No Waivers, No Exemptions Rule Needs Reconsideration!

Now that the new qualification rules have been published without any waivers and exemptions, I would like to clarify the lack of understanding that seems to exist about the reason for their existence at the previous 2021, 2022, and 2023 Nationals. 

Anyone can compete at USA Dance Nationals by attending 2 Challenge/Regional competitions (regardless of placement). That means if you spend enough money to attend 2 Challenge/Regionals, you have earned the right to compete at Nationals!

(Placing in the top 50% at a Regional gives you a financial discount by avoiding the cost of travel to a second competition)

The cost of qualifying for Nationals (i.e. attending 2 competitions) varies drastically depending on where the USA Dance member lives.

Group 1: 

If you are one of the lucky ones who lives within a 6 to 8-hour driving distance of two or more competitions (members in NY, NJ, GA, FL, and probably a dozen other states mostly in the East, South, or Midwest), your cost per couple is around $900 (for travel and hotel)

   Gas – $200 for 2 competitions 

   2 nights hotel – $350 per couple X 2 competitions = $700

Group 2:

If you live in the rest of the 48 states that require you to fly to one or both competitions, your cost per couple is about $2550 (for travel and hotel)

  Airfare $375 X 2 = $750 per couple X 2 competitions = $1500

  3 nights hotel – $525 per couple X 2 competitions = $1050

Group 3:

If you live in Hawaii or Alaska, your cost per couple is about $4800 (for travel and hotel)

   Airfare $850 X 2 = $1700 per couple X 2 competitions = $3400

   4 nights hotel – $700 per couple X 2 competitions = $1400 

This is just the cost for airfare/travel and hotel for a couple to attend 2 competitions (not including Nationals) assuming a hotel rate of $175 per day for double occupancy.

Some of you might have misunderstood the use of the word waiver or exemption for Hawaii/Alaska couples by thinking that a waiver provides special qualification treatment for them. That is far from the truth and quite the contrary as you can see from the cost analysis for qualification.  The current rules provide special treatment for couples from a few states and financially penalize couples residing in other states.  If the goal of USA Dance is to increase participation from all 50 states, the current rules are doing exactly the opposite. They make it financially much harder for couples from some states to qualify for Nationals.  I have already received messages from a few Hawaii competitors who attended in 2021, 2022, and 2023.  They have indicated that they will not be able to participate in the 2025 Nationals due to the hardship created by the new rules and will instead plan for the NDCA Provo Nationals.

As board members of the Honolulu chapter, we have worked extremely hard in the past 3 years to increase participation – we have tripled our chapter membership, doubled our Nationals attendance, and created a collegiate team. All of this was made possible and motivated by the support of many in the USA Dance Collegiate and Nationals organizing committees (Daniel O’Connell, Daphna Locker, and Christine Zona, to name a few).  The so-called “waiver” lowered our cost from $4800 to about $2000 to qualify for Nationals. This cost was still far higher than for Group 1 competitors but made it financially easier to qualify for Nationals.

We now have many new young adults interested in competing.  Instead of ensuring that competitive ballroom continues to the next generation in Hawaii, these rules are destroying everything that we have been trying to build in the past 3 years! 

Does USA Dance really want to send a message that chapters that are not located near competitions don’t really matter? I do not believe this is the case.

I know many on the USA Dance Nationals board and committees personally, and I know many, if not most, of you truly support the growth of our chapter and membership.  We sincerely appreciate all your past efforts!

I hope the USA Dance Board will take this issue seriously and (as we are already four months into the competition year) quickly reinstate rules that aim to improve and increase participation and make these rules permanent so they do not have to be revisited every single year!

Sidenote:

If we want to avoid the use of the word waivers and not disturb the current point system, we can add location points based on the distance to the nearest competitions:

For example: (this is just a suggestion)

• If you have no regional/challenge competition within 2400 miles – you receive 4 or 6 points
• If you have 0 or no more than 1 regional or challenge competition within 1200 miles – you receive 2 or 4 points