1. A n00b’s Guide to…
Going to Watch a Ballroom Competition

2. OK, FIRST THINGS FIRST
IT’S GOOD TO HAVE AN IDEA OF WHAT COMPETITORS ARE ACTUALLY
TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH WHEN THEY COMPETE
LIKE, WHAT DOES COMPETETIVE BALLROOM EVEN ENTAIL?
SO, THE FIRST TOPIC THEN:
HOW DOES “COMPETING” IN
BALLROOM EVEN WORK?

3. If You Ask Most People What Comes To
Mind…
• So, I guess most people would assume that a
ballroom comp might go something like this:
– Each couple picks a song, and choreographs a
dance number to it
– When they’re “up,” they go to the floor and
perform their dance to their song
– And then judges score that performance
– The best score wins

4. You know, like on Dancing With the Stars!
Or that Silver Lining…um, Bi-polar DancingGuy
Movie.
(aw, maaaan…no pictures of that messed-up lift they…“did”? The internets have
failed me – you’ll have to go watch the movie to see it, I guess)

5. But, that’s not how it actually works
• First of all, (except for one particular division*)
you don’t get the floor to yourself when you’re
competing
• You dance “against” your
competition, at the same
time, to the same song.
*It’s usually called the “cabaret” division, if you care…and if you do, you’re the only person at the
comp who does (other than the four total people competing in that division), I can promise you.

6. Oh, and also:
• You don’t get to know the music ahead of
time
– You do know ahead of time
what dance you’re doing,
though.
(…so, if you know you’re dancing a Tango, then you at least
know that whatever they play will be something you can
dance Tango to.)

7. …AND THAT’S BASICALLY HOW “COMPETING” IN BALLROM GENERALLY
WORKS
NOT TOO COMPLICATED RIGHT?
SO, NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT HOW THE COMPETITION WORKS…
HOW TO UNDERSTAND WTF IS
GOING ON AT A BALLROOM COMP:

8. Ballroom Competitions move pretty quickly
– There are a ton of people signed
up to dance, and the organizers have
to get to all of them quickly enough…
– …to make sure there’s still time at
the end of the night for all the
professionals to get wasted at the
Pros-only after party in Suite 1605
It can sometimes be a bit hard to follow what’s going on…

9. I Find It Helps to Think of It Like You’re
Going to Watch a…
Track & Field Meet
– So, you’ve got a bunch of different “events”
happening:
– Each broken into “heats” so that everyone gets a
chance to compete over the course of the day
– It’s a similar setup at a Ballroom Competition…

10. The Ballroom Comp Version of
“Events”
• The “events” are a combination of
1. The dance you’re doing (waltz, rumba, tango, etc.)
2. The skill-level you’re competing at:
– Bronze (Beginner/Beg-Int Level)
– Silver (Intermediate Level)
– Gold (Int-Adv)
– Open (Advanced)
• For example: I’m competing at the bronze-level, and one
of the dances I’m doing is Waltz.
• So, “Bronze Waltz” would be one of my “events” for the
day.

11. The Ballroom Comp Version of “Heats”
• …actually, uh, they’re also just called “heats.”
• And they work pretty much the same way as
they would at a track meet:
– They break up an event where more people are registered
than can dance on the floor at once
• The Bronze-level dances typically have the
most entrants, so there will be a sh*t-ton of
bronze heats over the course of the day

12. There are also Multi-dance Events
• Think of these like the dance-version of a
pentathlon/decathlon
• For ballroom, multi-dance events are set up by
dance-category…

13. Multi-Dance Event Categories
• There are four general categories for multi-
dance events:
o Rhythm o Smooth
o Latin o Standard
 Rhythm & Latin categories are the  Rhythm & Smooth are the
“Latin” dances: Rumba, Cha-cha, “American Style” of their respective
Mambo, and Samba – to name a few dances
 Smooth & Standard categories are the  Latin & Standard are the
“ballroom” dances: Waltz, Tango, “International Style” of their
Foxtrot, Viennese-waltz, and Quickstep respective dances
• Or, if you prefer an “aaargh!! less words!”
explanation of each one…

