New Dance Beat

[gingerbread]

Reading the interviews with Donnie Burns , etc. re the implacable and worsening wars between the IDSF and the WDC, well it makes for sad reading. Just as the ballroom industry is gaining popularity and respect, they seem to be imploding with jealousy, greed and venom. Will this hurt us dancers?: Will it be irrelevant? It certainly didn't help boxing to have 2 world titles each disrespecting the other? Does anyone care? Should we worry? Are US organizers having trouble being awarded world championships? It seems to me that I have seen less of that here, and that saddens me,as I love a chance to be able to see the world's top dancers here in the US.

[Laura]

The World Pro Latin in 2006 was in California.

[Nik]

IDSF is much larger that IDU or IDSA so amateur competitors don't really have to worry much since there are only a few non IDSF comps around. In US, Orlando this year was an IDSA comp and not a lot of people went. IDSF worlds still have the best couples, and not many people switched over.

I don't think this is that big of a problem for Pros, its just a fight for power.

[Gumby]

In general I think issues like this onl really matter to the tiny minority that have a chance of winning one of the titles. For the rest of us peons as long as there are competitions to attend and personal improvements to make we have enough to think about.

[Me]

A couple of weeks ago I received a renewal notice for my NDCA membership and it came with some strange letter about how, "So-and-so said something at some sort of event and said we said it, but we didn't really say it" or something to that effect (please don't quote me - I didn't read it all.) It did cause me to put it in my "will deal with it later" mail pile where it has been since, along with the membership renewal. Ooops. :|

Sorry but that's how it is. I didn't read the letter, and it made me put my renewal on the backburner because I didn't have time to read through it all. So I think, at least in that way, these sorts of things do have an adverse effect.

[Casey]

This power struggle/controversy/whatever it is also affects people who watch competitions. As someone pointed out earlier or elsewhere, USDSC/USDC ex-Miami, now Orlando, has pretty much lost its power to attract international couples. It used to be THE comp to watch under 21s, amateurs, and pros from all over the world. Embassy attracted amateurs this year because of the IDSF grand slam and pro latin couples because of the pro world latin last year; but because of the dispute that split the Embassy/USDC factions and/or the problem with the amateur organizations, which caused Nik not to go to Orlando, very few of the international amateurs went to Orlando. And the ones who did seemed to be a different set than the ones who went to Embassy. The winning couple from Moldova was fantastic. And for the pros, there was no one else at the level of Andrej & Katarina. So I wasn't complaining because I got to watch 2 fabulous couples without any distractions. But it's a real loss for the U.S. when the international people don't come here. Luckily, the disputes don't seem to affect attendance at Blackpool since members of all factions can dance there without threats of sanctions from their main organizations.

[Nik]

Very good point about blackpool. There should be more comps where everyone can dance and none of this nonsense matters.

[Angel HI]

Sadly, that won't happen. It would be indifferent to name one or two because there are so many 'power struggles' that go on in these sorts of things. The point...that they go on, and will continue to go on, for as long as humans have something to do with it.

[Throwaway Overshare]

Very good point about blackpool. There should be more comps where everyone can dance and none of this nonsense matters.

Unfortunately, Carlos Freitag has made it the IDSF's business to abolish all such open competitions.

Blackpool is still too prestigious in its own right for him to take on, but unfortunately others such as Assen in the Netherlands have been severly diminished by the threat (allegedly disclaimed at the last minute) of IDSF sanctions against anyone who participates.

But that's just one side... in the end none of the organizations - WDC, IDSF, NDCA, or USA Dance have clean hands, as they all put their own interests, alliances, and grudges above the interest of their members in dancing.