What is Competitive Ballroom Really Like

Ballroom Dancing is Nothing like Strictly Come Dancing? This piece by a competitive amateur in the UK seems to do its level best to tell you how awful the world of competitive dance is. And it is certainly informative, but rather one-sided. The key point that is only alluded to is that not many people make their passion their career. If dancing weren't worth all the negative things she puts up with, she would likely have become a lawyer as her parents would have liked.

To save you the research effort, she is a competitive amateur, and has good results in England, but does not appear to have competed outside of England, and has indeed gone through a lot of partners, as she describes in the article.

I don't know what SCD is like, but at least some of what she complains about is in the American version, Dancing with the Stars.

Dance performance: entering and exiting floor

Generally, the lady puts her left hand on top of Man's right hand as
they enter the floor. Quickly find a spot that fits your routine's and
with less crowd. When you get there, do not get into frame until
the music starts, because you don't want to be standing there in frame
if for some reason the music does not start as planned.

When the music ends, Man guides the lady to turn out to his right
side, both facing the audience closest to you. Man extends his left
hand to the lady, thumb down, and she takes it with her right hand and
twirls off to Man's left. At that point, she curtseys, and Man steps
forward with his left foot and place his right hand behind his back.

Results for 2010 USA Dance National DanceSport Championships

2010 USA Dance National DanceSport Championships took place April 9-11, 2010. Results are here:

Amateur Adult Championship Standard:

1. 443 Ronen Zinshtein, Mariam Izmaylova - NJ
2. 477 Igor Mikushov, Margaret Midura - NJ
3. 105 Janis Kukainis, Samantha Mang - NJ
4. 116 Vladislav Shahov, Milena Jasionek - NY
5. 438 Pasha Pashkov, Daniella Karagach - NY
6. 403 Oskar Wojciechowski, Katarzyna Szymanska - NY

Amateur Adult Championship Latin:

1. 110 Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Daria Chesnokova - NJ
2. 302 Ruslan Aydaev, Valeriya Kozharinova - NJ
3. 474 Andrei Kazlovski, Kathleen Kapshandy - IN
4. 307 Andrey Tarasov, Laura Kveladze - CA
5. 312 Vitalii Proskurin, Natia Kuprava - CA
6. 438 Pasha Pashkov, Daniella Karagach - NY
7. 406 Tal Livshitz, Vlada Semenova - NJ

Amateur Adult Championship Ten Dance:

1. 438 Pasha Pashkov, Daniella Karagach - NY
2. 447 Alexandre Tchernossitov, Regina Maziarz - NJ
3. 406 Tal Livshitz, Vlada Semenova - NJ
4. 380 Simeon Stoynov, Kora A. Stoynova - WA
5. 413 Yuriy Nartov, Khyrstyne Barton - NY
6. 190 Daniil Vesnovskiy, Anna Oblakova - NY

Dancesport Competition Results

When we want to find out the results of a particular competition, we can often find them on O2CM, and click on "Results" to find the comp we are looking for. When we are looking to see how our favorite couples are doing over all, we go to dancesportinfo.net, and type the couple's names in the search box. The results for this weekend's Dance Nationals in LA are already up.

Dance Competition Divisions, Categories

Information about dance competitions has been posted on the website, including dance divisions, age categories, and competition levels.

As to what constitutes an amateur in competition, it seems that as long as you never call yourself a professional, or compete as one, you qualify as an amateur.