DanceSport Talk

A studio owner who hosts several well-run competitions each year shared with me that he received a letter from a frustrated audience member complaining about excessively loud fans. I was sitting in roughly the same section at that event and agree that some of the fans were a little over-the-top in their efforts to scream out numbers. But apparently the letter writer proposed that the governing body for DanceSport write a regulation that could ban competitors for unsportsmanlike behavior if their fans were too loud. Can you imagine? The idea that athletes might be banned because their fans are too loud is the very antithesis of any sport. Imagine Robert Luongo being ejected from a hockey game because his fans are screaming "Lu" too loudly, or Venus Williams banned from Wimbledon for having loud fans.

Ballroom dance competition is not the ballet. We ask fans to be loud! DanceSport is at its best and most vibrant when the audience gets involved. Wendy and I purposely seek out events where we know that the fans are going to be loud and enthusiastic, because that makes the event so exciting and rewarding. The studio owner mentioned that some of the British couples loved coming to Canada because the audiences were so supportive, cheering loudly for competitors that they had never met, compared to reserved applause in Britain. I agree that excessive screaming is unpleasant, but that needs to be dealt with by the event organizers and their security arrangements, not through even more regulation. There's too much regulation as it is.

During a recent conversation with another DanceSport competitor, he remarked that he felt the judging was highly unfair towards he and his partner. I asked him to explain. He said that no matter how well they danced, in his view the local judges had all pegged this couple at a certain "place" in the results queue and that's where they would stay for all time. It's the kind of thing you hear far too often. At one local competition a couple of years ago, a world championship finalist railed at the judging as "inept" and vowed never to return, because they had placed him second to another world championship finalist whom he felt was inferior to his great skill. I thought it was time to shed some light on the thankless task that judges have to endure.


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I had an interesting conversation with a DanceSport DJ recently, which caused me to reflect on how we perceive musical choices. Now, before I go on, I should say that I like and respect the passion and dedication that this guy has for playing great competition music. I've been at many comps where he was in charge of the music, and if I were to count on my fingers the number of times I thought he made a bad judgment, I would still have plenty of unused fingers; he's that good.

During the conversation he mentioned that there had been quite a few competitions for him lately. As a result, he was growing tired of the same music and finding it hard to find fresh new choices. Hmm. I don't agree with this perspective at all. Here's why:


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I've encountered my share of awkward and inappropriate dressing rooms at competitions and shows, but I had no idea how bad the situation was worldwide until reading about the efforts to bring attention to this problem. The Dancing Channels discovered while editing DanceSport video footage for broadcast that change rooms were often so visible that dancers could be seen in the background in various stages of undress, rendering the footage unusable. There is on average a reasonable effort to provide good change rooms, but there appear to be many cases in Europe and elsewhere in which dressing rooms are not even enclosed, but just open areas off to a side of the competition floor. There have also been cases where camera phones were used to photograph dancers while changing and then posted online. In this day and age, especially with children involved in DanceSport, we must ensure proper protection for our dancers. The Dancing Channels is asking dancers and supporters of dance to get behind an effort to publicize the problem and bring about solutions. Their website at thedancingchannels.com offers a list of items they will propose to organizers around the world. It's a good list, and they are asking for input and feedback.

The IDSF reported in a sensationalized announcement on its website that Russian Ten Dance competitor Alexei Silde missed an out-of-competition drug test. I've read a number of biographies of world champion athletes and have gained some insight into how challenging it can be to live within absurdly restrictive rules imposed by WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency. Yes, doping is a problem. Everyone knows that these issues are tainting every sport. But it seems that the solutions are becoming as bad as the problems they are meant to solve. Athletes have reported being hounded as often as three times a week with requirements to submit a test. These requests are sometimes deliberately made at inappropriate moments or absurd times of day (calls are frequently made at 5AM or late at night when athletes are in bed). There are no allowances for being in the bathroom or in a vital meeting at work. If you miss the test request for any reason, a report has to go on file.

So I'm distressed to see how the IDSF is now sensationalizing the fact that he wasn't at home. And what about the strange emphasis on saying "he even submitted a wrong home address in his whereabouts information." What gives with that? That's as close to an accusation as I've ever seen! Athletes don't deliberately give a false address -- what would that accomplish? It may have been a transposed number or perhaps he moved recently. The IDSF has no place trying to sensationalize something like that unless there is evidence he deliberately tried to mislead.

