essay #2: Leadership Academic Achievement​
: The Nominee must demonstrate academic excellence with a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher. o Overall weighted or un­weighted GPA of 3.0 or higher (ex. 3.75 out of 4.0, or 4.25 out of 5.0) o Transcript Upload (official or unofficial) o Essay #3: Future Plans o Essay #4: Impact of Dance on Life Category Artistic Merit Leadership Academic Criteria Technical Excellence (max 100 points) Artistic Merit (max 100 points) Essay #1: Choreography (max 100 points) Total Artistic Merit (out of total 300) Recommendation Letter (max 100 points) Resume (max 100 points) Essay #2: Leadership (max 100 points) Total Leadership (out of total 300) GPA Question and Transcript (max 100 points) Essay #3: Future Plans (max 100 points) Essay #4: Impact of Dance (max 100 points) Total Academic (out of total 300) GRAND TOTAL OF POINTS (max 900 points) Rubric Technical Excellence​
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Executes the technique of choice with clarity and accuracy; demonstrates codified technical movements and/or positions with clarity and accuracy; demonstrates a mature understanding of the technique and from where movements originate within the body; demonstrates an intellectual understanding of the technique and is not just copying movements learned; transitions are smooth one movement to the next; Overall, the applicant demonstrates technical maturity. Artistic Merit:​
Communicates the intent of choreographic movements; communicates emotions, ideas and feelings of dance using his/her inner­most resources; has an intellectual and emotional understanding of what is required in the choreography; communicates using effectively the elements of dance (time, energy, and space); integrated in his/her knowledge of how his/her body moves; Overall, the applicant has command over technique and performance, and demonstrates a maturity in artistic growth. Leadership​
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The student demonstrates leadership at school, community, or state levels and evidence of leadership is provided in the Recommendation Letter, Resume, and Essay #2 question on leadership. Essay Questions​
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(4 questions each scored out of 100 points) The student uses excellent grammar (no typos); and articulately addresses the questions asked. The essay responses show maturity in synthesizing dance in life. Letter of Recommendation​
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Recommendation from chapter sponsor includes specific examples of how the applicant demonstrates (a) artistic merit, leadership, and academic achievement; and (b) reasons why (examples) the CS recommends the student for this award. It MUST include student’s overall GPA both weighted & un­weighted. Resume​
: It should divided into four sections (each should be labeled): 1) Dance Training History; 2) Performance & Choreography Experience; 3) Clubs, Activities and Leadership Roles – what else have you participated in the school, community, state and/or national level (can be dance and non­dance related); and 4) Awards and Honors – list all dance and non­dance awards, honors or scholarships received. ​
Limit 1 page​
. Transcript​
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Upload of the student’s most recent transcript (unofficial transcript is acceptable). GPA:​
Student will provide their GPA in “x.x out of x.x” format (ex: 3.5 out of 4.0) as a question on the application. GPA can weighted or unweighted. APPLICATION Components Application Components Application deadline is 2/19/16​
. For assistance with the online process, send email ​
support@getaccetpd.com​
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Pg 2 of 3 Student applicants will complete the application entirely online using the Acceptd platform at www.getacceptd.com/ndeo​
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Mailed paper or emailed applications will not be accepted.​
The Chapter Sponsor identifies eligible NHSDA students and assists in completing their application online. Besides basic contact information the student will need to supply contact information (mailing address, email, phone) for their Chapter Sponsor, school principal, and if possible, their district superintendent and fine arts coordinator. Make sure you gather this information before starting the online application. To access the online application, navigate to ​
www.getacceptd.com/ndeo.​
This program works best on either the Firefox or Google Chrome browsers. The online application consists of basic student contact information, four short essays, resume, a 3 minute video, and two color photos (​
both a headshot and action photo either dancing or in a dance pose)​
. The essays, video, resume, and photos are uploaded to the Acceptd platform as separate files. Once the application is received, Chapter Sponsors will be prompted to upload a ​
Chapter Sponsor Award Recommendation Letter for the applicant. There is a $25 application fee ​
(payable only by credit card). Acceptd supports a majority of file types in use today including: Video: MPEG, MPG, MP4, OGG, MOV, AVI, WMV, M4V, VOB, FLV Images: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF Documents: PDF, PS, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPS, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, OPT, SXW, ODP, SXI, ODS, SXC, TXT, RTF It is recommended that applicants keep media files under 200MB if at all possible. This means you will most likely need to compress your video file. This will prevent very long ​
upload times. Checklist of Components ◻
Essay Questions:​
Students will briefly address all four questions provided using Times New Roman in 12pt font, one inch margins on all sides, and single spaced. Each answer should be 250 words or less. Save the essay questions all in ​
one​
Word document file, or in a PDF file. o
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#1: What was the intent of your original choreography? Please provide title of work, inspiration, and any challenges you encountered in the choreographic process. #2: What leadership roles have you held in or outside of school? These may or may not relate to dance. #3: What are your plans after high school graduation? What are your career aspirations? #4: What impact has dance made in your life? Resume: ​
It should divided into four sections (each should be labeled): 1) Dance Training History; 2) Performance & Choreography Experience; 3) Clubs, Activities and Leadership Roles – what else have you participated in the school, community, state and/or national level (can be dance & non­dance related); and 4) Awards & Honors – list all dance & non­dance awards, honors or scholarships received. ​
Limit 1 page.​
GPA and Transcript: ​
Student will provide their current GPA in “x.x out of x.x” format as a response to a question on the application. Student will also upload a copy of their most recent transcript (official or unofficial). Video:​
Three minutes maximum of a solo performance by the student. It must be the student’s original choreography. It can be any genre of dance that best reflects the student’s artistic and technical abilities. While we traditionally receive a lot of modern/contemporary pieces, candidates should feel free to submit other styles such as tap, jazz, hip­hop, world dance, etc. It can be an actual performance on stage during a show, site specific, or filmed in an informal setting or studio. We suggest that you view videos of past year’s winners – you can find them at www.ndeo.org/nhsdaaward​
. Videos submitted via DVDs and YouTube will not be accepted. Photos:​
Two photos will need to be upload to the online application; 1) a head shot, and 2) a color photo of applicant dancing, in a dance setting or in a dance pose. Chapter Sponsor Award Recommendation Letter:​
The deadline for student to complete the application, pay the $25 fee and hit the SUBMIT button at the end of application is Friday, February 19th. This will then trigger an email to Chapter Sponsor to upload an Award Recommendation Letter, which must be uploaded by Friday, February 26th. This letter should explain why the student deserves the award, and provide examples of the student’s leadership, artistic merit and technical excellence. Please make sure the Chapter Sponsor checks their inbox for this email. If they do not receive an email entitled ​
Documentation Request​
from Acceptd, please contact Acceptd customer service at support@getacceptd.com​
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As a backup measure the Chapter Sponsor can email the letter directly to support@getacceptd.com​
. Application deadline is 2/19/16​
. For assistance with the online process, send email ​
support@getaccetpd.com​
. ​
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