Dancesport in the olympics?

[dolceamore]

i've heard for a while now that ballroom is going to be in the olympics. do any of ya'll have more info?

[SDsalsaguy]

I'll assume that this question is being asked in all innocence dolceamore, but I'm really sick and tired of this topic already... I don't know why some people insist on perpetuating this whole rumor! :x

At least through 2012 dancesport is NOT in the Olympics :!:

[DanceMentor]

Yea, I think it was going to be like a trial event or something, but it never came to fruition. They were going to make it part of the closing ceremonies, and then they didn't deliver. It was all a big disappointment.

[SDsalsaguy]

It actually was part of the ceremonies in Sydney but got no TV coverage (well, at least not in the U.S.).

[IsaacAltman]

The IDSF which is the world governing body for Amateur Dancesport is in charge and is recognized by IOC. It is the IDSF who has tried to get it to become an Olympic Sport. It hasn't become a medal sport yet despite ite Olympic recognition back in 1997. I believe the way to the Olympics is through the Junior Olympics. Many sports have done it that way. Numerous of our Olympians started in the Junior Olympics.

[dolceamore]

ok, thank you for the info. i wasnt sure about it. everyone tells me diferent things. thanks!

[Terpsichorean Clod]

IOC Considers Skateboarding for 2012 (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/08/sports/s123413D48.DTL&type=sports)

The article mentions how skateboarding is already an X Games event. Maybe the path for dancesport lies through the X Games. Hmmm...Extreme Dancesport...with violent contrachecking and ronde-tripping... :D

[meow]

Living in Aust. I saw the TV coverage of Dancesport in the Closing ceremony and it wasn't great.
Personally, I don't think Dancesport will ever get into the Olympics because of the current system of adjudication. There would need to be significant changes made (I only know how comps are run here).

[nevsky]

Yea, I think it was going to be like a trial event or something, but it never came to fruition. They were going to make it part of the closing ceremonies, and then they didn't deliver. It was all a big disappointment.
A disappointment - maybe; but if ballroom ever makes it into the Olympics, it'll be a disaster.

[tangotime]

They should have applied to the Winter Olym.-- where it really belongs .

[Me]

There was an attempt made... It is a long story and very messy. It was all pretty stupid - a bunch of squabbling over who owned what, etc.

Ballroom dance itself will probably never make it into the Olympics. Now a bunch of kids flipping and spinning and leaping all the hell over the place to cha cha music? That might.

[danceronice]

Winter Games? Nah. We already have ice dance. That would be rhinestone overload.

I honestly don't know enough about the various dancesport governing bodies to say whether or not it's a great plan. As a dancer (and as a skater who will never make the Olympics that way) the idea has appeal. But as a skater I also have the fun of watching federation infighting, citizenship/athelete release scandals (Tanith Belbin last year, going from Canadian to US, and now Morgan Matthews going the other way) screams about biased judging and outright cheating (Sale/Pelletier wuzrobbed at SLC, and Shen/Zhao wuzrobbed at Helsinki, where the Russo-Ukrainian colluding was actually caught on camera) about which our international governing body, the International Skating Union, does precisely squat except cover their own butts. I don't know which dancesport organization is in charge of what, or anything really about the people running them, so I have no idea if it could be as potentially full of the OMG DRAMA as skating politics is.

Also--did they ever discuss eligibility? In skating, that's not as big a deal as it USED to be, because they finally realized most skaters couldn't keep in the sport past one Olympic cycle if they weren't allowed to make money at it (as they literally were not.) But there is still the division between Olympic-eligible and non-eligible skaters. And we only have that difference--there's no skating equivalent of pro-am. So who would be the Olympians? The pros have the skills, but the Olympics have traditionaly been about "amature" athletes, even if that's something of a joke now. Not to mention that IIRC, the citizenship rule is IOC, so applies across all sports. You have to be a citizen of the country you represent.

[tangotime]

The world class Amat., would in all likely hood, be undistinguishable, from many of the Prof. , particularly at rising star level . We are, after all, more of a winter passtime than summer ( our business, generally, takes a nose dive in summer )

More to the point, the general public are looking for entertainment ,and either division , would supply that .

[Terpsichorean Clod]

Has anyone heard if bridge finally got added to the Winter Olympics?