It's not often that you get to watch a DanceSport event that brings tears to your eyes. But the Danish amateurs managed to do exactly that during the Danish national Latin Championship. Tired of the political battle that is tearing the DanceSport world apart, the amateurs made a dignified and breathtakingly beautiful statement that sent a shockwave of support around the world. For the finale of the Danish Closed Championship event, they gathered on the floor and danced a Rumba to the song "Make the World a Better Place," with each dancer changing partners every few seconds. You can watch this amazing show of unity here on YouTube.

This protest action was taken to make a statement to the Danish amateur board that dancers should not be used as pawns in any political conflict. Let's hope that the amateur organizations around the world pay closer attention to the needs of competitors and set political objectives aside to focus on what DanceSport is really all about.

The World Anti-Doping Agency's list of prohibited substances has been enhanced for 2008, and I must say that trying to live within these crazy rules is becoming more challenging every year. One can't help but wonder if it will come to a point where the list is so long the agency publishes a list of products you can use rather than those you can't.

We are all familiar with the case of Edita Daniute, who was suspended and lost her world championship title because she took a common weight control drug which contained a banned substance that was not even listed on the label. The WADA rules make a point of repeatedly using the phrase "and other substances with a similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s)" which means they can nail you even if the item isn't on the list.

As an exercise (it turned out to be an exercise in futility), I went through my medicine cabinet and pulled out the cold medicines and cough syrups and so on, attempting to ensure that there were no banned ingredients among them. The list in the WADA document isn't organized alphabetically, which makes it almost impossible to work with. In the end, I was unable to see if any items were in my medicine cabinet which weren't allowed, but that doesn't mean I'm safe. After all, you can get banned for using a substance that isn't listed on the label, as Edita found out. According to the IDSF's anti-drug philosophy, it is our responsibility to search the Internet for obscure published scientific white papers and make sure that nothing has been discovered that we don't know about.

Here's an exercise for you:

Below are the names of the *listed* prohibited drugs from the WADA document, in the order they provided them. Try and use this list to see if you can match any of the ingredients to products you might have in your house.

