I have been thinking about competition categories a lot recently. There has been some heated debate on here about who is and is not an intermediate, etc. Here are my thoughts and my proposal.
THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS NEEDING ANSWERS
Why do we have the current categories?
I believe the current categories are a continuation of those started by LeJive. I've no idea why these categories were chosen but my guess is that the idea was to maximise the number of entries by giving lesser dancers a different category to dance in. I believe that organisers should abandon any association with the LeJive comp as I am 100% certain that, at the very least, the 1998 competition was fixed.
Should we expect competitors to categorise themselves as intermediate/advanced?
It is impossible for a competitor to decide where they should compete as it is difficult to judge their own ability and impossible to know, before the day, the ability of those people entering each category. It is unfair and, as we have seen, devisive to expect a competitor to place his or herself in a category.
Should teachers have their own category?
Teachers may be better than beginners, but being a teacher is no indication of dancing skill or predictor of competition success. In fact, I believe that teaching, night after night, probably reduces an individuals chances of competition success. Therefore I believe that competitors should not be placed in categories based on being or not being teachers as it would be unfair.
Why have categories at all?
This is the most difficult question. If the objective of the competition was to select the best couple then we would not need more than one category. But I think we need categories based on dance ability to encourage us normal (me? normal?) mortals to compete at a lower level with some expectation/hope of getting through the first round. And to do this we need categories.
PROPOSAL
My proposal is that we use the rounds of the competition to create the categories.
Round 1 - every competitor dances in Round 1. Competitors are then promoted if they are judged good enough or placed in a new category to compete for the 'Plate' prize. This means that even the worst dancer gets to dance in 2 rounds - which is nice when you've paid around £35 to be there and enter!
Round 2 - promoted competitors compete for further promotion. Those knocked out at this half-way stage would go on to compete against each other - let's think, half way up the competition, what could we call this category? How about intermediate?
Round 3 - depending on numbers this could be the final or the semi-final.
N.B. For the 'Plate' and the 'Intermediate' competition the number of rounds would depend on the time available, number of competitors, etc.
I think this method would be totally fair, give everyone an opportunity to compete at their own level and stop dead any debate about who should compete at what level - it would even mean that dancers would be able to compete in the same competition as and beat their teachers
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