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Well said.
I'm completely sick of the way the word 'elite' has all these negative connotations, and mostly the most vocal whingers are the ones that never actually go and find out what the reality is.
Just as school kids that want to succeed academically mark themselves out as different and get labelled and ridiculed as swots, dancers that aren't satisfied with mediocre mark themselves out as different from all the people that are happy to dance for years without caring a damn that they aren't improving, or are just a yanking lead or a random follow. And just like school kids that are labelled, the dancers get labelled as elitist, no matter what the reality of how much they give back to the dance, and to dancers not as accomplished as themselves
If no one aspired to be a better dancer, a better performer, a better teacher there would be no one for the rest of us to emulate, no one to be entertained by, no one to learn from.
I think we do know how the 'system' works - but I don't think it's a system.
It starts with someone that enjoys dancing and wants to improve. So they practise lots, and actively seek out good teaching (workshops, weekenders, advanced classes where they're available). They get better, and dance more with better dancers. And keep practising, and seek out more good teaching...
In other words, they take responsibility for their own development.
Maybe it's simply the situation that nowhere, except possibly London, are there enough people that want advanced classes to make such a thing a commercial success, and the people that do want to become advanced will succeed in doing so anyway - eventually, in the hit/miss way that is the norm without good teaching...
The point is that people such as Nigel, Nina, Amir, Will, Kate, David, Lily, Gus to name the ones I'm aware of, are seeking to make advanced dancing more accessible, not less.
Those that associate accomplishment with elitism in a purely negative way are just not thinking straight.
And no one is holding a gun to people's heads and making them go to advanced classes if they don't want to, so why are people so antsy about giving people the opportunity to become better dancers if that's what they want to do?
As Gus says, the people at the very top put a lot of effort into helping those that are coming up behind them, and to suggest that they're elitist in any sense other than just wanting to promote excellence is just an insult.
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