1-androstendiol (5α-androst-1-ene-3β,17β-diol ); 1-androstendione (5α-androst-1-ene-3,17-dione); bolandiol (19-norandrostenediol); bolasterone; boldenone; boldione (androsta-1,4-diene-3,17-dione); calusterone; clostebol; danazol (17α-ethynyl-17β-hydroxyandrost-4-eno[2,3-d]isoxazole); dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (4-chloro-17β-hydroxy-17α-methylandrosta-1,4-dien-3-one); desoxymethyltestosterone (17α-methyl-5α-androst-2-en-17β-ol); drostanolone; ethylestrenol (19-nor-17α-pregn-4-en-17-ol); fluoxymesterone; formebolone; furazabol (17β-hydroxy-17α-methyl-5α-androstano[2,3-c]-furazan); gestrinone; 4-hydroxytestosterone (4,17β-dihydroxyandrost-4-en-3-one); mestanolone; mesterolone; metenolone; methandienone (17β-hydroxy-17α-methylandrosta-1,4-dien-3-one); methandriol; methasterone (2α, 17α-dimethyl-5α-androstane-3-one-17β-ol); methyldienolone (17β-hydroxy-17α-methylestra-4,9-dien-3-one); methyl-1-testosterone (17β-hydroxy-17α-methyl-5α-androst-1-en-3-one); methylnortestosterone (17β-hydroxy-17α-methylestr-4-en-3-one); methyltrienolone (17β-hydroxy-17α-methylestra-4,9,11-trien-3-one); methyltestosterone; mibolerone; nandrolone; 19-norandrostenedione (estr-4-ene-3,17-dione); norboletone; norclostebol; norethandrolone; oxabolone; oxandrolone; oxymesterone; oxymetholone; prostanozol ([3,2-c]pyrazole-5α-etioallocholane-17β-tetrahydropyranol); quinbolone; stanozolol; stenbolone; 1-testosterone (17β-hydroxy-5α-androst-1-en-3-one); tetrahydrogestrinone (18a-homo-pregna-4,9,11-trien-17β-ol-3-one); trenbolone and other substances with a similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s). androstenediol (androst-5-ene-3β,17β-diol); androstenedione (androst-4-ene-3,17-dione); dihydrotestosterone (17β-hydroxy-5α-androstan-3-one) ; prasterone (dehydroepiandrosterone, DHEA); testosterone and the following metabolites and isomers: 5α-androstane-3α,17α-diol; 5α-androstane-3α,17β-diol; 5α-androstane-3β,17α-diol; 5α-androstane-3β,17β-diol; androst-4-ene-3α,17α-diol; androst-4-ene-3α,17β-diol; androst-4-ene-3β,17α-diol; androst-5-ene-3α,17α-diol; androst-5-ene-3α,17β-diol; androst-5-ene-3β,17α-diol; 4-androstenediol (androst-4-ene-3β,17β-diol); 5-androstenedione (androst-5-ene-3,17-dione); epi-dihydrotestosterone; 3α-hydroxy-5α-androstan-17-one; 3β-hydroxy-5α-androstan-17-one; 19-norandrosterone; 19-noretiocholanolone. Clenbuterol, selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs), tibolone, zeranol, zilpaterol. Erythropoietin (EPO); Gonadotrophins (e.g. LH, hCG), prohibited in males only; Insulins; Corticotrophins. Aromatase inhibitors including, but not limited to: anastrozole, letrozole, aminoglutethimide, exemestane, formestane, testolactone. raloxifene, tamoxifen, toremifene. clomiphene, cyclofenil, fulvestrant. myostatin inhibitors. Diuretics*, epitestosterone, probenecid, alpha-reductase inhibitors (e.g. finasteride, dutasteride), plasma expanders (e.g. albumin, dextran, hydroxyethyl starch) and other substances with similar biological effect(s). Diuretics include: Acetazolamide, amiloride, bumetanide, canrenone, chlorthalidone, etacrynic acid, furosemide, indapamide, metolazone, spironolactone, thiazides (e.g. bendroflumethiazide, chlorothiazide, hydrochlorothiazide), triamterene, and other substances with a similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s) (except for drosperinone, which is not prohibited). Adrafinil, adrenaline**, amfepramone, amiphenazole, amphetamine, amphetaminil, benzphetamine, benzylpiperazine, bromantan, cathine***, clobenzorex, cocaine, cropropamide, crotetamide, cyclazodone, dimethylamphetamine, ephedrine****, etamivan, etilamphetamine, etilefrine, famprofazone, fenbutrazate, fencamfamin, fencamine, fenetylline, fenfluramine, fenproporex, furfenorex, heptaminol, isometheptene, levmethamfetamine, meclofenoxate, mefenorex, mephentermine, mesocarb, methamphetamine (D-), methylenedioxyamphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine, p-methylamphetamine, methylephedrine****, methylphenidate, modafinil, nikethamide, norfenefrine, norfenfluramine, octopamine, ortetamine, oxilofrine, parahydroxyamphetamine, pemoline, pentetrazol, phendimetrazine, phenmetrazine, phenpromethamine, phentermine, 4-phenylpiracetam (carphedon), prolintane, propylhexedrine, selegiline, sibutramine, strychnine, tuaminoheptane and other substances with a similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s). Each of ephedrine and methylephedrine is prohibited when its concentration in urine is greater than 10 micrograms per milliliter. Buprenorphine, dextromoramide, diamorphine (heroin), fentanyl and its derivatives, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, oxymorphone, pentazocine, pethidine. Cannabinoids (e.g. hashish, marijuana) are prohibited. All glucocorticosteroids are prohibited when administered orally, rectally, intravenously or intramuscularly. Cathine, cropropamide, crotetamide, ephedrine, etamivan, famprofazone, heptaminol, isometheptene, levmethamfetamine, meclofenoxate, p-methylamphetamine, methylephedrine, nikethamide, norfenefrine, octopamine, ortetamine, oxilofrine, phenpromethamine, propylhexedrine, selegiline, sibutramine, tuaminoheptane, and any other stimulant not expressly listed under section S6 for which the Athlete establishes that it fulfils the conditions described in section S6.

Renowned dance coach Benoit Drolet has been introducing dancers to a unique visual test to determine whether the majority of dancers are right brained or left brained. You can see the test at the website of Australia's Herald Sun newspaper. Apparently those who first see the silhouette turning clockwise are predominantly right-brained. Those who first see the silhouette turning left are predominantly left-brained.

There is no wrong answer, because dancers can come from both sides, but Benoit's study seems to indicate that most dancers are right brained. That makes sense, as the right brain controls creativity, artistic imagination, envisioning and risk taking. Many people can make the silhouette change direction, but it's the initial impression that counts.