Dancing financial support in other countries

[classydancer]

I watch a good amount of WDSF dancing on youtube (for better or for worse) and I'm very curious: does anyone know if amateur dancers in other countries receive support from governments or perhaps organizations they are a part of? Or are they like the United States, where pretty much all dancers teach or their money comes from family? I just notice that a lot of the top dancers in Europe (and I'm thinking of one couple in Canada as well) attend many competitions in Europe and occasionally Asia and I wonder how they do it. Of course, I assume most - if not all - teach as well, but I know the dance culture is different over there than it is here. I'm wondering if the kind of support they receive is different from the US as well.

 

[Joe]

If you're already in Europe, it's a lot easier to get around Europe.

 

[SwingingAlong]

In NZ, sometimes if you win a class at the Nationals, the prize is travel costs to another comp in Australia.... maybe something like that happens in those European comps?

 

[10tmf]

I watch a good amount of WDSF dancing on youtube (for better or for worse) and I'm very curious: does anyone know if amateur dancers in other countries receive support from governments or perhaps organizations they are a part of? Or are they like the United States, where pretty much all dancers teach or their money comes from family? I just notice that a lot of the top dancers in Europe (and I'm thinking of one couple in Canada as well) attend many competitions in Europe and occasionally Asia and I wonder how they do it. Of course, I assume most - if not all - teach as well, but I know the dance culture is different over there than it is here. I'm wondering if the kind of support they receive is different from the US as well.

It seems like there's a variety of factors involved. I came across this article that seems to do a good job explaining the differences between the Ballroom world in Europe and the US and why it's much more expensive to dance in the US than in Europe.

 

[azntwice]

I'm pretty sure that in Denmark, the national organization is very supportive and works with the dancers' schools and stuff. Petar and Zia did an interview on dancesportinfo and said the following -

Many other Danish dancers prefer to represent Denmark, even if they could dance for another country having a partner from that country, because Denmark has a fantastic support.
[Petar]: It used to ...
[Zia]: It still does.
[Petar]: If you want to be supported you cannot dance any WDC competitions. With my previous partner we mainly danced WDSF, and we did Blackpool only. We were “not advised” to dance the English competitions. More the separation between the two federations, more Danish couples go to the WDSF side. If you want to be with WDC even if you represent Denmark you don't get any support.
[Zia]: Because the association is built on something called Team Denmark. The support lays within the Team Denmark. It support good couples financially. You get the certain amount of money every year I think. When the foreign teacher comes to Denmark you also get a discounted price. The Team Denmark system filters down to the school system. So the school recognises that you belong to the Team Denmark so they will understand and support you not attending all the lessons, or have exams in another time or have less homework set. It is like that for all kind of sports. It does help quite a lot.

 

[classydancer]

I'm pretty sure that in Denmark, the national organization is very supportive and works with the dancers' schools and stuff. Petar and Zia did an interview on dancesportinfo and said the following -

Many other Danish dancers prefer to represent Denmark, even if they could dance for another country having a partner from that country, because Denmark has a fantastic support.
[Petar]: It used to ...
[Zia]: It still does.
[Petar]: If you want to be supported you cannot dance any WDC competitions. With my previous partner we mainly danced WDSF, and we did Blackpool only. We were “not advised” to dance the English competitions. More the separation between the two federations, more Danish couples go to the WDSF side. If you want to be with WDC even if you represent Denmark you don't get any support.
[Zia]: Because the association is built on something called Team Denmark. The support lays within the Team Denmark. It support good couples financially. You get the certain amount of money every year I think. When the foreign teacher comes to Denmark you also get a discounted price. The Team Denmark system filters down to the school system. So the school recognises that you belong to the Team Denmark so they will understand and support you not attending all the lessons, or have exams in another time or have less homework set. It is like that for all kind of sports. It does help quite a lot.

Thanks for posting this. I read the rest of the interview as well and really enjoyed it.

 

[Aggy]

Apart from Denmark, I think also Germany has a supporting system. The German federation supports(supported?) top couples financially. Many top couples in Europe have sponsors as well, so no or less money spent on clothing, shoes, etc. Smaller countries have simply not enough flesh on the bone to support top couples and you may be happy if they contribute to your flight ticket when asked to represent in a world championship.
I do think though that for title events, the top couples are to be offered hotel and local transportation by the organizer. (WDSF). And some -homeopathic- prize money.

But... the vast majority of amateur dancers need a good job or wealthy parents to join big comps.

And indeed: Europe is easy to travel around, with many comps, doable if you live for dancesport.

 

[Warren J. Dew]

When I was near the top (in Amateur American Smooth), I attended over 20 competitions per year. I think I might have gotten to over 30 competitions one year, though I'm not sure of that. I didn't get any outside help. It's possible to go to many competitions on one continent on a professional salary if one prioritizes it highly enough.

A lot of coaches and couples in the US tend to limit their competition attendance to much less than that, though. That might be a cultural difference from Europe.

Also, in Europe it means something to be a national champion, even though in most cases, that was a lot easier than being a US national champion. In theory one could have state rivalries in the US, but it doesn't seem ever to have happened, perhaps because states are too small and often share major metro areas. The USADance regional system could have produced some rivalries, but the regions were never set up well for that, and it was never promoted.

I think there could have been some rivalries set up between the big chapters, but USABDA/USADance always seemed to treat big chapters as a threat rather than as resources to be promoted.

Some NDCA competitions might be rich enough to hold regional competitions that awarded expenses to attend their nationals, if the NDCA would help promote them to amateurs.