2025 Rulebook for DanceSport

The Invigilation Committee has developed a Pre-Bronze Syllabus that corresponds to N-class and that is included in Appendix B.

We have added Fellow/WDSF Certified International Adjudicator certified at the A++, B++, C++, D++, and E++ levels.

Local Competitions are renamed Provisional Challenge Competitions.

Solo Proficiency is renamed Solo Competitor.

For Provisional Challenge Competitions, the requirement for any certified officials except the Scrutineer and the Chair of Adjudicators has been removed in exchange for removing the opportunity to qualify for Nationals at these competitions. Also, the participants in a Provisional Challenge Competition may be Social Dance members of USA Dance. It is also recommended that we not specify the minimum number of judges to be hired as we do not do this for any other category of competition

Any person who organizes and/or owns a Challenge, Regional, or National competition cannot dance in that Challenge, Regional, or National competition that they organize or own.

Definitions of Competition Organizer and Competition Owner have been added.

The awarding Proficiency Points and Ranking Points is the following:

Table 3 lists the required dances for Provisional Challenge, Collegiate Challenge, and Challenge competitions, and Table 17 lists the required dances for Regional and National Championships. They are similar but not identical. Table 3 was modified to require all 5 dances (4 dances in Smooth) for C-class (Gold, Open).

Newcomer events or classifications have been eliminated.

Senior 1 through Senior V competitors may no longer compete in more than two consecutive age levels.

There was a discussion about adding a Senior VI age category, but it was felt that it would make scheduling Nationals more difficult due to time constraints. Organizers are free to offer Senior VI events without it being in the Rulebook. This may be revisited in the next edition of the rulebook.

Pro/Am Master category was eliminated.

Only Regionals and Nationals are required to offer Pro/Am Scholarship events.

Pro/Am age categories were changed from A, B, C, D to A1, A2, A3, A4 to avoid confusion with the proficiency classifications.

Collegiate Challenge Competitions contribute towards the eligibility to compete in the USA Dance National Ballroom DanceSport Championships only if the competitor is a member of USA Dance at the time of the competition and only in the competitor’s actual age category. So, if you are a Senior IV dancing with a Senior II and thus usually dance Senior I and II, you will gain the 2 qualifying points for your Senior II events since that is the age category that claims the partnership. You would need to qualify in Senior I events at other competitions if you wanted to dance them at Nationals.

Regional Championships are allowed but not required to hold Pro/Am and Professional events, and the minimum amount of prize money required for Professional events at Regional Championships is reduced.

Table 16 Schedule of Sanctioning Fees: Sanctioning fees for Provisional Challenge, Challenge, and Regional Championship Competitions are changed to a flat Pre-Event Sanctioning Fee and a Post-Event Sanctioning Fee based on a charge per competitor. Collegiate Challenge Competitions are charged a flat fee.

Table 17 gives the event requirements for Regional and National Championships. The required dances have changed slightly to correspond to international events. This means that Viennese Waltz, Paso Doble, Jive, and Mambo would be required at lower proficiency/syllabus levels than we currently require. The “traditional dance pairings” may be offered until after 2026 Na,onals. At that time, the new dance requirements would go into effect. But it is recommended that competitions start using the new pairings.

The criteria for an adjudicator to regain their Professional Athlete status has been moved from 6.1.2 to Section 4.4 where rules pertaining to Professional Athletes are located. 6.1.2 has been edited to remove other material that appeared to be inaccurate.

The process of selecting USA Dance representatives to World Events has been edited. If two representatives are to be selected for a world event, the nomination process has been adjusted to give more weight to placement at Nationals and less to Ranking Points.

Where two couples are chosen to attend a World Event, the first couple receives a higher stipend amount, and the second couple receives a lower stipend amount.

• If the stipend listed was $2000, the first couple receives $2500 and the second couple receives $1500.

• If the stipend listed was $1500, the first couple receives $2000 and the second couple receives $1000.

• If the stipend listed was $1000, each couple receives $1000.

The Representative Stipends will be considered as reimbursement for expenses paid by the Athlete rather than as a scholarship amount as this avoids the Athlete having to pay taxes on the stipend. Athletes will have to submit receipts in order to be reimbursed.

Appendix F Marketing has been added and will be renamed Appendix E.