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| Caption | An amateur dancesport competition at MIT |
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Dancesport denotes competitive ballroom dancing, as contrasted to social or exhibition dancing.
The name was invented to help competitive ballroom dancing gain Olympic recognition.
Dancesport events are sanctioned and regulated by dancesport organizations at the national and international level.
The physical demands of dancesport has been the subject of scientific research.
These categories apply to both individual couples and formation dance.
There are a wide variety of dance competitions. They range from the well known Blackpool Dance Festival, an event open to all, to competitions conducted exclusively for university students, such as those hosted by the Inter Varsity Dance Association in the UK.
Amateur competitions commonly include events that group dancers by age, experience, or both. For example, events might group young dancers by age, such as: juvenile (<12yrs), junior (12-16yrs), and youth (16-19yrs). Events may sometimes cover a wide range of ages, with groupings such as: under 21yrs, adult, senior I (Over 35yrs), senior II (Over 45yrs), and senior III (Over 50yrs). Adult competitions are often further divided into categories such as beginner, novice, intermediate, pre-amateur, and amateur.
Some elementary competitions are restricted to "basic" steps, but international competitions are open as to choreography, within the limits of the traditional style of the individual dances. Only the Viennese waltz has defined choreography: it is limited to nine well-specified figures. Lifts are not permitted, except for Show Dance titles. The tempo for each dance is defined. In the finals, couples are marked under the skating system and judged by timing, footwork, rise and fall, alignment, direction and floor craft. Competitors must meet World Anti-Doping Agency rules.
On its website, the IDSF gives an upbeat appraisal of the chances of dancesport being included in a future summer Olympic Games. However, dancesport has not been included as an official event at the Olympics since its recognition, and there are many who doubt that it ever will. The 2008 Beijing Olympics did not include ballroom dancing and neither will the 2012 London Olympics.
The World Dance Council (WDC) is a registered limited company, and the legal successor to the International Council of Ballroom Dancing (ICBD), which was formed in 1950 in Edinburgh. The WDC operates through a general council and two committees:
In 2007 the WDC Amateur League was created. This organisation runs a number of competitions and has its own world ranking system for amateur dancers.
Each member country in the WDC has its own national organisation, such as the British Dance Council, which acts as a forum for the many interested parties in that country. The national bodies decide on their delegates to the WDC.
The International DanceSport Federation (IDSF) is the international governing body of dancesport. Originally founded in 1957 as the International Council of Amateur Dancers (ICAD), it took up its present name in 1990. It was recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 1997.
In the past, the focus of the IDSF was on administering amateur dancers and competitions. However, in 2010 the IDSF Professional Division was created (formerly known as the IPDSC), which intends to extend this focus to professional dancesport.
the IDSF forbids its members to dance in WDC Amateur League events.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
