Starting my professional dancing.....

After my last post Becky asked me some very good questions that I would be happy to answer! The Ballroom Dance competition world is extremely interesting and hard to understand unless you watch consistently or dance/compete. So, I would love to take the opportunity to explain a little bit about the competition atmosphere. Im going to break down the categories and levels of competition. Then, I would love to tell you all about my plans as a professional!

First, Ballroom dance, in the competition world, is an umbrella term for all of the categories that are competed. The main categories currently consist of...

International Ballroom (Standard): Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, and Quickstep.  
International Latin: Cha-Cha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Double, and Jive.
American Rhythm: Cha-Cha, Rumba, Swing, Bolero and Mambo.
American Smooth: Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot and Viennese Waltz
Theater Art (Only competed by Amateurs and Pro)

Many competitions hold single dance competition for beginners. Their are also levels a dancer competes. Levels consists of age and capability. Levels of age:

Pe-wee is up to the age of 8
Pre-Teen is age 8 to 13
Youth is age 13 to 17 (can compete till 18 if they can prove they are still in High School)
Amateur is age 18+
Pro/Am is a Professional dancing with a student in the Amateur (A teacher competing with a student)
Professional is usually after having experience in the Amateur category winning national titles. A professional has to claim professional through a nationally recognized organization. The biggest organization is the National Dance Council of America (NDCA) and USA Dance.

Level of capability in Pe-Wee, Pre-Teen, Youth, Amateur and Pro/Am consist of....
Newcomer - one dance syllabus events
Novice - 2 dance Open events
Pre-champ - 3-4 dance Open events
Open - 4-5 dance Open events

There are some subcategories, but the information im giving you will be plenty to help someone understand the comp world and I dont want to confuse you anymore than I am :) In Pro, levels are Rising Star and Open. Once a Professional wins Rising Star they are required to move onto Open. Their is also a category for Pros called Show Dance. A Pro choreographs a Show Dance.

Let me give you some examples to understand how one moves up the chain. Lets say someone in High School begins to compete Ballroom Dance for the first time. They are allowed to compete a single dance competition. For example they can compete Newcomer Cha-cha, which they have to use syllabus steps when competing (syllabus steps are a whole other story that I dont want to get into right now). If they win Newcomer at an NDCA sanctioned competition they are no longer allowed to compete. If they dont win, but are in the final they gain points. A student may never win the competition, but can rack up points and then are no longer allowed to compete that category. Then they would move onto open choreography and dance the Novice, then Pre-Champ, and then Open. Now, it is really hard for a High School student to start as a beginner and move up the ranks this fast. It takes several years to really get to the point of competing Open and making the finals.

In Amateur Open events you can compete them as many times as you want, no matter how many times you win. Many Amateur competitors compete Open events for years to gain status and prestige. I started competing in the Amateur categories, all types of dances, at the age of 15. Now after reading, Im sure you are wondering... age 15? I thought you cant dance Amateur till out of High School. Well, their is one really great rule that a dancer can dance up an age level. They created this rule for those who all ready dominate their original age level and need more challenges. At the age of 16 I made the Amateur finals and at times won. It was fun dancing up and winning, but it made a lot of college students upset. Well, I have made several National Amateur Finals and have won a couple. Because I have started teaching a ton and started judging local HS comps, it would not make sense for me to continue competing Amateur. Plus, im board of competing Amateur. Im ready for a new adventure!

After explaining all of this I would like to answer Becky's questions....

You go to professional competitions rather than amateur? Where are the competitions?
Yes and No. Many competitions hold all events, Pe-Wee up to Pro. Sadly, their are no competitions in Utah that hold Pro events. So, we have to travel to all of the Pro competitions. 

Does a professional dancer win... better prizes? Or is it all prestige?
Their are some competitions that give prize money to Amateur competitors, but not many. I dont remember getting prize money as a competitor. It was all about prestige and gaining tittles. Now, they always give prize money in the Pro events. Im very excited about that! In Rising Star events, depending on the competition, they will give up to $500 for 1st prize and in Open $1,200. If you consistently final or win events you can get sponsored for costume and shoes. I dont know how long it will take me and my partner to final or win, but my goal is to get there. I dont think i will ever get sponsored, but it would be cool if it happened!

I will post in a couple of days the competitions we plan on going to. For now, we do have a performance set up on the 21st of this month, in Orem. So, if you are interested in coming to watch, give me a call!