Dear Dancesport Officials and Athletes,
The following document provides highlights from the 2025 WDSF Annual General Meeting (AGM). It summarizes key updates on upcoming competitions, rule changes, and strategic decisions impacting USA Dance and the broader dance sport community. Topics include Blackpool event coordination, Breaking championship pathways toward the Youth Olympics, and significant WDSF competition rule changes taking effect in the coming years. These highlights aim to keep members, officials, and stakeholders informed and prepared for upcoming developments.
Best regards,
Daphne Locker
DanceSport VP – Ballroom Division
2025 AGM Meeting Highlights
WDSF Blackpool:
ATOS, an IT company that handles many Olympic Sports, was used for ticketing, registration, and handling hotel stays. The company is located in France, but has many offices around the world, including the United States.
Had a couple of different publicity options
- ATOS
- Olympic Channel
- Dance TV
Next WDSF Blackpool will be March 26-29, 2026, which is the same weekend as USA Dance Nationals.
Breaking:
- Asian Breaking Championship was held on June 27-28, 2025, for Juniors and June 28-29, 2025, for Adults.
- World Youth Breaking Championship is August 28-29, 2025, in Portugal.
- In order for Breaking Youth to go and represent their country and Federation at the Youth Olympics, they will need WDSF Ranking points.
- The World Breaking Championships will be held in Japan and will provide ranking points.
- The World Games in China will also provide ranking points.
- The Youth Olympics will be held in Dakar, Senegal in 2026.
- In order for a federation to send a Breaker to the Youth Olympics, the federation must submit a letter of interest/intent to participate in the Youth Olympic Games. This letter must be submitted to the IOC by July 31, 2025.
- The Presidium advised the member federations to submit their letters to the IOC no later than July 15, 2025, and include in the letter:
- A statement that the federation will be submitting an equal number of B-Boys and B-Girls
- That based on previous competitions, there is a strong possibility that they are strong medal contenders
- That their representatives will comply with the eligibility criterion and go to the WDSF Breaking events and thus receive the ranking points needed to be chosen. There will only be 12 B-Boys and 12 B-Girls total going to the Youth Olympics
WDSF Dress Codes:
There are a number of changes to the dress code for Juveniles, Junior I, and Adults. Please check the most recent dress code rules prior to attending any WDSF competition:
- Starting in Jan. 2026, for Juveniles, in addition to an all-White shirt, Black shirts will also be allowed in both Latin and Standard.
- Starting in Jan. 2026, for Juveniles, a Tuxedo shirt with a White front, collar, and cuffs and Black sleeves will also be allowed.
- Adult followers will be allowed to wear trousers in Standard. However, the trousers will have to present a silhouette of a dress/skirt. There was neither mention nor graphics showing what they meant.
Solo Competitors vs Couple Competitors:
Starting in January 2026, a competitor will need to choose to dance Solo or to dance in a Couple, they will not be allowed to dance both at the same time. If a competitor is licensed as a “Solo” dancer and they want to switch to a “Couple,” they may do so without any waiting time. However, for a “Couple” competitor to switch to “Solo” competitor, they will need to wait three (3) months before they will be allowed to compete. This change in the rules had the most heated discussion. The vote was 86 for the change vs 40 against the change.
Judging/Chairing WDSF events:
Starting immediately, no WDSF Presidium member will be allowed to judge any WDSF competition.
They will still be allowed to Chair a WDSF competition as long as they have a Chair License.
There will be an in-person Chair conference on Oct. 6, 2025, in Rome, Italy.
WDSF Competition Rule Changes:
The actual starting date for the following rule was not mentioned, but either immediately or by January 2026, all WDSF events will need to use the AJS plus Skating scrutineering systems (check this with the WDSF minutes). This means that for all WDSF events, the Scrutineer needs to be A-Level certified. This is a problem forthe United States because:
- Currently there are no A-Level certified scrutineers in the United States or Canada.
- The AJS system is used for Championship events and thus USA Dance competitions; if they want to run a WDSF event, they will need to use two different scrutineering systems and potentially have two different scrutineers, one for USA Dance events and a second for WDSF events.
I discussed this with Dallas Williams (Chair of WDSF Sport Technical System Committee) at the AGM, and he is going to look into potential solutions for the Americas. In order to become an A-level scrutineer, one has to shadow an A-level scrutineer and show mastery of the Graphics applications.
Brisbane 32:
Documents have been submitted to the IOC to have Breaking included in the Brisbane Olympics. The deadline to hear back is Sept. 2026
The minutes of the meeting can be found at: https://www.worlddancesport.org/Minutes/GeneralAssembly.
However, it will take a couple of months before they are posted, assuming that they don’t wait until next year’s AGM for approval of the 2025 AGM minutes before posting.
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