Scoring Hub

UDA + NDA + State

School dance scoring

UDA is the most authoritative high school dance team body — its National Dance Team Championship is the only such event endorsed by NFHS. NDA is the sister organization, and both run on a similar two-scoresheet rubric. Layered on top, individual state athletic associations often run their own state championships with entirely different scoring traditions.

Lead Body

UDA — NFHS-endorsed National Dance Team Championship

Sister Brand

NDA (Daytona Beach, April)

Scoring

Two scoresheets — Execution + Choreography

State Layer

Each state association may add its own system

UDA scoring rubric (120 total per judge)

UDA scores a routine across two scoresheets worth 60 points each — one for Execution, one for Choreography — for 120 points per judge. Judges' scores are then averaged into the team total. The line items below describe what each sheet measures; defer to the current published UDA rubric for exact values.

Execution scoresheet (60 pts)

  • Execution of Movement (10 pts)
  • Execution of Technical Elements (10 pts)
  • Synchronization / Uniformity (10 pts)
  • Spacing (10 pts)
  • Communication / Projection (10 pts)
  • Overall Effect (10 pts)

Choreography scoresheet (60 pts)

  • Musical Interpretation (10 pts)
  • Routine Staging (10 pts)
  • Movement Composition (10 pts)
  • Difficulty of Technical Elements (10 pts)
  • Communication / Projection (10 pts)
  • Overall Effect (10 pts)

NDTC division structure

  • Division I (D1): schools with 1,300+ enrollment
  • Division II (D2): schools with 1,299 or fewer
  • Within each division, sizes split into Small / Medium / Large Varsity
  • JV and Junior High / Middle School compete separately
  • Spirit Program Game Day division (cheer + dance + band)

UDA categories

Jazz · Pom · Hip Hop · Kick · Game Day Dance · Spirit Program Game Day · Game Day LIVE (dance + band), plus Intermediate divisions of Pom, Jazz and Hip Hop for developing programs.

The school-team bid

School dance is one of the few places in dance where a true "bid" exists — the same currency as all-star cheer, because UDA and NDA share a parent company with UCA and NCA. A camp Home Routine or Superior trophy, or a regional placement, can literally earn a bid to a bid-only Nationals, with squad-credentialing requirements attached. It is the school-team analog to the studio world's scholarship pipeline. We unpack it in our understanding dance bids guide.

NDA scoring

NDA uses a similar two-scoresheet framework and holds its championship in Daytona Beach each April. Many schools compete at both UDA and NDA — but under UDA rules they must be recognized by the school as separate teams to do so.

State athletic associations

Each state runs its own high school dance team competition within NFHS frameworks — and several use scoring traditions that look nothing like the UDA rubric. A few notable examples:

MSHSL (Minnesota)

High Kick and Jazz divisions, with Classes A / AA / AAA by enrollment. Judges rank 1–10 per category (totaling toward 100), and the lowest rank wins — a figure-skating-style ordinal system rather than an additive point total.

UIL (Texas)

Texas drill team and dance scoring is administered regionally, with criteria that vary by contest.

Other active states

Iowa (IHSDTA), Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, California and others each run their own scoring — confirm with the state association directly.

Two different worlds in one season

A school team can compete on the UDA/NDA additive-point rubric at a national event and on a state association's ordinal-rank system at the state meet in the same year. They are not interchangeable, and a placement in one says little about how the team would score in the other.

Where to find the official documents

UDA scoring: varsity.com/uda/school/competitions/divisions-rules-scoring/. NDA: varsity.com/nda. State athletic associations: search by state name (e.g., MSHSL, UIL). Dance Collective links only — defer to the official documents for current rules and values.

Related reading: College dance scoring · Scoring glossary · Find a studio.

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