Sadly only the best technique wins

[IndyLady]

Their dancing is simply not good.

Sorry but this is probably the nicest thing I could say. I was honestly stunned at how poor this was (I read all the posts here and then watched the video - y'all didn't prepare me for this). The technical deficiency is so apparent that I can't even look past it to discern choreo/costume positives.

Their hearts are! They don't deserve to be made fun of (I have seen this on FB posts) but they don't deserve to win or even get a call back.

Yeah I'm trying to keep this in mind but frankly it looks like a novice Showcase after a few months of lessons. Admittedly I'm steeped enough in this world that I've watched enough paso so my expectations are likely skewed. I remember a judge once telling me that a Showdance score under a certain number (in his scoring paradigm) meant "the instructor should have never let this on the floor" and this reminded me of that, at least in this context.

There are times when good intentions/desires do not excuse lack of execution. This is one of those times.

 

[IndyLady]

(I have seen this on FB posts)

Wow sometimes big data works fast. This is already now showing up in my FB feed (like right after I wrote that post).

 

[Warren J. Dew]

Wow sometimes big data works fast. This is already now showing up in my FB feed (like right after I wrote that post).

Possibly unrelated, but I’m now seeing Blackpool clips from various couples on my YouTube feed, generally of higher quality. All Latin, though; do people not make Standard clips or can YouTube not figure out I’d like them?

 

[Pryn]

I've see it too. I think it may have to do with cookie tracking. If we visit this website and we are on a social media platform like FB or Instagram, it's showing us the popular Blackpool reels/clips. I also get a lot of UK Dance Fesitval, NDCA competition, and franchise competition clips too.

 

[ProgressNotPerfection]

Shout out to the Brave browser. I switched from Safari/Chrome to Brave/DuckDuckGo several months ago; and since then, my FB feed no longer relates in any way to my browser activity. I love it.

I paid for a DSI-TV subscription last month so I could watch some Blackpool events, watched many hours of dancing over multiple days, and yet my FB feed hasn’t shown me any Blackpool-related posts or reels.

*BIG SMILE*

 

[Pryn]

Shout out to the Brave browser. I switched from Safari/Chrome to Brave/DuckDuckGo several months ago; and since then, my FB feed no longer relates in any way to my browser activity. I love it.

I paid for a DSI-TV subscription last month so I could watch some Blackpool events, watched many hours of dancing over multiple days, and yet my FB feed hasn’t shown me any Blackpool-related posts or reels.

*BIG SMILE*

Just downloaded Brave. I'm going to give it a try.

 

[Warren J. Dew]

Yeah I'm trying to keep this in mind but frankly it looks like a novice Showcase after a few months of lessons. Admittedly I'm steeped enough in this world that I've watched enough paso so my expectations are likely skewed. I remember a judge once telling me that a Showdance score under a certain number (in his scoring paradigm) meant "the instructor should have never let this on the floor" and this reminded me of that, at least in this context.

There are times when good intentions/desires do not excuse lack of execution. This is one of those times.

I know a teaching amateur in this area who does leaps, but he does them well - figure skating experience may help - and they look terrific. But yeah - put a few decades of work into quality first, rather than forcing it on a global audience while the flash is still trash.

I disagree with the “sadly” in the thread title, but I do remember a few seminars from just before judging was taken over by Boomers, and the prospective Boomer judges uniformly said they’d focus more on technique. I won’t disagree that the artistry chosen by the Silent generation judges was more beautiful - but it was built on a foundation of technique built by the GI/Greatest generation judges.

Not sure what Gen X judges will prefer, and not sure I’ll like it. We may have to wait for Zoomers to dominate the judging ranks to see 2000 style artistry to become dominant again.

 

[vit]

Had a kind of similar experience yesterday

I visited weekly Brazilian zouk practice in town. I used to dance it about 15 years ago and this season started again to dance it from time to time after one girl started teaching it (a kind of) and creating a new zouk "community"

And, there was a new girl who said she never danced zouk before, but has been dancing WCS for 3 years and danced some hip hop in the past. Ok, she wasn't doing any fancy head styling that zouk is known for (that came from contemporary dancing to zouk and recently to some extent to ballroom as well), but everything I was leading she followed almost flawlessly. She was following better than all girls that started attending classes last fall though with obvious "WCS feel"

Other girls learned an amount of basic moves and styling so far. But problem is - their balance, ability to move and partnering skills are still pretty much at very beginner level and some of them are not able to really move in sync with music either

If I were to ask other guys about opinions, they would be mixed I think. I suppose most of them would say that girls from the class were much better dancers ... the fact that just one of them asked WCS girl for a dance (and it was actually a DJ) says it all I suppose

Unfortunately, above couple fails badly in both "general quality of movement" and "being close to required style" category

 

[raindance]

But yeah - put a few decades of work into quality first, rather than forcing it on a global audience

No one forced this on a global audience beside the algorithms. Unless this couple (or whoever posted their clip) is very media savvy, it's unlikely they knew it would go viral enough to reach our social media feeds and attract comments. And further, no one forced any of us to watch it!

 

[Warren J. Dew]

They danced it at Blackpool. They should have expected the global audience.

It didn’t take a social media algorithm for me to see them. People at Latin rounds were watching Blackpool, partly because our studio had a couple in the pro Latin quarter.

 

[raindance]

These guys weren't in the **pro** latin quarterfinal, were they??

I'm not saying they didn't think anyone would see them. But that clip of their entire routine, with the video focused on them, coming to the attention of DF is very unlikely to be what they were expecting. I was assuming DanceMentor came across it in a feed, because the video has garnered strong reactions ("engagement") and algorithms love that.

 

[fiesta0618]

These guys weren't in the **pro** latin quarterfinal, were they??

I've seen other angles of this video, as well as some still photos, going around social media. They all seem to agree that this is the first round of Pro Latin.

 

[Warren J. Dew]

These guys weren't in the **pro** latin quarterfinal, were they??

As far as I know the couple in the video clip were not in the quarterfinal. Just explaining why a lot of people were watching the Latin - and saw this couple before the Dance Forums post.

 

[IndyLady]

They are like the Raygun (Olympic break dancer) of ballroom dance.

 

[raindance]

Anyone remember Eddie the Eagle Edwards? (Olympic ski jumping)