USA Dance; Teacher-Student Division

Akita

Akita

Well-Known Member
Teacher-Student Divisions, Events

For USA Dance Sanctioned Competitions in 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  • Contact: Angela Prince, National Public Relations Director
  • USA DANCE, Inc.
  • [email protected]
  • 704-888-3073
Feb. 10, 2015 NEW YORK CITY - The DanceSport Council and Governing Council of USA Dance, Inc. officially approved the new competitive category of Teacher-Student for all USA Dance-sanctioned DanceSport competitions. The new category becomes effective with the release of the USA Dance 2015 DanceSport Rulebook in April 2015, after the USA Dance 2015 National DanceSport Championships, Mar. 27-29.

The new Teacher-Student competition category will replace the Mixed Proficiency category that was offered for many years at USA Dance-sanctioned events.

This new division is in keeping with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sports-For-All initiative and the rules of the World DanceSport Federation, whereby opportunities are expanding world-wide to bring DanceSport to a wider range of Teacher-Student participants.

"Teacher-Student is a new category that offers dancers and organizers everywhere increased opportunities to provide Freedom of Participation," said National President Yang Chen. "USA Dance encourages and recommends to organizers to make Teacher-Student events available to dancers, either in existing or future planned events. Now is a great time to be a USA Dance member and to be part of the USA Dance community."

For additional information regarding the rules for entering a Teacher-Student competition or organizing a Teacher-Student event in the USA, please contact Ken Richards, DanceSport VP, at [email protected].
 
The topic probably does deserve its own thread.

I'll summarize my reaction though: I don't like it. Even though I expect it'll have minimal practical differentiation from the old mixed proficiency events in the short run at least.
 
Does this mean that there will be heats in a competition where you will have am/am couples and t/s couples dancing at the same time?
 
Based on the fact that this T/S is replacing mixed proficiency (RTFM), which never had amateur and mixed couples dancing at the same time. (Judged against each other, that is. They could the thrown on the same floor to dance as separately-judged events, if there were few couples in each.)
 
Correct me if I misinterpret the category Mixed-Proficiency or Teacher-Student wrong but, say that I dance Novice-Prechamp and I have a friend that dances Bronze. Mixed-proficiency allows me to dance with my friend in bronze without forcing them to dance up to my level for that style? Also basically the same thing for Teacher-Student rather than changing the teacher's status from amateur to pro, they can retain their amateur status while competing with a student?
 
Close! An amateur instructor could compete with their student in Mixed Proficiency without any concerns about losing their amateur status. So far as I can tell, the big difference with Teacher-Student is that pros will be able to do it at all. The old rule specifically forbade pros from competing in Mixed Proficiency.
 
Mr 4 styles said:
You could have teacher student couples and am am couples on the same floor but not judged against each other
Click to expand...
Right, although I have the vague impression that comps have traditionally made an effort to avoid mixing MP and am events.

I'll say though, speaking as someone who's competed in am/am events that got mixed in with pro-am events at NDCA comps, I totally get the concern. I've certainly had those moments of "Oh, God. Even though he and his student are in a completely separate event, I'm practically begging the judges to compare my dancing directly against Slawek Freaking Sochaki's." But in practice ... it's honestly not been that big of a deal. Pros are generally pretty good about watching out for amateur couples (or even just amateur leads) on the floor with them. And when I'm actually dancing, I'm got way more important things on my mind than who the other couples are or what they're doing (in a sense beyond that required for situational awareness).
 
In theory, only your friend and his student would be competing against each other and judged and that you wouldn't be competing against him per se. Of course, it's a partner dance, so one assume he could help his student rather more than the average amateur could.

I also remain pretty skeptical that the big name pros and their students are going to be flocking to NQEs any time soon, even if the NDCA decides they're totally cool with it.
 
Curious to see if any comps will actually have a decent turnout for these events. Mixed proficiency always sort of seemed like a last minute add on
 
Learning so much for all your experience and knowledge...

I assumed that Mixed Proficiency meant who's competing against you on the floor can have a different proficiency than you - as in you're Bronze, but the couple next to you could be Silver, etc., and you're all being judged against each other (what are these types of events called?) (ETA and on that note is the only appropriate term when talking about Silver, Bronze, etc., levels?)

I was way off I've since learned. I now see that the MP is WITHIN the couple itself.

And I had to look it up on the USA Dance site just to read it for myself...

5. As an aid to the beginner, many USA Dance competitions have events entitled “Mixed Proficiency”. These are syllabus events where the DanceSport Athlete only is judged but is partnered by a higher-level (proficiency) and more experienced partner. This is also a good way to get your “feet wet”. - See more at: http://usadance.org/dancesport/competition-guides/for-the-competitor/#sthash.nznGNKzD.dpuf
 
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