Uncontested heats - how to be sure there will be competition at the competition

Do you know any other couples in your age and level range? People you wouldn't mind competing against? If so, team up with them and sign up for the same comp(s). That's the simplest way to be sure that you will have contested heats if there are other am/ams in your area.

If there aren't other am/ams in your area (aside from the collegiate scene), then you will likely have to travel to get contested heats, and USA dance comps, especially NQE's, are the easiest way to find that.
 
There are five local am-am collegiate bronze couples. I may suggest they look at Emerald as an option. I can mention it to our team captain. They're accustomed to paying only $30 for an entire competition day. But it's worth a try. I'll suggest we all go to either Emerald or the Hot Ballroom comp in Long Beach. That's near their final exams tho. That is the reason the collegiate comps end early spring.

As to senior standard couples, there are a few former am-am standard couples not currently competing together, tho they're beyond syllabus. Bodies and bank accounts cannot seem to sustain many years of competition.

Standard group class is coming along well so I have high hopes at least one or two other couples will form and take interest in competing someday. There exists potential.
 
Remember to look at other categories that you could dance as well... as senior III couples, you are in the lucky position of dancing bronze in 4 separate age categories (adult, and senior I-III) as well as leveling up and trying silver (with your bronze routines), for a grand total of 8 options - so lucky! Investigate those options too as you search. Plus, if you enter in more than one age category, or in more than one level, the chances of having competition for at least one of those are good.

It's been awhile since I was around to watch syllabus am-am, but if I recall correctly, around here, senior III early syllabus is quite small, as most have progressed to a higher level (gold+) by the time they reach the required ages - but early syllabus is larger in adult and senior I, because of (I'm guessing) the couples that get hooked when they come in for their wedding dance and stick around. (There is no collegiate scene, so for many, pre-wedding is their first introduction.)

And I FB collude to try and coordinate with those at/near my category to up the chances of competitive fields.
 
Flying backwards. Here's the data. You must travel but the numbers are good. Hence why ballroom ain't cheap. In reverse order from most recent USA dance nques


Mid Atlantic 12 couples
Southeastern dancesport 5
MAC 7
NorCal. 1
Chicago 14!!
Carolina 10 /7 wq ft
Summer sizzler in nj 6/2
New England 0
USA dance nationals. 11


Plenty of comps plenty of peeps. See you out there !!
 
Mr4Styles thank you for the data.

I hope there is a much bigger field at Nor-Cal in 2017. We wanted to go last year. I guess that's obvious, as it was me who started the 'Lets all go to Nor-Cal NQE' thread last summer.

Flying across the country is completely out of reach for us. But for those of you with a gazillion miles or private jets, come on out to sunny California! I cannot offer gumbo but we've got avocados.
 
Southwest Airlines has great deals. Just look for them. Flights to Chicago are plentiful and cheap. Don't take this wrong but if you can't afford a coach flight to Chicago then perhaps you can't afford competitive ballroom as a serious hobby right now :(:confused:


And most of the avocados in California come from Mexico. :p:D:eek:
For now anyway
 
Mr 4 styles said:
Flights to Chicago are plentiful and cheap.
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Wow! You are totally right! I had never even looked. I assumed it would be way more. For now, we're limited to day trips. But someday it would be wonderful to budget in one trip like that per year.

Mr 4 styles said:
you can't afford competitive ballroom
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Correct. I, and my partner even more so, cannot afford it in the usual/common form. But we love it so much that we refuse to give up. We find ways to compete, like intercollegiate.

The cost of lessons already cuts out any extra spending, like repairing the house, let alone a vacation trip. The only way we could spend more on competitions would be to spend less on lessons. At our stage, lessons are more important. So, you are completely correct. We cannot afford competitive ballroom. But we do anyway.

