While attending the NJ regional, I watched the International Standard Novice to try to understand.

Most I noitced were dancing silver and gold steps. In Quickstep I did notice some danging runs and "hops" which would not be allowed in silver or gold, but that was it.

Can anyone help me to understand what noivce actaully is? I dance silver and gold, and have always hesitated to register at this level, as I was not sure I had yet reached this level. It seemed that I would of been qualififed to dance this level at the NJ regional.

Confused...

In USA Dance (USABDA), Novice is a proficiency level that is considered to be alongside of the syllabus levels. In fact, the USA Dance (USABDA) rules say that if you are eligible to compete in syllabus, then you are also eligible to compete in Novice.

Unlike syllabus events, Novice does not restrict dancers as to steps used or as to costuming.

Novice came about a number of years ago (10? 12?) when a bunch of USABDA rules were established. At that time on the West Coast, competitions offered Closed Syllabus (all syllabus levels lumped together), Novice (any steps allowed), Pre-Championship, and Championship events. On the East Coast, however, there were the three separate syllabus levels, and then Pre-Championship and Championship. In order to reconcile these differences, Novice was established as I described it at the beginning of this post.

So, if you dance Bronze & Silver, you can dance Novice. If you dance Silver & Gold, you can dance Novice. If you dance Gold & Pre-Champ, you can dance Novice. Once you "point out" of Gold, though, you can no longer dance Novice.

Hope this helps!!

No, you can still dance novice if you have pointed out of gold. But if you accumulat points dancing in pre-champ, that could place you out of both gold and novice.

Please tell me what information you base your interpretation on, because you are expressing what I have been told is a common misconception. I'm going by what is in rule 4.5.3.1, rule 4.5.4.6.b, and what my region's DanceSport Council Representative told me.

Rule 4.5.3.1 shows that Novice is alongside Bronze/Silver/Gold. The only way you could do Novice if you had pointed out of Gold would be if Novice was between Gold and Pre-Championship, and it's not according to the diagram in the rule book.

Rule 4.5.4.6.b says "If one or both of the proficiency levels is a Syllabus level, then a couple may also enter the Novice level." So, if you've pointed out of Gold, then you aren't in a Syllabus level, and so you therefore can't do Novice.

Since I help to organize and run a few USA Dance competitions per year, I ran these interpretations by my Region's DanceSport Committee member to check my reasoning, and he told me I was correct. If I am wrong, it is because he is wrong and because the rules are not yet clear enough, and we need to get this straightend out so that the rules are applied consistently everywhere.

Read the rule in it's entirity:

4.5.4.6. An Athlete may compete in any proficiency classification level higher than the minimum
proficiency level for which he or she is eligible, except that:
a) He or she may not compete with the same partner in more than two consecutive proficiency
level classifications in a particular style and age classification which are actually held at
any given competition.
b) If one or both of the proficiency levels is a Syllabus level, then a couple may also enter the
Novice level.

4.5.4.7. Athletes may only compete in a particular proficiency classification or sub-classification in a
particular style and age group until they have acquired five (5) proficiency points...etc

The "if one or both of the levels is novice" thing is a restriction on an allowance for dancing up and dancing multiple levels - you should still be able to dance novice on it's own, because it is a proficiency level itself.

I agree with you on your final point. You can definitely dance Novice without dancing in a syllabus level so long as you are still eligible point-wise. What I am disagreeing with is your assertion that if you pointed out of Gold you could still dance Novice.

My claim is that you can dance Novice so long as you haven't pointed out of Novice OR so long as you haven't pointed out of Gold. If you've pointed out of Novice you can't do Gold any more, and if you've pointed out of Gold you can't do Novice any more.

4.5.4.7 Determines your primary elgibility, and for that gold points do not affeect novice and novice points do not affect gold, because there is no rule by which novice points transfer to syllabus or gold points transer to novice, in the way there is an explicit rule about how points transfer between all of the other categories.

4.5.4.6 Simply determines what additional levels you may optionally dance.

Realistically no one will place out of either novice or gold by dancing in category, except by winning one of them at Nationals. Most people who place out do so via pre-champ results which descend to both gold and novice.