Dear Ballroom Athletes and Officials, I hope that 2024 has been a good year overall and that you are looking forward to 2025. As the year comes to an end, I wanted to send everyone a sort of “State of the Ballroom” address. So, what has the Ballroom DanceSport Committee (BAC) done over the last year? - Our membership base has grown from around 1300 at the end of 2023 to around 1600 at the end of 2024. That is an increase of 23%. I am confident that with everything else we have accomplished this year we will continue to grow our membership base and thus grow our competitions.
- To make life easier for everyone, we are changing the DanceSport Ballroom membership renewal dates for all athletes, officials and professional members from an annual year based (Jan 1, to Dec. 31) membership to a ballroom competitive cycle membership. For the membership you are currently renewing, 2025, you will receive an extra 3-months added to the membership and will be good for the entire 2025-2026 Competition Cycle. Get your membership renewed now for 2025, and you don’t have to worry about having your membership ready for Nationals in 2025 or Nationals in 2026. After March 2026, you will renew your membership every April for the Competition Cycle of that year.
- We have grown the number of competitions from 7 during the 2023 to 2024 DanceSport cycle (Nationals 2023 to Nationals 2024) to 16 during the 2024 to 2025 DanceSport cycle (Nationals 2024 to Nationals 2025). The new competitions include a new category of Collegiate Challenge competitions, that the Collegiate Committee has been working with various college teams to get started for the past 2 years. Even though the Collegiate Challenge competitions have only one age group – Adult – the competitions are usually open to all age groups and levels. By offering these competitions within the USA Dance family, we can offer our members competitions that are usually cheaper than our usual competitions (since the school may subsidize the event space) and thus allow our members more competitions in which they can dance. For those Seniors who dance in Collegiate competitions, and why wouldn’t you, they are fun and have great energy, you will gain 2 qualifying for Nationals, but only in the age category you usually dance. 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 point 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.
- We have worked with the Organizer’s Committee to make sure that new competitions and established competitions do not conflict with each other in terms of dates and to allow all competitions to be able to optimize the number of competitors who attend.
- We have also increased the number of regular Challenge events and are working with a couple of organizers to bring a Regional to the Southern Regional and to maintain our Midwest Regional.
- We have made the qualification rules for Nationals clearer and easier to understand by codifying the number of points one needs to reach to qualify for Nationals. In the interest of making life easier for everyone, we have changed the qualification points for Nationals from a couple to the individuals. This means, that if you break up with your dance partner, you are still qualified for Nationals if you partner up with another individual who has qualified in the same events and age. So, as a new partnership, you don’t have to re-qualify for Nationals.
- After a 2-year phase in process of the new Proficiency system, we are moving toward a full integration of the Proficiency Point System (PPS) and you will notice the changes in the 2025 rulebook.
- For both our Junior II and Adult competitors who do not have partners, we are providing a way, through Solo Competitions, for them to qualify and attend a WDSF World Championship.
- Subject to approval by the Board of Directors, the World Championship Travel Stipends will go from a Stipend on which you may have to pay taxes, to a Reimbursement of your travel. This does mean that if you attend a World Championship you will need to submit your travel receipts within 60 days of your return from the Competition. Should the receipts and Travel Stipend Request form NOT be submitted within the 60days, it will be at the discretion of the BAC to approve the reimbursement.
- We are having a WDSF Adjudicator Congress this year in January which will help our many WDSF Licensed adjudicators to maintain their WDSF License without having to travel to aboard to attend the congress. We hope to be able to provide additional congresses in 2025.
- We have added the qualification and recognition of those adjudicators/officials who have either Fellowship License status or WDSF License Status. This has been done by adding the designation of ++ next to one’s A, B, C, D or E License designation.
- Finally, after many years of many complaints we fully anticipate that the 2025 Ballroom Rulebook will be published in April to correspond with the Competition Cycle of 2025-2026.
- I would like to take this opportunity to thank Eric Austin for his many years on the Ballroom Dance Council. His last meeting was last night, and we will all miss his thorough understanding of the workings of the DanceSport community, and his in-depth knowledge of our rules. We wish him all the best and hope to see him back on the dance floor shortly.
If you have any comments, suggestions or would like to volunteer in 2025, please do not hesitate to email me dancesportballroom-vp@usadance.org. Have a great Holiday Season, a very Happy and Healthy New Year and I hope to see everyone in 2025. Daphna Daphna Locker DanceSport Ballroom VP Dancesportballroom-vp@usadance.org |
