Organizes dancers. What is the population of China or Japan plus the whole of Europe. Thats if you are going to mention Cuba and so on as an estimate.That doesn't sound so preposterous now does it.

Yes it does

By the way, why do you make statements on which you have little or no knowledge and is only hearsay and because one of the Soc. says so ?-- I belong to 2 majors-- and most everyone in higher positions that I have spoken with, have little if any exposure;--so- if it were empirical, I might entertain any other thoughts--

but-- the best exponents of street latin NEVER, EVER danced Intern style ( Intern. was barely around in the states , when I started in the fifties and that is empirical ! )

Those of us who took the indigenous route ( and in the b/room world, that number is still minute ) at a different point in our careers, have tried to pass on, and also engender, the the core elements of the genre .

Terence. 1.37 Billion Chinese alone. Add to that 127.77 Million Japanese

They are not" ALL " dancing anything !-- the (true numbers are not even comparable), let alone Intern. style-- whereas 95% of latinos grow up dancing a very basic form with their parents .

The number of congresses in salsa for e.g. outstrip, world wide , the B/room comps by in an inestimable margin-- not to mention the weekly attendance on a world wide basis-- no contest !!( and, unlike b/room comps-- they ALL dance for 3/4/ 5 days, many times till 4 and 5 a.m.)

You need to check out the salsa site locations on the web, in the u.k. alone is staggering-- the b/room world is still stuck in the fifties ( but without the numbers ! )
London, has more people attend Salsa clubs in one nite than the b/room world does in a month-- and this is a universal happening.
Why do you think the major Soc. have incorporated it into their Syl ?-- and it grows week by week .
Add to this, the production of latin music ( salsa-- merg-- bachata etc ) is light yrs ahead of the B/room in sales .
You are really out of touch with reality .

Something that's being largely forgotten in this debate is that dances ultimately come to reflect the people doing them - their own culture and traditions of their immediate teachers.

Ballroom latin is not really a dance of the latin american countries, it is a dance of the British teaching tradition, inspired by ideas those teachers saw, that has further evolved under the influence of competitors, first from Britain and later from other, mostly European, countries.

Similarly, Chinese ballroom. The inspiration may be English style ballroom, but if people are doing these dances out in the countryside, they are doing local versions of them. Sure, there's a resemblance and probably literal compatibility of some patterns, but the look is different. When ballroom becomes a folk dance, it becomes a folk dance through a process of style transition - not unlike when the folk dance ideas were transitioned into studio dances to become the "international" (as a euphanism for British Imperial) ballroom tradition.

exactly my point !

Look up the results of the recent UK titles at Bournmouth. Amatuer Ballroom and Latin.
9 from China/ 7 from USA./ Latin 5 from each/. Take a look at the Professional Ballroom 79 from Japan/ Profession Latin 72 from Japan/
On Dancesport UK you can find hundreds of results from countries all over the world. The pages of the results change daily but it is possible to go back as far as you like. The amount of competitions for Ballroom Dancing is staggering, and these are only the bigger ones that get reported.