DanceSport Talk

The Mexican Open held on October 22 experimented with an interesting new concept: audience voting during the finals. Televised live as a one-hour show airing in over 33 Central and South American countries, the audience was asked to phone in their votes. Audience votes counted for 50% of the total score, with the judges' votes counting for the other half. In some cases, the audience changed the result.

Is this the start of a new trend? Is it even an idea that should be considered? Personally, I think we need to debate this and ask ourselves many questions before going down this road any further. I'll list my reasons below, with a chance for you to share your thoughts through a survey:

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At a recent competition, two songs caught my ear. Not because they were great pieces of music, which they were, but because they were completely inappropriate for the skill level of the event involved. I'd like to urge dance competition DJs to consider how every song played fits into the scheme of the event.

In this particular case, a Junior Pre-Bronze event -- young kids competing at a very early stage in their skill -- had to dance to a highly complex Waltz with no defined beat. Even championship couples would have found this song challenging, but at that level you can expect the dancers to make it work. In this case, it was simply unfair to the couples on the floor. Another poor song choice was a Tango played later for a Silver-level event, which was very smooth throughout, with no beat clearly evident.

It seems that many DJs just play music because it's labeled a certain way. They see a bunch of songs in the list that say "Waltz," and have a beat count inside the legal range, so they pick one. I would like to encourage DJs to plan ahead. Listen to the songs ahead of time. Make a list of what you'll play for which event, and make sure that you pick appropriate music for the skill level involved.

New competitors need songs with clearly defined beats, where they don't have to guess. Do your homework and know which songs to use for these skill levels.

As the skill levels go higher, you can use more challenging music, but make sure that it matches the character of the dance. Nobody on the floor wants to dance to a square Waltz with no swing, or a heavy Quickstep. Even the audience won't enjoy watching dancers trying to make something with their existing routines to a Cha Cha that has no edges.

Songs with complex bridges or that change their beat count (some music goes from 8-bar phrases to 10-bar phrases during the song) don't belong in any competition. Leave those for social dancing.

Dance DJs have a great responsibility. Make the most of it.

The popular World Superstars Dance Festival DVDs have just been released for 2008. Featuring the world's top professional champions performing individual show dances, these really are a must have for every ballroom dance enthusiast. They are beautifully filmed, and brilliantly performed. There are separate DVDs for Standard and Latin. Each one is over 2 hours long.

Latin Edition features:

• Bryan Watson & Carmen (Germany)
  
• Michael Malitowski & Joanne Leunis (Poland)
  
• Riccardo Cocchi & Yulia Zagoruychenko (USA)
  
• Sergey Surkov & Melia (Poland)
  
• Peter & Kristina Stokkebroe (Denmark)
  
• Franco Formica & Oxana Lebedew (Germany)
  
• Maxim Kozhevnikov & Beata (USA)
  

Standard Edition features:

• Mirko Gozzoli & Alessia Betti (Italy)
  
• Arunas Bizokas & Katusha Demidova (USA)
  
• Jonathan Wilkins & Hazel Newberry (England)
  
• Timothy Howson & Joanne Bolton (England)
  
• Christopher & Justyna Hawkins (England)
  
• Jonathan Crossley & Lyn Marriner (England)
  

Danceshopper.com has them available for US$98.95 each. You might be able to find them elsewhere, but I didn't look to see who else offers them.

I sat down with a gentleman I greatly admire in the DanceSport world. This professional has made a tremendous impact in my region through a strong vision, great leadership, and smart application of that vision to his business. He has transformed how local studios operate, and after some 20 years in the business still innovates and leads the way for others.

During our conversation, we talked about the silos that have been built over the years. The professional community has its silo. The amateurs have their organizations. The organizers try to cater to both, but favor one "side" or the other: you have competitions organized by USA Dance and other amateur organizations, and others organized by NDCA or other professional members. But at the end of the day, as Andy pointed out, we're all in this together. In a time when ballroom dancing has enjoyed more popular awareness than ever before because of television and movie coverage, the number of competitive dancers has gone down. Membership in DanceSport BC has dropped 30% from previous years.

Competitions drive interest in competing, which drives interest in private lessons. If there aren't enough competitions, teachers and coaches don't have enough work -- group dancing lessons only go so far and can't generate a living for any teacher. With less prospect for earning a living, there is also less interest in amateurs turning professional. If there aren't enough teachers, there can't be enough development of quality skills. This leads to fewer dancers having an interest in competing. If not enough dancers want to compete, there is no drive to organize more competitions. And you go full circle.

It is critical that amateurs and professionals work closely together to build the industry up. We need to put our resources together to create awareness of the sport and to help each group achieve its goals. Both groups have lots they can contribute to the other, but it has to begin with an interest in tapping those resources, leading to dialog and then action. Let's get started!