From pro-am to am-am

dancing_princess

dancing_princess

New Member
Hey all,

Just wondering if you start from scratch after dancing pro-am and then switching to am-am. If you've advanced to say, silver, doing pro-am, do you continue at the silver level when you get a partner or do you start at the newcomer level?

Thanks.
 
That would depend on your partner's level as well as yours. Together, do you feel like you are 'newcomer' or syllabus? Newcomer category is for folks who have not had competition experience. If you are fairly experienced pro/am competitor and your partner is newcomer, I would suggest that you compete in bronze level. Otherwise, the newcomer competitors may complain.

However, if you have not competed too many times (less than 3), and your partner has no competition experience, I'd say you should be able to get by dancing newcomer.
 
Personally, I wouldn't dance student/student unless I knew for sure there would be competition and that the prices weren't sky high. Where I live I can compete in a 3-dance Novice Amateur event that starts in a quarter-final at a cost of about $25 per couple (plus the yearly NDCA membership fee of $45 per person) or I could do three one-dance student/student events that cost about $35 per dance per couple and not have anyone at all to dance against. The exception to this, of course, would be if you really are just testing the waters and aren't sure if you want to commit to the partnership or to spending money on NDCA (or USA Dance, for that matter) yearly dues.

As for what level to start with, you can start anywhere that you, your partner, and your coach think is right -- although I think it's a little obnoxious to start in Newcomer if you and your partner both have previous Pro/Am experience.

I danced Pro/Am for a number of years and was dancing Gold Syllabus with my teacher. When I my Amateur Standard partner (the guy in my avatar) and I got together, our coach (a different person from my teacher) wanted us to start in Novice. We, however, decided we would start in Gold Syllabus because there was a very good Gold Syllabus class in our area that we decided to attend as a "springboard" for our partnership. Having to work on class material together and concentrate on the basics really helped us a lot.

So anyway, the short answer is "it depends." Which is pretty much the answer to any question related to dancesport it seems!
 
Thanks for the replies. It helps to know that I won't "lose" my standing as I gain then in Pro-Am once I switch to Am-Am.

Pro-Am seems to be more expensive (a topic beaten to death here) and I want to get out of it as soon as possible (just need to find that partner). I have only done one comp and am preparing for my second one in December. I just wanted to make sure it was "worth" doing in terms of losing that advanced status, so to speak.

I didn't know that there was a Student/Student level, but it doesn't appeal if there isn't any comp (why go through it and pay for it?).

This has helped. Thanks again. :-)
 
dancing_princess said:
I didn't know that there was a Student/Student level, but it doesn't appeal if there isn't any comp (why go through it and pay for it?).

This has helped. Thanks again. :-)
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There are no student/student competition 'levels' on the East Coast; it's only done on the West Coast.
 
Student/Student events are NDCA events that normally get scheduled with the pro/am events. That's probably why you haven't seen them. Pretty much all NDCA comps will have them. But as Laura pointed out, not much competition. You usually have 1 couple uncontested events. Not worthwhile. If 2 AMs, just compete in the Amateur events would be lot cheaper & you have more competition in your category.
 
dancing_princess said:
Thanks for the replies. It helps to know that I won't "lose" my standing as I gain then in Pro-Am once I switch to Am-Am.
Click to expand...

Of course, this depends on how well you were doing at your current Pro/Am level. I don't mean in terms of placements, I mean in terms of actual dancing. I'm not saying this applies to you, but some people in Pro/Am do get promoted beyond their actual level, and when they switch to doing Amateur they really need to drop back a level while they bring their partnership skills up to snuff.

As I said before, "it all depends."

Student/Student isn't really a level, it's amateur couple dancing that is run as part of the regular Pro/Am events -- they have the same sub-medal divisions (Beginning Bronze, Intermediate Bronze, Full Bronze, Open Bronze or Bronze I, Bronze II) as the Pro/Am events, and are run at the same time on the same floor as the Pro/Am events.
 
Laura said:
Student/Student isn't really a level, it's amateur couple dancing that is run as part of the regular Pro/Am events -- they have the same sub-medal divisions (Beginning Bronze, Intermediate Bronze, Full Bronze, Open Bronze or Bronze I, Bronze II) as the Pro/Am events, and are run at the same time on the same floor as the Pro/Am events.
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Sorry to be a bit off topic, but... seven levels of bronze? Sheesh, is there NOTHING that proam comp promoters will stoop to?
 
Not to belabor this, but I just looked at the results pages of the last 3 comps held on the east coast and NONE of them had student/student entries or results... what am I missing about this 'phantom' category?
 
saludas said:
Not to belabor this, but I just looked at the results pages of the last 3 comps held on the east coast and NONE of them had student/student entries or results... what am I missing about this 'phantom' category?
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may be no one enters these events? Since one can do amateur instead?
my understanding is that for amateur one needs NDCA number, and for student/student it's not necessary - is that right?
 
redhead said:
may be no one enters these events? Since one can do amateur instead?
my understanding is that for amateur one needs NDCA number, and for student/student it's not necessary - is that right?
Click to expand...
Yes, that is correct. Student_Student events, when run, are typically folded into larger Pro-Am heats.
 
redhead said:
may be no one enters these events? Since one can do amateur instead?
my understanding is that for amateur one needs NDCA number, and for student/student it's not necessary - is that right?
Click to expand...

I respectfully request that you reread this thread. You apparently did not read it. I stated that these events were run on the west coast only. Someone mentioned that these are also run in East Coast comps. I looked up the last 3 run, and found no mention of anyone entering or results.
 
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