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Improving
Standards of DanceSport Competitions
Article written
by : Robin Chee & Pele Lim of RpMerleon, September 1998
|
While we are grateful that
there are still organisers daring enough to organise competitions in these bad
economic times, we would like to make some general comments on competitions
held in Singapore. We hope organisers would not take these comments personally
but instead see it as a alternative
source of feedback which can help make their competitions even more popular.
These comments have been gathered by speaking to several competitors and do
not necessarily apply to any particular competition:
- While its quite common
practice in other countries to charge competitors for taking part in competitions,
the
amount charged must be reasonable.
A number of local competitions don't even charge competitors so far, so those
competitions that do intend to charge must ensure that their charges are reasonable.
Dancing is already a very expensive sport; with us forking out money for lessons,
practices, costumes and travel. The last thing we need is more costs and we
don't want to discourage new blood from venturing into the exciting world
of dancesport.
- Welcome
dinners the night
before the competition might be popular with overseas competitors, but are
generally considered an unnecessary event by local competitors. Most of us
would rather rest early that night and do our packing/preparation for the
actual competition. We would be seeing fellow competitors for the whole of
the next day, so we don't find meeting competitors the night before to be
of any attraction. Most of us tend to stick with ourselves at welcome dinners
and only actually mix around on the competition day itself. That would also
help cut down costs for the organisers.
- Early morning rehearsals
are generally not popular, especially on Saturday events. Many
of us work on Saturday morning and have to take leave to attend an otherwise
unncessary rehearsal.
To some there is even monetay cost involved as they have to hire people to
temporarily cover their duties while they are away. Generally, early morning
rehearsals are for the march past and some warm up. Rehearsals for the march
past can actually be done away with as demonstrated successfully by the Lion
City Dancesport Championships. (Rehearsals are held ony for the country card
holders; on the actual march past, the competitors just follow the country
card holder with some supervision by the floor manager. This works fine).
As for the warm up, this is up to the competitors when they want to do it
and should not be made compulsory.
- Many competitons also
don't advice
competitors of the schedule of events
of the day till the actual day itself. We would prefer to be informed of the
schedule in advance so we can plan our competition strategy and when to come.
If our event is not till much later, then we could spend time resting or making
up at home instead of waking up early and rushing to the venue. Competitions
usually run on all the way till midnight, so starting later would be much
less tiring. The schedule and confirmation of entry notice should be sent
to competitions at least 2 weeks in advance to allow time for competitors
to apply for leave if necessary. Not all employers are willing to grant leave
with one weeks notice.
- For competitors
taking part in both Modern and Latin, two sets of number tags would be much
appreciated. Quite
often competitors who take both Modern and Latin have to frantically rush
in and out of the changing room and in the process switch the number tag from
costume to costume. By having two sets of number tags, we could leave the
number tags on our respective costumes and won't have to keep switching numbers
tags from costume to costume.
- The
dance
floor should also be carefully inspected
to ensure that it is clean with no sticky spots. In places like Neptune, some
diners might have spilt drinks on the floor and when not cleaned promptly,
drys and makes the floor sticky. This is extremely dangerous to us dancers
(which caused Pele to sprain an ankle). The organisers should ensure that
the venue owner provides a clean & safe environment for the championship.
If necessary, professional cleaners should be brought in as sometimes simple
mopping does not help. If that can't be done, then the competitors should
be warned. Otherwise, the venue owner might face possible messy legal claims
and competitors would be wary of participating in future championships to
be held in such venues.
- For events that have
straight
finals, there should
be no need to dance the event in the day when the actual final is in the night.
This is really a waste of time and energy.
- While organisers may
have their differences with other parties, that is their business which most
of us are not interested in. Publishing
accusing / defensive messages is not in good taste
and generally serves only to deepen misunderstandings and grieviences. So
keep the spirit of the competition good and leave out such messages.
Of course these are opinions
of only some of our readers. What do you think? Please
drop us a note to tell us how you feel about the issue and what else can be
done.
Last
updated: 15 Sep 98
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