Change is good, but is too much change causing more harm than good?
At an upcoming WCS Event, Bridgetown Swing, dancers could look forward to dancing in their respective Novice [or] Intermediate [or] Advanced [or] All-Star/Champion Jack & Jill division as well as either the Lower [or] Upper Strictly Swing division. Lower Strictly was defined as Novice/Intermediate/Advanced level and Upper Strictly was defined as All-Star/Champion level.
This arrangement made it possible for Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced dancers to earn points (based on their placements) in the Jack & Jill Divisions and the Lower Strictly division towards being awarded with a Top Female Amateur Dancer Award and a Top Male Amateur Dancer Award.
Recently, a change was made in the Strictly Swing divisions so that "Lower Strictly" is now defined as Novice/Intermediate and "Upper Strictly" is defined as Advanced/All-Star/Champion.
How is that decision going to affect the Top Amateur Awards? If a dancer is Advanced and competed in the Upper Strictly and in the Advanced Jack & Jill, winning the Jack & Jill would be a moot point since they "likely" wouldn't be winning the Upper Strictly against the Professionals (I use the term "Professionals" here loosely to encompass not only the true Pros in the WCS world but also the rest of the dancers who would be considered not Amateur because of their All-Star status).
Overall, the decision brings up a few issues:
- The aforementioned Top Amateur Award Qualification issue - last I checked, Advanced level dancers are not considered Professional so they should get a fair chance to qualify for an "Amateur" award.
- Most Advanced dancers I know don't feel ready to compete against the Professionals, and won't be happy being forced to. I wouldn't be surprised if a number of Advanced dancers chose to not compete in a Strictly Swing at all.
- I know of a few instructors who frequent the event who will be pretty unhappy having to compete against their own students in what should be considered a Professional, or at least semi-Professional competition division. Whether or not anyone feels it is politically correct for an instructor to feel this way is beside the point and not part of the issue at hand.
- It is possible now that the event could lose competition money (in conjunction with Point #2) from the dancers who would possibly have paid up if they qualified for the Lower Strictly (citing many possible reasons here why any given dancer may not want to dance in a higher division) but now choose to hold onto their money.
Just my 3 cents. Anyone have change for a dollar?
posted by isadanceaholic at Friday, August 15, 2008
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hey - interesting post. i never thought about it from your perspective, but you do provide a good case against the lower/upper strictly guides.
ok - as a forever novice and as what will probably be a forever tenure in intermediate - i NEVER compete in the lower strictly cuz i don't want to compete against YOU FABULOUS AVANCED DANCERS! :)
i never really thought about the amateur/pro thing or this all around amateur thing.
i just try not to trip and drool.
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Totally agree!!! its Geoffrey by the way : )
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I love that you made this post and this is the exact issue that has been discussed here about this upcoming event! I fully agree with the points you have brought to our attention and unfortunately I do know dancers who will not be dancing b/c of the new strictly split. I feel that complete thought was taken surrounding all aspects of their competitions when these rules were established. Hopefully feedback will be shared at the event on evaluation forms (in either direction) and we may notice a change next year.
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I find it amusing that suddenly so many people will post comments while posting as "Anonymous".
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The Event Director had this to say when questioned:
"An advanced dancer has, by definition, attained a high degree of proficiency, skill, and experience. The Champion and All Star categories are just a variation of Advanced dance."
This is what happens when the person who makes all the decisions has not that much competition experience!
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So by that logic, we might as well lump it ALL together, since everyone is just "variations"! Hell, we could extend that faulty logic to rationalize that Champions, All Stars, Advanced, and Intermediate dancers are all variations of Novice dancers!
LMAO
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Oooh, yes please! I would love to compete against all the people who's been my heroes for years! That would be so fun!
Maria
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.... i think if we just left it the way it was.... adv in the lower division, that would be just dandy! :) but that's just me, lol
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This is Brick, if you didn't know.
A comment.
Usually reducing the number of strictly divisions is done by the event director because of schedule reasons (not enough time) or numbers reasons (not enough entrants in each division.) I'm not sure why Bridgetown divides theirs.
The WSDC doesn't deal with Strictly Swing, so there are no rules or guidelines.
SwingDiego divides the strictly into "Open" and "Champions," which is obviously "unfair" for the lower division competitors, since most of the allstars will compete in "Open."
John Wheaton draws the line at his events in a different place.
Bridgetown has drawn the line in a place which is going to be "unfair" to "Advanced" competitors, since they are at the bottom of this particular pile.
Assuming that splitting the Strictly at all, is an attempt to get more people to enter, Bridgetown's division split will just encourage more novice / intermediate competitors to enter. If there are more novice / intermediate competitors in attendance than advanced competitors, this may actually increase the $$ from entry fees.
I have a question for all the competitors:
What are the comps about?
Winning Money?
Ego Trips?
The joy of being able to dance "on stage" in front of your friends?
If more lower division competitors decide to enter, than advanced competitors decide not to enter, then this split is probably a good thing.
Unless, of course, you or your close friends are advanced dancers.
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FWIW, Bridgetown is not alone with this split for the Strictly. I looked around, and Mountain Magic uses the same
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