I've got some considerations that I wanted to share and a minute isn't
enough time for me to get it all out. Please forgive the length of this.
First, I have to admit, I'm fundamentally against changing a format that
works, especially if there isn't an incredible base of support for such a
change. From the general tone of the majority of the comments about the
proposed changes that I've read, the support for change is precarious at
best. Personally, I like the idea of people advancing through the ranks of
competition via a system based on acquired skill levels rather than basing
advancement on arbitrary dates (that are easily manipulated and don't take
into account factors such as 10 years of martial arts, ballet, or anything
that would allow a person to display the control/ability of a more
experienced dancer while "technically" being a beginner); however, I'm not
convinced that the continental system of judging doesn't already do that, at
least to a certain extent.
Granted, the continental system does use an arbitrary date to divide upper
and lower level competitors {beginner and advanced}, but after that initial
"artificial" division the competitors, dancing competence, or lack thereof,
does the rest of the dividing. (This of course assumes that one has faith
in the judges' abilities to effectively evaluate our dancing. If we have no
faith in the appraisal skills of the judges, then we probably should not have
hired them.)
I believe that calling the divisions within the upper and lower groups
"a" and "b" is a marketing mistake, but luckily, marketing mistakes are
pretty easily corrected. Perhaps after the initial heat in the lower
division---the one where people are supposed to have danced for 18 months or
less---we could have the judges split dancers into categories like novices
and beginners, and in the upper level dancers could be split into
intermediate and advanced categories. I'm obviously not married to these
category names. This idea comes from the fact that when I've talked with
people who say they don't care for the a/b system, most of their objections
seem to stem from the idea of winning an award when your dance ability places
you somewhere in the middle of the general category. By giving names to the
"b" groups I think we'll add a certain amount of clarity between the
categories and offer more validity to the awards granted within these
categories---and it would just be a cosmetic change to a system that I
believe works for most of us.
I'm not certain how to deal with the persons who are obviously dancing at a
level beneath their abilities. Perhaps we could have the judges make a mark
by the these "super talented dancers" numbers and those couples could be
"invited" to compete in the upper division over the loud speaker---you know,
the kind of offer you can't refuse.
Well, thanks for reading my rumblings. I hope I'll see lots of you out for
the meeting tonight.
Tanja