gold dancers are not a problem on a champ floor, it is overnight "champ" dancers with no background experience in competition and floorcraft who are dangerous.

waiting to get a gold medal first is unecessary, just start with lower level events. its impossible to know what you need to do to prepare unless you get out there and make learning mistakes in the low levels.

I said championship not prechampionship, No wonder the standars are so low in the U.S.A. If you have gold leval dancers dancing international ballroom at two levals above their grade. In Ausralia they have four grades A.B.C.D. just in gold and other levals. You won't find gold dancers in Europe,Canada or Ausralia dancing in championship at any major event. They would be rather watching and learning than making a fool of themself. When I went in a competition in Australia while visting,they did not know what grade in prechampionship to put me in so they put me in the top grade,I did not get one mark. In the U.S. I was winning.

Well I have to agree with Doug. I have not competed in America,but Championship class is so much higher over here than gold, that a teacher would not want their students to compete even in the first rounds untill they had graduated into pre-championship.

I'm a gold-level US dancer making the transition into the out-of-syllabus events. I don't know anyone at my level who jumps right to Championship unless they are an amazing prodigy. Most people dance Novice (which in the US is considered to be the same level as Gold, but with non-syllabus material allowed) and some Pre-Championship.

Laura. It is a lot differant for a Lady than a Man. Women can only dance upto the leval of their partner no matter how good she is. But if she is light on her feet and has good balance and poise,there is no reason that she can't compete at a higher leval, if she can find the right partner and is willing to work hard.

Don't get fooled by the choreography and showmanship. The actual difference in things like accuracy between good gold and average champ is fairly small. Of course most good gold couples quickly turn into bad pre-champ couples with over-ambitious routines that spoil the qualities they had were just starting to really develop. Much of what you see in the champ espeically with those fresh from the youth divisions is the result of a rapid push towards creating "the look" - but see one of these couples taking a technique lesson, and they are struggling with concepts already familiar to rigorously trained silver dancers.

We cannot be talking about the same thing. Gold = Novice. Novices must stick to a strict sylibus,they cannot dance anything they want and certinly nothing fancy. Sportdancing International. Doug

In the US there are Novice-level amateur competitions at both USA Dance (USABDA) and NDCA-sanctioned events that allow out-of-syllabus work. Novice in these systems is basically just the first "open" level, below Pre-Championship.

As soon as you are familiar with the basic steps of a dance you are ready to compete. So, be sure to practice them after every lesson.
Attend a competition in your area and you can see for yourself how it works and that you can do the moves because you recognize them.
Check out accessdance.com for a listing of some of the competitions.

So, if somebody's had a year of lessons, owns an appropriate wardrobe and shoes, has the money, and "waltzes right up to" a competition with the entry fee and info.... they can enter?

Please expound... curious novices with only two lessons under their belt love to know!