DanceSport Talk

It's funny how often a good idea can be so badly off base that it becomes worse than the problem it was meant to solve. That's how I feel about the direction the Canadian Amateur DanceSport Association (CADA) has taken with a recent decision it made.

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IDSF has just received confirmation from officials at the Ministry of Sports in the People's Republic of China, that DanceSport has been officially admitted as a medal sport in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. The Asian Games is the official IOC/OCA multi-sports event and it will be supported by 45 countries.

The number of medals to be competed in DanceSport will be announced next year.

This represents another success of the IDSF initiative to obtain medal status in all the important athletic games meetings in the world, and a key step closer to Olympic event status. While I'm still on the fence about how inclusion in the Olympics will impact DanceSport (see my previous posting on this topic), it's good to see developments like this because they can't help but provide more awareness and support, in terms of audience, participation, and financial sponsorship.

IDSF today has 84 national member federations on five continents. 57 of these are recognised by their national Olympic committees. IDSF represents more than 4 million athletes around the world. Last summer, DanceSport athletes competed in the medal program at the 2005 IWGA World Games in Duisburg, Germany.

I was really pleased to see that the Canadian Dance and DanceSport Council, the national representative of the World Dance Council, served an official notice yesterday that their policies would mirror the publicly announced "Open Market" policy of the WDC. This means that their members will not be barred from competing in or adjudicating events which are not sanctioned by the CDDSC.

This is a welcome announcement, and promises to be the first step on the road to healing the great divide that has taken place in Canada's DanceSport environment since last summer.

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The WDC issued a press release April 12 calling for a genuine "open market" philosophy in terms of DanceSport participation. This is welcome news, and may be the first step in stopping this ridiculous war between the professionals (see press release in PDF format).

In the words of the WDC, they are officially "taking a position and a policy full of freedom... We herewith undertake that we shall allow all Professional Competitors and Adjudicators to participate where and whenever they choose without fear or favour or retribution of any type."

There's nothing particularly new here, but seeing this policy published for the world to see is refreshing. I hope the IDSF takes notice and responds appropriately. It remains to be seen how Canada's arm of the WDC, the Canadian Dance and DanceSport Council (CDDSC), will respond.

In Canada, a decision by the CDDSC last year to force all competitions to be sanctioned by the CDDSC or be ineligible for judging caused a storm of controversy that threatened to rip the dance community apart. The proposed policy meant that competitions would no longer be sanctioned by the governing amateur bodies if they wanted to use judges (since all adjudicators in Canada were registered with the CDDSC).

The policy was never implemented, but the impact of its threat has been widely felt.

Naturally, the amateur organizations were not going to cooperate with such a Draconian policy. Despite the fact that it was never actually implemented, a group of adjudicators split from the CDDSC and formed a new organization, the CDF, which has been judging many amateur competitions in Canada ever since. A public announcement from the CDDSC making it clear that they support the objectives of the WDC would go a long way to setting the stage for a return to sanity in this area of the industry.

I've always liked the WRD musical compilation albums, and the label has just released a new 2-cd album called "House of Latin" that continues their reputation for excellent dance music. There's lots to like on this album, and particularly some good Rumba tracks. Curiously, there are only two Jive tracks, both by Edmundo Ros and neither one has any real "Jive" character. Also included are two Mambo and two Salsa tracks. I would have preferred more Jive -- and genuine Jive -- instead of Salsa, but this is still a very worthwhile purchase.

As I posted at the time it happened, the WDC went to court just before the IPDSC World Championships in an effort to have the competition stopped. The WDC felt it was the only body that should represent professionals. Then, in February, the Italian representative of the IDSF went to court in an effort to have the WDC's Italian Championships stopped, claiming that they were illegal under Italian sports law (PDF press release).

In response, WDC Honorary Vice-President Rudi Trautz issued an open letter to both organizations asking them to "stop this madness." I couldn't agree more. He says, "We are now facing court cases initiated from both sides and we are right in the middle of a very unnecessary and damaging war" (see his letter in PDF form).

It needs to be made clear that the IDSF did NOT take this action. They were probably not even aware that the Italian member organization did so. However, the distinction is lost to the DanceSport community in the blurred lines of communication. I'm disappointed that any IDSF party is choosing to attempt the same confrontational legal approaches used by the WDC. This tars both sides of this conflict with the same brush. As Rudi (who is a member of both organizations) points out in his letter, it is wrong for governing bodies like this -- at any level -- to create a war between professionals because it hurts the entire industry and ultimately the very dancers these organizations were created to support.

Please, IDSF and WDC, make it a priority to sit down and talk through your issues and come to an agreement that furthers DanceSport rather than hinders it.

I like the UK championships. Not as stuffy as Blackpool, and with the wonderful Ross Mitchell band providing the music, these are always superior competitions. The production values on their DVDs are also far better than those of the Blackpool videos (which seem to be going downhill each year).

The 2007 contest is now available on DVD, with separate disks for Latin and Standard. Both the Professional and Amateur competitions are included on each disk, with semi-final and final rounds. It's a good value at $69 per disk. Check it out at DanceShopper or order from Chinny at a reduced price of US$110 for both disks with free shipping. The Chinny site is currently down due to a major upgrade, but you can ask for details by sending an Email to lindachinny at yahoo.com.hk

A woman in Chicago is suing a man she was dancing with for "Negligent Dancing" after he flipped her in the air and she came crashing down on her head, causing a fractured skull and brain injuries. Story details can be found here. Now, we all know that this wasn't a case of serious dancing and thus she may well have a claim to make. However, I can't help but wonder about a couple of things:

First, I'm sure that the moment before her fall, she was totally enjoying herself and feeling on top of the world. It was a party in a restaurant. As I'm sure the defense will be asking, how much was she a collaborator in this whole incident? Did she know she would be tossed in the air? That's of course the key issue here. If she did, then she inherently agreed to the dangerous action by participating and in that case should not have any claim when it went wrong.

Second, regardless of the foundations of this case, what happens if she manages to win? Will it set a precedent for all dancing accidents in the future, including those in competitive ballroom dance? We know that accidents happen. Some moves are inherently risky and even the best, most experienced partner can misjudge the timing of a move or not make it into position for any number of reasons. I worry every time I have to catch my wife in a move where she is completely trusting me to be there on time and on balance, and our moves aren't nearly as daring as those of other couples I've seen.

Until now, there hasn't really been much of an issue legally because both partners have agreed to add these things into their routines and practice them often. In doing so, it's understood that any reasonable person must know the risks involved. But we live in an increasingly litigious world, and this highly publicized case could potentially impact the dance world in unexpected ways. Will dance partners have to sign releases promising not to sue each other? Will teachers make students sign similar releases? Stay tuned for the outcome.