International competitions

[Katarzyna]

I have a dilemma. There is a chance that we will not be able to do Blackpool next year. I am looking for nice substitutes..

What are the other nice competitions that will have a lot of couples and will be a good experience...

So far we are planning on Saxonian days/German Open as well as International..

we need to pick one more competition. I was thinking of UK open, Asia open or Celtic classic. has anyone gone to those events? Can anyone help me ? So far the favourite is Celtic classic, but not sure yet..

[LXC]

can't help you with the question. but just want to say good luck and i envy you!!!! not even dancing right now, let alone compete, and going overseas to compete:cry:

uk open would seem like a bigger opporutnity.

[Katarzyna]

I looked at the results online, and uk was surprisingly small.. comparable to celtic at least.. but I think Ireland sounds niceer and level of competition about the same.. I was hoping to find some other comp that has 200+ couples, but that is harder than I thought...

Thank You LXC.. It's nice to be able to du things like this from time to time :)

Hope you will be back on the dance floor sooner..

[DancerForLife]

How about a comp in Italy, one of their Open events?

Also, how does the Dutch Open look?

Any chance you might be able to get to Japan???

[Katarzyna]

dutch open souunds about as big as celtic but it's less than a month after international.. so that's a lot of travelling.. I was looking at Japan, I know there are some big ones there, just can't find which ones are the big ones..
do you know which italian ones are good?

[SDsalsaguy]

The German Open is a tremendous event, and one that very few US couples attend. The Italian Open is a lot of fun and bosts some moderately sized open fields, so that's probably worth checking out as well. If something closer is preferable, then I might look at both the Dutch Open and the Am comp in Aarhus Denmark (sorry, don't recall if that's actually called the ǺS Open or not).

[Katarzyna]

none of the italian ones are that big.. such a surprise.. hm...

[SDsalsaguy]

Well, it has been several years since I went to the Italian Open in Cervia but, at the time, it was mid-sized although bosting a couple of Blackpool finalists in most divisions. Fun comp though, even if exceedingly hot and humid!

[Katarzyna]

The German Open is a tremendous event, and one that very few US couples attend. The Italian Open is a lot of fun and bosts some moderately sized open fields, so that's probably worth checking out as well. If something closer is preferable, then I might look at both the Dutch Open and the Am comp in Aarhus Denmark (sorry, don't recall if that's actually called the ǺS Open or not).

German Open we are definitely attending .. decided that couple months ago.. Italian open is sizeable.. how would you compare it to let's say celtic... As you've been everywhere ?

I am looking for next year.. basically my boss is on maternity and I can't take time off between mid march to mid -end June... :(

[LXC]

one would assume that there'll be some big comps in former soviet union states

tokyo international open has over 100

[Katarzyna]

oh no, italian open takes place in june :(

[SDsalsaguy]

I haven't actually been to the Celtic so I can't really offer you a first hand comparison. That said, I think more higher level couples head towards Cervia as it makes for a decent comp/vacation package. Bumped into someone on the train who had flown into Italy to partner hunt, etc., so sizable enough and like other major comps in that respect as well.

[SDsalsaguy]

oh no, italian open takes place in june :(
Yup, towards the end of the month. The year I went, I flew over to London for a week before Blackpool, then went up to Blackpool, and then spent about three weeks in Aarhus (Denmark), before flying down to Cervia. Talk about needing a mixed wardrobe!

[Katarzyna]

hm.. but italian open is not within my date range... have to run, but will check in later.. there is a chance I might be able to take thursday -monday off and do only rising star blackpool... but that sounds really expensive..

[mummsie]

What about "The Australians" which is held in Melbourne Australia in early December? Quite a few International dancers attend - especially from Japan, UK and Germany. Its a 3 day comp and is usually very well attended. Gayle

[chrisjohnston]

The Celtic is a great comp.Last year the 2 top US couples were in the 24 in Standard.I believe 10 of the 12 from Blackpool were there
Barcelona is also a great comp.Check this link to see the Standard final
http://gallery.supershag.com/p/idsf_open_standard/img_102932

Barcelona is 30th June and 1st July 2007
Cheers chris
BTW I am going to both comps next year.

[Katarzyna]

What about "The Australians" which is held in Melbourne Australia in early December? Quite a few International dancers attend - especially from Japan, UK and Germany. Its a 3 day comp and is usually very well attended. Gayle
When is it ? how many people usuallly attend?

[Katarzyna]

The Celtic is a great comp.Last year the 2 top US couples were in the 24 in Standard.I believe 10 of the 12 from Blackpool were there
Barcelona is also a great comp.Check this link to see the Standard final
http://gallery.supershag.com/p/idsf_open_standard/img_102932

Barcelona is 30th June and 1st July 2007
Cheers chris
BTW I am going to both comps next year.
I think it will be celtic. have to talk to my coaches to see what they recommend once they come back from International, but probably we'll go to Celtic.. Thank you Chris.