There have been several big obstacles on this path. No partner: solved. No longer able to wear high heels: solved. No gown: solved. Not enough floortime at cheap rates: solved. None of those obstacles were solved in an obvious "inside the box" way. So I trust we will also overcome the money or travel problem, or any other problem that gets between us and callbacks. :)

So, if we cannot afford to fly to a comp with big fields, I look for a way to fill fields at local cheap comps. Check out those flight deals to LAX!
 
flying_backwards said:
Wow! You are totally right! I had never even looked. I assumed it would be way more. For now, we're limited to day trips. But someday it would be wonderful to budget in one trip like that per year.


Correct. I, and my partner even more so, cannot afford it in the usual/common form. But we love it so much that we refuse to give up. We find ways to compete, like intercollegiate.

The cost of lessons already cuts out any extra spending, like repairing the house, let alone a vacation trip. The only way we could spend more on competitions would be to spend less on lessons. At our stage, lessons are more important. So, you are completely correct. We cannot afford competitive ballroom. But we do anyway.

There have been several big obstacles on this path. No partner: solved. No longer able to wear high heels: solved. No gown: solved. Not enough floortime at cheap rates: solved. None of those obstacles were solved in an obvious "inside the box" way. So I trust we will also overcome the money or travel problem, or any other problem that gets between us and callbacks. :)

So, if we cannot afford to fly to a comp with big fields, I look for a way to fill fields at local cheap comps. Check out those flight deals to LAX!
Click to expand...


Good for you, keep doing what you can so long as you are loving it. :D

Curious how you solved the floortime issue, as we're always looking for better/more practice options. Please post or PM me if you have any ideas to share. :)
 
This may be the wrong thread for my post...but I could not find anything else...here goes- So, I have noted many of the mid to large size comps doing 'interviews' with the different scholarship winners - anywhere from Newcomer to Open level- and different age groups and posting on their FB or other social media page - I find it embarrasing and cringe-worthy to watch for example an A Bronze scholarship 'winner' being interviewed- with their instructor when they were uncontested. I realize that no competitior, organizer or teacher has control over entries- but it seems weird and embarrasing to be 'interviewed' on social media for 'winning' an uncontested scholarship...if that happened to me, I would not appear on video...keep in mind that all of these interviews make no mention of the fact that it was uncontested. I get that any publicity is good publicity- but it seems dubious to me. At the very least, it appears that the organizers are making the most of whatever publicity and attention they can generate.
 
I've never seen scholarship events divided up to that extent... I usually just see them as "bronze", "silver" and "gold", with age groups combined. I've danced in a a few scholarship events (placed second in one at Vol State one year), and I was never in an uncontested one.
 
I think pretty much every multi-day competition has age groups for their scholarships these days. They're not divvied up to the extent of the single dance events, but A/B/Sr or A/B/C/Sr seem to be the most common options. 9-/10-dance and gentlemen's events are exceptions. Particularly in the case of gentlemen's events - they seem to be growing in popularity, but it's a rare competition that has the participant base to justify a full slate of age groups.

So far as it goes, I've never been uncontested in a scholarship (although it's been just me and one other couple a couple of times), but I have seen it happen.

Regarding the interviews, I totally get where you're coming from. I'd likely have been a bit embarrassed to participate had I ever found myself in that situation. But I also get where the competitions are coming from. There's obvious value in making a blanket rule about which events have their winners interviewed. It's clear cut and avoid any potential for hard feelings. I'd try to participate with good humor and make a point of being self-depreciating.
 
JudeMorrigan said:
It's pretty rare for them to run uncontested events by themselves unless there's a very specific reason for them to do so. (e.g. The Person That Dances Peabody being on the floor by themselves because they're *literally* the only person dancing Peabody at a given competition.)
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Re-reading old threads, and had to point out that sometimes it just happens. I had a single dance QS two weeks ago where it was just us. Sooo much space to play and actually dance! And it was all "ok, everybody in the ballroom, watch this!"

(Totally how I want all my uncontested heats to be from now on. You know, if I need to have uncontested ones at all.)

In contrast, I remember having one way back in bronze, and it was excruciating for me... and probably for everyone else as well!
 
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