DanceSport Talk

I found it interesting that the WDC announced the establishment of an "Amateur Commission" within the DanceSport Executive Board with the "equivalent voting rights of the Coaches and Competitors Commissions." The WDC claims that this provides amateur competitors who join its new amateur registry a "direct line of communication to the policy making committee." Obviously they are feeling pressure to move away from their closed system of governance.

Don't fool yourself if you think this is anything like the democracy competitors enjoy through existing amateur registries associated with the IDSF. It's not. All it means is that the amateur registry now has a single seat on the board dominated by the concerns of professionals.

While I applaud the WDCs desire to create a free and open competitive environment -- something we desperately need -- I hope that amateurs aren't sucked into believing that this means they'll have the kind of open voice and individual member voting privileges they currently enjoy under the IDSF-affiliated amateur registries around the world.

USA Dance, the organization which governs amateur DanceSport in the USA, revised its rules on January 1 to remove all restrictions on amateurs who teach. Under the new rules, pretty much every restriction has been removed for athletes as far as earning money, doing demonstrations, doing benefits, winning money, and income reporting requirements. The only ones remaining are some regarding sponsorships and commercial agreements. The new rules can be reviewed here.

Gary McDonald, the former US Champion whose father Brian McDonald is currently president of NDCA, gave some insights this spring to similar changes taking place in the NDCA (the organization governing professional DanceSport in the USA). He said, "USA Dance delegates in attendance [at the last NDCA meeting] stated that they no longer have a qualifying requirement for their members to teach, so in other words anyone can teach. There was no formal motion put forward by the NDCA but they did agree with the way USA Dance is handling this and I am sure that they will do likewise very soon."

So, if the NDCA goes down the same path, then there will be no restrictions of any kind on teaching of DanceSport in the USA. Interesting. I wonder how that will influence teaching guidelines in Canada.

I've been attending the NW Regionals DanceSport competition in Seattle for several years. It's a pretty good comp, with lots to like. Some things that are not so good, like the terrible floor with raised metal ridges every 18 inches, remain in place year after year. But I know how hard it can be to organize and pay for a competition so I've been pretty relaxed about the shortcomings since overall it's a superior event.

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