Biggest Amateur Comps in the US?

[Dancing Irishman]

Hey all,

My new latin partner and I are starting to plan out which comps we might try to attend in 2014 and which we might aspire to beyond that. We're based in Dallas, Texas, and will be competing in some variety of open amateur latin (adult category- we're both in our twenties), so we'll probably need to travel to go up against any substantial competition. Obviously, if we're going to shell out $$$ to fly to a comp and probably stay in a hotel room, we want to make sure the trip is worth it (I.e. that we don't just do one or two events uncontested or nearly uncontested).

And that's where I need your help. What are the biggest amateur comps in the US in the open amateur categories? NDCA, Usadance, and collegiate are all fair game, as are any independent comps (I know about the national championships for the two organizations as well as the MAC and DCDI already)

 

[middy]

USA Dance: Manhattan Amateur Classic, Midatlantic Regionals (I don't have any experience with other regionals, sorry).

Collegiate: MIT Open, DCDI. Perhaps Harvard? Also consider Big Apple.

I assume you know about OSB already.

 

[snapdancer]

Go to o2cm.com, click on "Results", then click the link for the event you're interested in to see what the competition was like last year. For example the Gumbo event from last June 28th.

 

[twirl2010]

Hey all,
And that's where I need your help. What are the biggest amateur comps in the US in the open amateur categories? NDCA, Usadance, and collegiate are all fair game, as are any independent comps (I know about the national championships for the two organizations as well as the MAC and DCDI already)

In the East, specifically for Open Latin, the MAC (Jan 17th), Harvard Invitational (April 5-6th) and Columbia (March 8th) are the biggest.

 

[dlliba10]

MIT for some strange reason has had pretty low numbers in the Champ Latin category -- in the past five years, only one quarter and one semi, the other three years were straight finals -- last year only had three couples. Prechamp is usually an enormous field, though.

 

[Bailamosdance]

Byu

 

[Dancing Irishman]

I should have clarified...Open latin meaning somewhere in the range of Novice thru Champ in USA Dance parlance (I danced silver latin last year but she's done open pro-am so we're meeting somewhere in the middle). Prechamp and Novice is *likely* where we'll start though our coach is really pushing paso hard so we might do champ so we can compete that (so MIT will definitely be a possibility!)

Thanks for all the recommendations! Time to start checking flight prices and results from previous years! I cannot wait until southwest can finally fly direct out of Dallas!

Anyone know of NDCA comps besides BYU that have big am fields? I know the results for those comps are generally on a tough system for finding a specific event (I.e. prechamp latin) that you want to know about (compmanager or something like that).

 

[Bailamosdance]

Canada has large am fields as well... And we noted that going to the WDC AL Worlds in Paris this weekend not only was inexpensive for entries (two comps at the same time so we did Latin on two diff days) but also a lot bigger field and a lot more fun than a small regional in the USA...

 

[llamasarefuzzy]

. And we noted that going to the WDC AL Worlds in Paris this weekend not only was inexpensive for entries (two comps at the same time so we did Latin on two diff days) but also a lot bigger field and a lot more fun than a small regional in the USA...

Yeah but you have to get to Paris first....

 

[nikkitta]

our coach is really pushing paso hard so we might do champ so we can compete that (so MIT will definitely be a possibility!)

AFAIK, MIT offers Paso in *every* level, not just champ.

 

[Dancing Irishman]

AFAIK, MIT offers Paso in *every* level, not just champ.

Just saw that. Wouldn't be the first time I've seen newcomer Paso at a comp, and it's always interesting.

[Off-topic] Did MIT develop their own scoring / results system? I noticed their results page is different from anything I've seen before.[/Off-topic]

 

[Warren J. Dew]

MIT for some strange reason has had pretty low numbers in the Champ Latin category -- in the past five years, only one quarter and one semi, the other three years were straight finals -- last year only had three couples. Prechamp is usually an enormous field, though.

I think the college students prefer prechamp over competing against the amazing Russian youth couples from NYC and Boston, and the NYC youth crowd isn't travelling to Boston like they used to.

Did MIT develop their own scoring / results system?

Yes.