At the moment when looking round the world all kinds of dance competitions are being offered. There are competitions that claim to be a World Cup or a World Championship, and the young dancer or the dance teacher who wants to enter his students might be quite confused. Which is which? Which is of high standard and good quality, and which is not worth going to?

First of all it has clearly got to be distinguished between the different styles of dance and the purpose of such competitions.

When a person wants to learn Tango from Argentina, he or she would never dream of going to a ballet school. This would be a completely wrong decision, no matter how qualified the ballet teacher might be in his dancing. Vice versa, when a person wants to learn classical ballet, he or she would never dream of going to a ballroom teacher. Such a teacher might even have been world champion in his ballroom dancing, but he would definitely not be qualified in teaching proper classical ballet.

Well, and in the same way it clearly has to be distinguishes between dance competitions, and dance as such. There are basically two completely different ways of dancing.

A person may dance in order to entertain an audience. He or she enjoys dancing, yet in the end the main purpose is to entertain an audience. Certain steps are being systematically trained, a choreographer is composing a dance to a certain piece of music, and then one or more dancers perform this dance in front of an audience.

A person may dance because he or she hears music and just feels like doing so. This is dancing for one’s personal entertainment. No audience in needed.
For one’s personal benefit a person may go to a ballroom dance school in order to improve his or her individual way of dancing.

Ballet and artistic dancing on stage
This is art and not sports. People of all ages may take ballet classes just in order to do physical exercise. This is something very useful for the body’s health and for personal fitness.
Yet the original purpose of ballet is to interpret a piece of music through dance, and to perform such dancing in front of an audience. In order to achieve high quality in such a performance intensive training is necessary.
In order to offer young upcoming dancers a platform where they may meet and compare their quality several dance competitions have started to exist in the second half of the twentieth century. A precise list of these competitions you find here.
All these competitions were organised by experts in ballet dance, and judges of high qualification adjudicate the dancing.
Depending on the special kind of the competition various styles of artistic dancing are being offered like classical ballet, character dance, modern and contemporary dance, jazz dance and more, all however based on a good foundation in ballet.

Ballroom Dancing
Ballroom dancing may take place at any event where music is being played. People dance mainly because they enjoy the music.
In former times there had been strict rules concerning the steps that may be used in such dancing. Dancing took place in pairs, and it was distinguished between certain styles like waltz, tango, cha-cha and many others, just as swing, balboa and many more.
As in the 60ies of the last century music gradually changed, people more and more tended to dance alone and not in pairs any longer.
Consequently schools that offer ballroom dancing then also offered disco dance and similar styles.
Most people that go to such schools want to learn how to dance just for personal fun, and never dream of publicly performing their dancing.
Yet some enjoyed competing against each other, just as in any sport discipline. First of all people execute the sport activity, then they may compete against each other in a way of who is running faster or jumping higher. Only much later an audience might come and watch the competitors.
Thus in ballroom dancing competitions were organised, and these were called dance sports competitions, and the best became world champion in his particular dance sports in the same way as it is being done in sports.
As disco dancing and similar styles for individuals became fashionable in discotheques, consequently teachers in ballroom dance school also offered classes in these styles, and after a while competitions were introduced there as well.

So ballroom dancing and artistic dancing like ballet should never be mixed up, especially not in competitions.

The special situation of tap dance
This is one of the very few styles of dance that in a way fit into both categories. When you look at Fred Astaire you can easily see that he was a thrilling ballroom dancer. Through many movies, however, his dancing became most artistic and moved from pure ballroom dancing into the section "art". When you look at Gene Kelly you may easily see his excellent basis in ballet.
Yet there nevertheless is a big difference whether approaching tap dance from ballroom dancing or from ballet.

A ballet dancer will tap dance. To a ballet or modern dancer tapping will be a wonderful way of making rhythmical sounds while dancing on stage.

A ballroom dancer will tap just for his personal entertainment because he enjoys making rhythmical sounds to music. He will have fun in jam sessions together with other tap dancers, no matter whether they will have an audience or not.

The Dance World Cup is the big international dance competition that unites the winners of the national and international competitions around the world.
Until 2007 it had been for children and junior dance students only. As from 2008 on it will be for young adult dance students as well.
It is for dance students only, because on our opinion a professional dancer or dance group cannot be judged by a jury any longer, as he has developed his personal style of art.
The basis of all categories of style is ballet and all styles of dance that have the main purpose of being performed on a stage and entertaining an audience. So this is art, and as a logical consequence we don’t have championships like in sports. There are no sections for ballroom dance or dance sports.

Dance championships are for all styles of dance that originally derive from ballroom dancing. Like in sports they offer competitions and championships to people of all ages.
All the adult participants usually are amateurs that have a non dance profession in their every day life. Nevertheless the standard of dance may be considerably high.
Certain organisers of international ballroom dance competitions have recently had the idea of offering competitions in ballet and similar styles as well.
Yet no serious ballet, jazz, modern or contemporary dance teacher in Europe, Asia and Africa would ever enter students to such a competition. (I have no knowledge about the situation in North America. I am referring to my example at the beginning of this text.)
These arrogant organisers have recently also started to call their championships "World Cups". The reason for this behaviour is not clear. It can only be estimated that they want to confuse serious artistic dance students and dance teachers, and draw them on their side of dance sports, where artistic dancers definitely don’t belong to.

In the Dance World Cup and in all national competitions a number of professional dancers and / or dance teachers adjudicate the dance students. The adjudicators as well as the audience have the following information:

• Title of the dance
• Age of the candidates

Nothing else! This guarantees an absolutely fair judging as the adjudicators have no information about the names of the dancers, the schools or countries where they come from.
According to the quality of the dance points are given. All points are added and divided by the number of adjudicators. This makes the final result.

In dance championships usually a number of dance teachers or organisers judge. They as well as the audience receive the following information:

• Name of the dance group
• Name of the school, city and country where they come from
• Possibly a title of the dance

(No comment on fairness or possible prejudice)
The judges give out first, second, etc. place. The dance that receive most first places wins (ranking system).

Ambitious artistic dance students want to make a career as professional dancers. There are many professional dance companies around the world.
Some of the winners of the Dance World Cup in the past years went to those companies. With their certificates from the Dance World Cup they had an excellent reputation and were heartily welcomed in those professional dance companies.

Professional dance companies for ballroom dance don’t exist (in Europe). These dancers will remain amateurs, or they will become professionals by becoming teachers for ballroom dance and working in a ballroom dance school. They usually have a non dance profession as well.

The Dance World Cup Association that organises the Dance World Cup is a non profit association and works for the benefit of dancing children.
It is our aim to promote artistic dance world wide and to support dancing children and teenagers.

Certain organisers of dance championships work for the main purpose of gaining as much money as possibly by using the dancers to make profit.

Any young dancer who qualified through a national competition may participate in the Dance World Cup. No special membership fee is needed neither for the dance students nor for their teachers, neither for the Dance World Cup nor for the national competitions.

In certain organisations and competitions first schools have to pay high annual membership fees no matter whether they will enter students for a competition or not. In addition they have to pay the entry fees for the competitions.