[Chris Stratton]

I hear queue jumping is in...

[Terpsichorean Clod]

I hear queue jumping is in...
Using really, really long pony tails still attached to people as jump-ropes? :shock:

[wooh]

Does dancesport really WANT to be accepted by a group that has accepted CURLING? Right there with that, the magic of the Olympics is forever gone!

[Laura]

They should have applied to the Winter Olym.-- where it really belongs .
They can't put it there. Winter Olympic "rules" require that the sports in it traditionally take place on snow or ice. Therefore, ice dance is in, but something like basketball (which started as a wintertime sport in the US because it could be played indoors in any weather) is not.

[Chris Stratton]

Does dancesport really WANT to be accepted by a group that has accepted CURLING? Right there with that, the magic of the Olympics is forever gone!

Can we put on a nice paso while we watch them sweep their ice?

[chocolatchica]

I heard somewhere that pingpong is an Olympic sport? Is this true? And if so how the heck can they say ping pong is a real sport but not ballroom?

[waltzgirl]

Well, it has a ball and you hit it. So I guess it counts as a sport.

Once at a social, they had a game where you did the tango while chasing balloons around the floor to stamp on them. Maybe we should add that to qualify for the Olympics. :D

[Terpsichorean Clod]

How about speedtrack VW? :cool:

[Terpsichorean Clod]

Well, it has a ball and you hit it. So I guess it counts as a sport.

Once at a social, they had a game where you did the tango while chasing balloons around the floor to stamp on them. Maybe we should add that to qualify for the Olympics. :D
So you're saying we'd need to add a ball or two, plus hitting...dodgeballroom dancing?

[tanya_the_dancer]

If ping pong is an olympic sport, then they should make air hokey an olympic sport :) :)

[fenixx]

hey, its Table Tennis! hehe

[danceronice]

Have you SEEN the Chinese play ping-pong? I wouldn't mess with those guys.

As there's nothing inherently winter-related about dancing, I don't think it qualifies for the Winter Games. And, again, they already have one "that's not a sport!!!1111eleventy!" sport with ice dance, and sometimes figure skating in general.

[meow]

Ballroom/Latin dancing will not make into the Olympics while the adjudication system we have is still being used. That would have to change. Adjudication must be fair but more importantly, be seen to be fair.

[SDsalsaguy]

It will also have to demonstrate that the dancing (sans celebrities, etc.) can and will draw strong TV ratings--and hence advertising revenue--something that it has yet to do.

On top of which is the whole IDSF/WDC battle... one result of which is that there is far from anything regarding a unified front for Ballroom/Latin being presented to the IOC.

[meow]

It will also have to demonstrate that the dancing (sans celebrities, etc.) can and will draw strong TV ratings--and hence advertising revenue--something that it has yet to do.

On top of which is the whole IDSF/WDC battle... one result of which is that there is far from anything regarding a unified front for Ballroom/Latin being presented to the IOC.

Both totally true. IDSF & WDC would have to fix up their differences and somehow become united, something of which I am not holding my breath.
Also, there is very little advertising here for ballroom/latin comps, which is basically the only place you will see all the top dancers together. Even the Aust Dancesport Championships have very little advertising so it is mostly those in the industry who know about it to but tickets.
Until Dancing with the Stars, most people didn't even know what the term 'Dancesport' was. Even the studio's do little advertising, relying on word of mouth.
The World Latin Championships 2008 will be held in Melbourne, Aust., and unless you are somehow involved in Dancesport, no-one knows.:cry:

[Chris Stratton]

I hear writing nasty letters is a provisinal event for 2012...

[danceronice]

Ballroom/Latin dancing will not make into the Olympics while the adjudication system we have is still being used. That would have to change. Adjudication must be fair but more importantly, be seen to be fair.

At risk of stabbing my own sport in the back--hasn't stopped figure skating. Heck, we have KNOWN corrupt judges still working, and the new IJS has just assured we have no way of knowing which judge produced which marks. And it's taken two years or so for even the athletes to figure out how it works. Most casual fans are now completely lost when scores are posted.

