For followers, there's some truth in this - not so much for leaders. But even followers can raise the game of a MJ dance, if they're good enough - typically, by giving their leader the confidence to experiment and loosen up.
And no-one's saying that assessments take the fun out of dancing - especially because they'd be optional. It annoys me to see people assuming that you either dance for fun or you want to improve your dancing - why can't you do both?
Whilst I agree that "one-size-fits-all" goals are always less effective than individual tailored requirements, you could make that case for any large-scale educational system.
The benefits of standardised goals are similar to the benefits of standardised teaching, surely? So, for example, you can have a teacher from one area coming to teach in another area, and knowing that people who've passed Stage 1 will understand a certain amount of terminology, and will be able to do a certain amount of technique.
Again, Australia has that system, and again, it works well - it's a different style, certainly, but no-one's saying that dancers from Oz who came through that system are worse-off for it...
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