But, let me introduce a little hard reality.
There is only so much time during the day.
Adding too many categories will make the contest run too long.
I think that having a contest which is complete early enough in the
evening/afternoon so that people can drive home is a good thing.
This places a limit only the total time of the contest - 9am to 6pm
(or 9 hours) has been used the last few years. First off, we take
an hour out for lunch. That leaves 8 hrs. Then there are demos,
those pesky awards to hand out, some general dancing to keep
the audience happy, and time to sweep the floor. Another hour
gone. That leaves 7 hours.
There has been a rule that each time a couple gets on the
floor to dance, that they will dance for at least 1:30 (1 minute
and 30 seconds). Sometimes the judges take longer, especially
in the early rounds. It can go as long as 3 minutes. After training,
and with a GOOD MC, you can get people off the floor and back
on for the next dance in 45 seconds. So, lets call it 2:30, on the
average, for each dance.
If advanced waltz has 35 couples, then this will turn into
2 heats of round 1 of 17/18 couples
1 A heat in round 2 of 17 couples
1 B heat in round 2 of 18 couples
1 A heat in round 3 of 12 couples
1 B heat in round 3 of 12 couples
1 A heat in round 4 of 6 couples
1 B heat in round 4 of 6 couples
8 heats to finish off advanced waltz. At 2:30/heat, that comes
to 20 minutes total for all 8 heats.
If this is the average number of competitors in a category
(and some will have fewer, and some more), then this means
that 7 hours is enough time for 21 categories.
I think we did 120 heats one year, so this estimate is not
too far off...
OK OK OK, I've over-simplified things. But, the point is that
making too many categories will make the contest run too long
because there is only so much time.
So you are stuck with the tradeoff... more categories are good,
but then they can be bad too. You'll be fine, as long as you don't
go overboard on the categories, or if you restrict the ability to
enter in multiple categories. The problem is the total number
of heats that can be danced in the time available. Both the number
of categories and the number of participants per category
effect the number of heats.
--- Have Fun Deciding!
Bruce Leasure