[SDsalsaguy]

I hear writing nasty letters is a provisinal event for 2012...
Well in that case dancesport will be well represented in the Olympics after all, since the WDC and IDSF should both be in medal contention without a doubt! ;)

[tangotime]

DA. on ice-- nothing inherent ? -- you are obviously have never been a dance school owner !!-- try telling this to most of my students who are out for the summer ( also , ask the teachers in Fla. I , know, owned schools there for many yrs )

[Adwiz]

I just heard that the IOC will be giving the green light to skateboarding as the next sport to be admitted into the Olympics, in time for the 2012 London games. Guess that means an even longer wait before DanceSport will receive any further consideration.

There is still too much controversy surrounding ballroom dancing as a "sport" for the IOC to be comfortable with it. That might go away if the WDC and IDSF can resolve their differences, but who knows?

Most people I talk to say that DanceSport has athletic qualities, but see it as an art with sports characteristics rather than a sport. I would agree with that myself. I'm fine with the term DanceSport and think it has generally been a positive change for awareness, even if many people don't really understand the term. The fact that the last two DWTS winners have been recognized athletes has built a stronger association with athleticism. Still, it's a stretch in my view to call it a sport. With only a few very rare exceptions, Olympic sports can be measured without resorting to personal opinions. That's why even figure skating has such emphasis on "required elements." I would hate to see ballroom dancing end up with required elements in each dance on which you have to be judged. How boring would that be!

[Laura]

Nice avatar, Adwiz!

Ever since dancesport became "recognized" as a sport by the International Olympic Committee, I'd surmize that the question of "is it a sport" has been decided in favor of "yes" as far as the Olympic organizers are concerned.

The next hurdle is one of proven popularity. I seem to recall that one big objection a few years ago was that there wasn't a proven American television audience for dancesport. Since the US TV companies pay the most money for broadcast rights to the games, and since the US television market is by far the largest in the world, TV apparently has some (probably only indirect, though) influence these days over what does and does not get in.

I wonder what kind of effect the past few years' worth of DWTS, SYTYCD, and the revived "America's Ballroom Challenge" has had on this? I'm sure there's someone in the IDSF who is working on this, it seemed VERY important to them a few years ago that they get into the Olympics.

[meow]

I believe Dancesport to be both an art and a sport. But it would be very difficult to stage as an Olympic sport - would they stick to current comp formats or move towards something similar to the ice-skating format. If the second, it would take an awful long time.
And Dancesport managements have to make inroads into the mainstream TV audiences. They need to promote Dancesport to make it exciting to the average spectator. I know of many who are amazed when they first see it and their pre-conceived idea of 'boring' goes out the window.

[danceronice]

DA. on ice-- nothing inherent ? -- you are obviously have never been a dance school owner !!-- try telling this to most of my students who are out for the summer ( also , ask the teachers in Fla. I , know, owned schools there for many yrs )

The point being, you can do it in Florida in midsummer without needing a building cooled to 31 degrees F with a complicated piping system under the floor to freeze it because its natural environment requires ice and snow. I think pretty much everything in the Winter Games is inherently an OUTDOOR winter sport. Figure skating, hockey, speed skating and curling have all moved into artificial indoor surfaces, but they all started as outdoor winter sports. If you go by when people do it, skating's season should start in March instead of end, since most of the people who do it are kids who have more time for ice time in summer.

And, can someone point me to a thread around here perhaps that explains who the various governing bodies for dancesport are? (And the equivalents of national federations.) Am I correct in thinking the issue seems to be there are two international-level groups and there's some question over which is the one that should be recognized by the IOC? I'm a little confused by the acronyms being thrown around; excuse the clueless newbie!

[Laura]

Am I correct in thinking the issue seems to be there are two international-level groups and there's some question over which is the one that should be recognized by the IOC? I'm a little confused by the acronyms being thrown around; excuse the clueless newbie!
There's no actual confusion, but I think the "losing" organization is trying to cast doubt on the "selected" organization.

As for the acronyms, in the United States, the governing body for dancesport that is recognized by the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) is USA Dance. (This would be the equivalent of the USFSA, danceronice.) The international governing body for dancesport, recognized by the IOC, is the International DanceSport Federation (IDSF). (This would be the equivalent of the ISU.)

We'll start with that...there's more to it but I'm not up to explaining it today.