5678 Elite Dance: Ballet Sections, Entry Levels and Irish Dates

5678 Elite Dance decides which level your dancer competes at, and it is not a choice. A dancer who has never competed anywhere enters novice, marked on its own 80 point scale. Once they have competed on any stage, they must enter open. Place first in an open section at 5678 and elite becomes available, but taking it closes the open solo section to them at that event.

Ballet is a graded category throughout. At novice and elite level it is marked in the Performance and Technique group with lyrical and contemporary rather than against street, tap or acro. Two qualifiers run in the Republic each autumn, at Dublin City University and the Charleville Park Hotel in Co. Cork.

What it is

5678 Elite Dance was founded in 2010 by Annika and Clare, who between them run Ajendance NI in Belfast and Banbridge. They built it after looking at how North American competitions were run, as a deliberate break from the festival format that Irish schools had been touring for decades. Clare trained in RAD ballet and more recently in ISTD classical ballet, and put ballet, tap and modern on the Ajendance timetable. That is worth knowing if you are weighing up whether the ballet section here is taken seriously.

The organiser puts the circuit at more than 55 dance schools and over 1,800 dancers, and operates as AC Creative Events Ltd. For a school entering for the first time, the size is the reassurance: a section is only worth travelling to if enough dancers enter it, and 5678 splits a category into A and B once it passes 22 entries.

Unlike the Dance World Cup or the AD Competition, this is not a British circuit with a couple of Irish stops added on. Every date is on this island, which is the practical difference for a school counting travel costs.

Where ballet sits

Ballet is one of the competition's own named categories, defined in the rules as technique and classical ballet steps. The other categories at a qualifier are lyrical, street dance, tap, jazz, acro dance, anything goes, and 1 v 1 tap and experimental battles.

The detail that matters for a ballet dancer is what happens at novice and elite level, where solos split into two groups. Performance and Technique takes ballet, lyrical and contemporary. Anything Goes takes street dance, musical theatre, song and dance, character, tap, jazz and acro. A ballet solo is therefore judged alongside lyrical and contemporary work, not against hip hop.

Three rules are worth reading before entering. Pointe work is permitted in the 15 and over category only. Musical theatre and musical theatre dance run at Take It To The Floor, the separate team championship, and not at the qualifiers. Commercial is not accepted as street dance, and the judges may move it into anything goes.

Novice, open and elite

Open is the default, and the rule is stricter than most schools expect: a dancer who has competed on any stage, at any competition, must enter open. Previous experience elsewhere counts.

Novice exists for genuine first timers and runs as solos only. It is scored out of 80 rather than 100, and a novice dancer may enter two categories at most. There are no novice duet, trio or group sections. One 5678 event is enough to move a dancer up to open.

Elite is also solos only, and is reached by placing first at a 5678 competition. Because entering elite closes the open solo section at that same event, it is a decision rather than a promotion. Whatever the level, a dancer may hold three solo entries at most.

Qualifying for the All Ireland Championships

The qualifiers feed the 5678 All Ireland Championships at the Pillo Hotel, Ashbourne. Qualification is on a published score rather than a placing, so a dancer who is never in the top three can still go through.

• Open seniors, meaning 14 and under and older, need 245.

• Open juniors, meaning 12 and under and younger, need 235.

• Novice dancers need 195, on the 80 point novice scale.

5678 lists the championships on 27 and 28 February, but the year on their own site reads 2026, which has passed and sits after the October qualifiers in their own running order. Treat the year as unconfirmed until they correct it. Rules for the Champion of Champions section were due to be published in November 2026.

Ages, and the date that catches people out

There are seven bands: 6 and under, 8 and under, 10 and under, 12 and under, 14 and under, 16 and under, and over 17.

A soloist does not compete at the age they are on the day. For events before May they compete as the age they were on 1 January; for events after September, as the age they were on 1 June. Both Republic qualifiers fall in October and November, so it is a dancer's age on 1 June that sets the band. A group competes in the band of its oldest member, and 5678 asks for proof of age if a protest is raised, in writing and within an hour.

What it costs

• Solo: €29 per dancer

• Duo: €36 per routine

• Trio or quad: €44 per routine

• Standard group of 5 to 14: €13 per dancer

• Large group of 15 or more, to a maximum of 26: €12 per dancer

• Media and DAKIKI fee: €18 per dancer

• Studio registration on Dance Comp Genie: £100, deducted from the final bill

Entries are processed only once paid in full, and anything withdrawn inside 20 days of a competition is charged at 50 per cent. Spectator admission is separate, sold through Ticketbud, with prices published four weeks before each event.

What else they run in Ireland

The two autumn qualifiers are the main route in, but they are not the whole circuit. Jamz NI is a hip hop event at the Black Mountain Shared Space in Belfast on 8 November 2026. Take It To The Floor is a team championship in Northern Ireland on 9 to 11 April 2027, with its own entry types, mega crews of 23 to 55 dancers, and the only musical theatre sections 5678 runs. A teachers training programme is advertised for 2027.

Two open sections also run inside each qualifier. The Showcase is a five minute team piece with no limit on age, numbers, style or experience, built on a set theme, with cash prizes. Dance For Your Life is a knockout in which dancers learn a routine from a judge in 30 minutes and then dance it off in front of the auditorium until one is left.

How to enter

Entries go through a dance school rather than from individual families, as on most of this circuit. If your child dances with a school, the conversation starts with their teacher. Registration runs on Dance Comp Genie, which needs a Studio Center account before a school can enter anything, and music is uploaded there ahead of the weekend.

No closing date is published. Places are taken first come, first served and capped by the performance time available, and each category holds 22 entries before it splits into A and B sections. Registration queries go to admin@5678elitedance.com, general ones to info@5678elitedance.com.

One thing parents ask about every year: spectators may not photograph or film during the competition. Official photographers cover it, and the images are free to download from the DAKIKI app afterwards.

Looking at what else is on: every dance competition in Ireland with a ballet section.