International medals

[MadamSamba]

Just wondering, are bronze, silver and gold qualifications the same internationally (in all areas, modern, latin, street latin and new vogue (though you guys won't have new vogue medals, right)?

What's a typical bronze, bronze barre, silver etc routine in your neck of the woods?

I'm wondering because next year I'm off to, hopefully, the US and UK and wanted to know if their bronze, silver and gold levels are internationally determined and therefore equivalent to ours (here in Australia) or if it's determined on a country-by-country basis. Am I going to rock up to a lesson (and boy am I gonna dance all over the place) and say, for example, that I'm learning silver and find that silver here is more difficult or easier than silver there?

[tasche]

You can go to the usabda.org to get the list of syllabus steps. I learnt to dance latin in NZ myself as a kid and seem to find that some steps have different dances or they jsut called them different things like "half moons"?

[SDsalsaguy]

As far as I know ISTD Medals are the same internationally, at least for the Latin and Ballroom styles. Here's a link to the U.S. ISTD syllabi (http://www.usistd.org/syllabi_step_lists_&_tempi/) for you to compare...

FYI, we don't have a Street Latin division here in the U.S., but there are American Rhythm and Smooth categories that are contested in the same way as International Latin and Ballroom.

Hope that helps.

[pygmalion]

Yup. The ISTD medals are the same. In fact, the medals/certificates are all issued from the London ISTD headquarters, and the tests are all based on the ISTD-approved figures as outlined in the ISTD manuals.

[MadamSamba]

Fabulous, guys! Thanks for that. Three guesses what I'll be reading during lunch tomorrow.

Having perused the lists briefly and compared them with local syllabi that I'm familiar with, it all looks pretty standard, though our bronze seems to be a little more involved and the naming and categories appear quite different too. I could be wrong and it is only an initial opinion and could be wrong given Pygmalion's comments about them all being standard...hmm...perhaps I'll report back after lunch tomorrow...

[pygmalion]

Who administers your exams? I ask because, when at my former studio, there were "medal" exams in which the figures, etc, were quite different from the ISTD standard exams. Yet we were awarded bronze, silver etc. Also, there are governing bodies other than ISTD which give exams. That could explain differences. But, from my experience, an ISTD bronze exam, for example, is the same no matter where you take it.

[SDsalsaguy]

But, from my experience, an ISTD bronze exam, for example, is the same no matter where you take it.
This is absolutely the case! What is likely, and as Jenn has already suggested, is that any variation has to do with differences between the syllabi of different dance associations/societies.