14. Try This Handy Little Matrix
“Latin” “Ballroom”
Dances Dances
American Style Rhythm Category Smooth Category
International Latin Category Standard Category
Style
• I’ll be competing in the Smooth category for the
multi-dance events
…so, that’s “American” style “Ballroom” dances

15. AND, THAT’S BASICALLY HOW COMPETITIONS WORK
SO, THINK: TRACK-MEET BUT WITH DANCING INSTEAD OF RUNNING,
JUMPING & THROWING
YAH?
OK, NOW HERE’S SOME PRACTICAL TIPS
ON GOING TO WATCH ONE OF THESE
THINGS:

16. 1) Buy a Program!
• And I’m stressing the singular here: don’t buy
one for every person if you’re with a group
…unless you thought that,
back in college, when you had
to shell out money for a
course-pack (not a textbook) it
WASN’T a scam. Then, by all
means, buy away.
Oooh, nice binding on that, professor. They charge
you an extra $0.50/book for that at Staples?
Point is, you only need one for the group,
you won’t need individual copies

17. You Do Need One, Though…
• There are going to be HUNDREDS of heats
throughout the day, you are guaranteed to
lose track at some point
No joke, I’ve had my parents
come to a comp before, and
when I’d finished and went
over to see them, they said:
“So, when are you dancing?”
It can be easy to get lost if Is this heat 104? 257? Ghaa! They all look the SAME!!
you don’t have a guide.

18. How The Program Helps
• All of the heats are numbered in the program
– Before each heat starts, the event’s MC will
announce it’s heat-number
• After a while, you’ll get a sense for how long a
“heat” lasts (hint: not very long)
• From there, you can roughly figure out how
long there is to go until a heat you want to
watch is coming up

19. 2) Arrive With a ~1-hour Buffer
• In the days leading up to
the comp, I’ll be able to
give a pretty specific time
for when I’m dancing
(like, within a 15-minute-
…but time tends to move differently
or-so interval) inside a ballroom competition
(it’s Science, don’t question it)
• Comps sometimes run late, but often they can run up to 1 hour
ahead of schedule
• There’s no way to know until day-of, so the safe thing is to just
show up a little earlier than I’m “supposed” to be dancing

20. 3) Bring a Light Jacket
• Whoever it is that’s in-charge of temperature
control at every-ballroom-comp-ever just
LOVES using the A/C.
I took a picture of two people
dancing at a ballroom
competition once, and the shot
included part of the crowd as
well. This is how the photo
came out*. I know, weird
right?
*disclaimer: that didn’t’ actually happen, I’m just an idiot. But it is hella-cold in the ballroom. (p.s. did I do the hella part right? I’m still new at that.)

21. 4) Don’t Sweat “Table Assignments”
• Theoretically, when you buy a spectator ticket, they’re supposed to
be linked to a particular table around the dance floor
– Like if you were going to a dinner-theater…um, thing
• But it never actually works out that way.
• You can pretty much sit wherever there’s room*
What the organizers have in mind The reality of the seating arrangements
(*Note: Except maybe for Friday/Saturday Night Sessions,
but that’s not when I’ll be dancing)

22. 5) Dress Code…ish (I guess)
• I’m dancing during the day session, and honestly
you can pretty much wear whatever you want to
that.
– Well, OK. Not ANYTHING.
But, anything you would normally
wear to a place where other
people will be, and will see you
If I were dancing in the evening session, however, dress for
spectators would be semi-formal. In case you’re interested.

23. 6) Please DO Cheer & Yell Like Retards
When I Dance
• There’s not always a lot of that going on at
Ballroom Competitions
– But that’s mostly
because people are
lame, or have lame
friends.
– Not because it’s
particularly wrong to do.

24. SO, YEAH. THAT’S ABOUT ALL YOU SHOULD NEED TO KNOW.
EITHER THAT, OR I’M FORGETTING ALL OF THE IMPORTANT STUFF.
BUT ONE OF THOSE, DEFINITELY, THOUGH.
SEE YA NEXT SATURDAY!
- Mike out