[mummsie]

When is it ? how many people usuallly attend?

Hi, Its a very big comp in Australian terms. Events run for 2 1/2 days. The last few years they have run some major IDSF ranked events. I have just had a look at the Australian Dancing Society's web site but it looks like its being upgraded.
They would normally run to about 5 heats for the open events. The floor is huge and is televised every year on Christmas night. Gayle

[star_gazer]

Hi, Its a very big comp in Australian terms. Events run for 2 1/2 days. The last few years they have run some major IDSF ranked events. I have just had a look at the Australian Dancing Society's web site but it looks like its being upgraded.
They would normally run to about 5 heats for the open events. The floor is huge and is televised every year on Christmas night. Gayle
Online entries will close on Friday, October 13th, 2006. Entiries sent by mail close on Monday, October 16th.

[Katarzyna]

Oh, that's soon.. too soon to make such decisions.. maybe next year. I do have family in Australia... I was looking for next year events.

[mummsie]

Entries have closed for this year but I think the orginal question was for something next year. :-) Gayle

[Katarzyna]

oh.. I will see how big it is this year.. :) and maybe following year will happen :)

[Katarzyna]

Just talked with my supervisor at work, and even though Iwill be teh only person in the department for 3 months, it will be ok for me to take a week off.. That means we will get to go to Blackpool after all :) so happy about that, this is fantastic.. I think competition wise it will be celtic, german open and blackpooll. and no more vacation time.. :)

[SDsalsaguy]

Woohoo! Happy for you Kat! :D

[Katarzyna]

YAY :) soo sooo happy.. I didn't want to miss it

[dandy]

Celtic is a great comp, VERY hospitable, run well, great comp, parties and team match.
Italian Open obviously is full of Italians (and there is a lot) and making an impact can be difficult unless your name ends in 'i'. Having said that Cervia is a great place for a holiday.
German Open is full of Russians and Germans and is similar to Italian Open.
All comps are well run and good events.
Blackpool, UK and International are the top 3 international comps and seem to be the most objective - i.e. they mark what they see!!!
And all of the above have high ranked IDSF judges so they know what they are looking at.

[Chris Stratton]

Blackpool, UK and International are the top 3 international comps and seem to be the most objective - i.e. they mark what they see!!!
And all of the above have high ranked IDSF judges so they know what they are looking at.

I don't know if the Blackpool (British Open) judges actually have IDSF (as opposed to WDDSC) judging credentials as individuals, however one notable thing about that competition is that it is not collectively an IDSF panel. The IDSF requires that the judges be distributed over a variety of countries, wheras Blackpool is judged only by past Blackpool champs, most (until recently all) of those invited being from the UK. One system is internationalist, the other traditionalist.

[dandy]

I don't know if the Blackpool (British Open) judges actually have IDSF (as opposed to WDDSC) judging credentials as individuals, however one notable thing about that competition is that it is not collectively an IDSF panel. The IDSF requires that the judges be distributed over a variety of countries, wheras Blackpool is judged only by past Blackpool champs, most (until recently all) of those invited being from the UK. One system is internationalist, the other traditionalist.

Not sure that all Blackpool judges have been Blackpool champs but I like the idea that judging is done by ex-champions of the same level as the one the competitors aspire to - it gives it more credibility and weight! It should be the policy for ALL comps.

[Chris Stratton]

I'm basing this on the following comment from an early DF post (http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=15) that is actually a Dance Notes article, but now that I look at it a second time, it isn't clear that 'champions' specifically means Blackpool champions.

"Blackpool is only judged by British judges who are former champions themselves. I think it’s one of the fairest competitions because there aren’t many British competitors. We are basically judging the rest of the world."

This the time when that was written, the panel has expanded to include occasional non-British past winners.

[SDsalsaguy]

Actually Blackpool judges were past British Blackpool champions (albeit from different divisions) and, while there was an experiment for a couple of years with opening that up to non-British judges as well, as I understand it this past year was a return to the older British past-Balckpool Champions only on the judging panels.

[dandy]

Actually Blackpool judges were past British Blackpool champions (albeit from different divisions) and, while there was an experiment for a couple of years with opening that up to non-British judges as well, as I understand it this past year was a return to the older British past-Balckpool Champions only on the judging panels.


Hmmm, I can think of at least two, regular Blackpool judges who didn't even compete!!

[GJB]

Hmmm, I can think of at least two, regular Blackpool judges who didn't even compete!!

Interesting. Who?