Ballroom dance
Ballroom became a competitive sport when the division of the World Dance Council (WDC) clarified which dances were standard ballroom dances. According to the WDC, the standard dances are the International standard Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Rhumba, Quickstep, Cha-Cha-Cha, Samba, Paso Doble, and the Jive. The World Dance Council has 59 members from different countries who help to uphold the rules.
The dances that are labeled as standardized have a mixture of origins from Latin and standard dances. In the 1950s, the council began to write rules for the different styles to unify the dance styles. The rules help to clarify the stylistic movements of the body and the main steps used during each specific dance. Dancers must go through a long process to become masters of any specific style.
They start as an un-classed dancer and work for years to become a Level S class, the highest international level. Dancers compete in pairs at sanctioned competitions in order to level up. Many times, dancers will have the same pair for years. The couple will receive a score as a pair, and in order to level up, the pair must place in the top three. The number of levels that they place up is based on the level of difficulty at the competition and how many people they beat.
Typically, couples start at smaller local competitions in order to level up. As they get to higher levels, they begin to compete at larger competitions at a national level or international level. Typically, the pairs will travel to other countries together for one to two days in order to compete at these competitions while also still participating in school. Judges use the skating system to score the pairs.
This system has eleven rules which help the judges decide who gets to move on to the next rounds. The majority of the rules are only applied for the final round to create a numerical score for each dance and to prevent ties.
Other Major Types of Dance Competitions include:
Single-style competitions, such as; highland dance, and Irish dance, that only permit a single dance style. Open competitions, that permit a wide variety of dance styles. Olympic, Dance has been trying to be added as an Olympic sport since the 1930s. In the 2021 summer Olympics Breakdancing final joined.
