Finding a partner and a coach probably in another town

dancingmomof2

dancingmomof2

New Member
Hey everyone,

I am in Richmond Virginia which is not a big competition focused dance scene. My husband who is my dance partner and I know we probably will have to go up to DC to get coached for competition level dancing but how do you choose an instructor in another town where you don't live. Is there some website where you can see by city the most active pros and how they scored in the competitions that either they or their students entered?

For my second question I am wondering how I go about finding a competition partner for my 15 year old son. Most of the girls in our area are social dancers and not competition minded nor are their parents. I will say its like twice as hard to find a partner for a child than as an adult. Has anyone ever had a teenager compete pro am? Any advice here is welcome!
 
Can't say much about your first question.

You could try some of the online partner search services like dancepartner.com, etc. although I've had no luck with them. I'd also post some notices in local studios that your son is looking for a comp partner.

Good luck!
 
dancingmomof2 said:
I am wondering how I go about finding a competition partner for my 15 year old son. Most of the girls in our area are social dancers and not competition minded nor are their parents. I will say its like twice as hard to find a partner for a child than as an adult. Has anyone ever had a teenager compete pro am? Any advice here is welcome!
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Wow, it's hard to believe a boy would have trouble finding a competition partner in any town!

If you haven't already done so, hook up with your nearest USA Dance chapter and ask around among the people who attend its events. Do the same for other chapters that are within driving distance.

Also, I would think that any studio that has an unpartnered girl who wants to compete amateur would know it. It would be worth a try to call all the studios in the area and ask, "Do you have any 15-year-old girl students who want to compete in amateur events but don't have an amateur partner?"
 
Indiana_Jay said:
Wow, it's hard to believe a boy would have trouble finding a competition partner in any town!

If you haven't already done so, hook up with your nearest USA Dance chapter and ask around among the people who attend its events. Do the same for other chapters that are within driving distance.

Also, I would think that any studio that has an unpartnered girl who wants to compete amateur would know it. It would be worth a try to call all the studios in the area and ask, "Do you have any 15-year-old girl students who want to compete in amateur events but don't have an amateur partner?"
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I know it seems kinda crazy! I am contacting the other studios around to see if there are any other kids programs that we can try to see if there is another girl that would be a good match. Our USA Dance doesn't allow kids to come to their dances. My 15 year old is allowed but my 11 year old isn't even though he has taken classes for 3 years. So as you can imagine there aren't a lot of kids at those events.
 
dancingmomof2 said:
Our USA Dance doesn't allow kids to come to their dances. My 15 year old is allowed but my 11 year old isn't even though he has taken classes for 3 years. So as you can imagine there aren't a lot of kids at those events.
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Sorry to hear about your local chapter's restrictions on youth. I would still suggest, however, that while there might not be many youth there, it might still be a good place to network with other adults who might know someone who knows someone. And certainly see about neighboring chapters, which might not be as unfriendly to youth. Where I live, for example, there are two other chapters within two-hour drives.
 
I will probably do just that. It is too bad that our local chapter has that attitude towards kids. The studio we have been going to has had two different kids classes for some time now. I know some of the parents who are also dancers that tried to bring their kids to a dance and were turned away at the door. I wouldn't want to expose my boys into a dance environment where they aren't encouraged. Being a teenage boy is hard enough!

There is another chapter in Virginia Beach that is a little over an hours drive for us but they have events kids. Its a bit of a drive but may be worth it in the end.

Thanks for the advice.
 
If there is a shortage of high-level coaches in Richmond you might get your studio to establish a visiting relationship with one from another city - probably DC in your case. I remember that Dan Calloway and Ian Gillette used to do such visits years ago to neighbouring cities. That way you could get regular lessons and also improve the Richmond dance scene.
 
dancingmomof2 said:
I am in Richmond Virginia which is not a big competition focused dance scene. My husband who is my dance partner and I know we probably will have to go up to DC to get coached for competition level dancing but how do you choose an instructor in another town where you don't live. Is there some website where you can see by city the most active pros and how they scored in the competitions that either they or their students entered?
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You could ask those of us who do live in the DC area...
 
We all dance American Style Smooth and Latin dances. My husband and I dance silver level most dances but have never competed. I think when we start to compete we would be starting out with Bronze. We have been training and dancing socially together for about 6 years now and the kids for about 3. My boys are bronze level dancers.
We are all looking to step it up a bit.
 
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