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DANCING OUT
OF CATEGORY
Last
week I received a letter from Frank regarding pro/am
teams dancing out of category in Closed Scholarship
and Championship events. It is definitely an issue
of concern with many dancers, as it has been brought
to my attention a number of times. Because more competitions
are offering this event, I think it is time to clarify
and enforce what is allowed and not allowed in the
Closed Bronze and Silver divisions....not only for
the sake of the competitors, but also for the judges
and officials.
Is
having an invigilator overseeing these closed events
the best solution? I have mixed feelings about this.
I am wondering if there is a better way to solve this
problem. Maybe we all need to become more educated;
from the competitor all the way up to the officials
and the organizer.
The
first bearer of responsibility is the organizer. This
starts with the package information that is sent out
several months before the event. I can remember all
of the trial and error that we experienced when Becky
and I decided to run Closed Scholarships for Bronze
and Silver students. Since there were no defined rules
at the time (this was ten years ago), we basically
shot from the hip. Our first couple of years running
Closed Scholarships were quite interesting. We had
couples who were competing in Closed Scholarships
and then also entering in the Open Scholarships. Competitors
were coming up to me, exclaiming how unfair this was,
and they were absolutely right! The problem was, even
though we thought it wasn't fair, we did not have
a rule in our package that would prohibit this from
happening. So, the next year, we put in a rule that
a student may not enter both closed and open scholarships.
They must choose the scholarship level in which to
compete in. Problem solved, right? WRONG!
The
next year we had a pro/am team compete in single dance
events in the Gold division, but when it came to the
scholarships, they entered the silver. After all,
the rule said they could not enter both open and closed
scholarships but it didn't say they couldn't dance
single dance events at a higher level! Yeah, I'm thinkin',
I guess one could interpret the rules that way. Soooo,
the next year we changed the rule again! This time
we stated that closed scholarships were only for students
dancing at the competition in closed freestyles. End
of story! Well....not quite. Silver student decides
that she is going to dance the closed scholarship...in
the bronze. After all, the rule says that she must
dance in a closed scholarship, but not which one.
uggghhhhhhhhhhh!
It
took several years of trial and error to finally come
up with a rule that would stick. Because students
are allowed to dance several levels of freestyles
( i.e. Full Bronze and Associate Silver or Full Silver
and Beginner Gold), we stated in our rules that in
a scholarship event, they must compete in the highest
level that they entered in their freestyle events.
So far, this rule seems to define what is allowed
when it comes to closed scholarships.
So,
the first thing that needs to be done is to have a
clear definition of what the student is allowed to
enter. The question is, should this be decided by
the organizer or the NDCA? The answer is probably
the NDCA, as this would save newer organizers from
going through the agony of trying to figure it out!
Now
comes the fun part. The step list. The NDCA does have
a step list for bronze and also a list of elements
that are not allowed. Is this enough? I would like
to ask the dancers something. How defined do you want
American style to get? Do we want it to be like the
International style? Some dancers say " yes".
That way, there are no ifs ands, or buts! Here's the
step list and that's that! Some dancers say "no
way"! If we do that, we will lose our creativity
and that is what American style is all about! One
thing I do know. If we have a step list, we need to
have a video tape and manual of the steps. The list
of steps and elements themselves isn't enough. I can't
figure out why the NDCA hasn't hopped onto this one.
Wouldn't this be a great way to generate income for
the organization? To have a program and tapes to be
available to it's members?
The
second step is to create an effective step list and
materials available to all NDCA members.
Step
three: Educate the judges. I don't just mean steps
either. A judge, overall, can tell when a competitor
is dancing out of category, although a couple of NDCA
regional seminars for judges would be nice. The question
is, what does the judge do when they see a couple
who is abusing the rule? This needs to become more
defined so the judge has the knowledge and power to
be able to adjust their individual marks. I do know
this, the judge wants to do the right thing.
I
think, once the rules are more defined for the Closed
Scholarships and the organizer is spared the job of
setting their own rules for this issue, once the competitor
is educated as to what they are allowed to do or not
to do, and finally, when the judge has a better understanding
of what they should do when this happens, this will
resolve some of the abuse that happens in this division.
This does not mean that I think that the NDCA should
set up every rule for running a competition as we,
the organizers, do not want to lose our own creativey
and individuality, but this is one area where I think
they could be most helpful.
Let
me know what you think!
Dan Messenger
11-04-2001
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