That's not entirely true! But it only concerns the period since the codification. The codification itself is never questioned. Ballroom students (narrow sense) and aspiring BR dance teachers repeat it uncritically.
What is to question? The purpose of the codification was not to retain authenticity or serve as some sort of a historical documentary. The purpose of the codification was to
make it easier to teach, learn, and export these dances on a popular mass scale. In that effort, it was a wild success. That focus on easy learnability and portability remains a big part of the "soul" of Ballroom to this day, and is why the era of codification is pointed to as the "origin" of the style.
Examples include the dance names Bolero and Rumba, which are simply wrong. When someone does stylistic or musicological research —and I come from the BR world— the same sources are always cited.
They only appear "wrong" because you are skipping half of the full names. They are
American Bolero,
American Rumba, and
International Rumba. Might as well toss
International Samba in there, since that, I think, is the greatest nomenclature "offender." In any case, the modifiers make it clear that these dances are distinct from the Spanish tradition of Bolero, the Cuban tradition of Rumba, and the Brazilian tradition of Samba. Inspired by them, yes, but not continuous branches of the same lineage.
As soon as you think independently and clarify terms, your path to becoming an association official is blocked!
Lol, definitely not.
That said, behaving as a gadfly and insisting that everyone around the world rename the American Rumba because the name is "wrong" could definitely get you blocked. But that's because this behavior is an indicator that you can't collaborate well with others, not a black mark on the intellectual integrity of the organization. Every teacher and longtime dancer I've met is well aware of the "inauthenticity" of the ballroom dances relative to their names, as well as the inspirational origins of them. Those facts even appear as material on some of the teacher certification tests.
That's not my point. I'm working on the dance sport organizations and the BR dance teachers' association. Your parents and grandparents tradition is fine.
Our parents and grandparents initially learned from the same teacher's associations you deride. Or, at most, they learned at one remove, from someone who learned from that body. If their dance tradition is "fine," then your complaint about ballroom teachers' associations doesn't hold water.
Dancesport is a totally different animal. Go ahead and complain about that; there's nothing social about it, and it cares even less about authenticity than the social scene. But stop claiming that dancesport is inseperable from social ballroom.
