I have been taking dance lessons for many years and I am a very decent dancer myself as well as a decent judge of others competence. I am concerned that the clear conflct of interest by ballroom judges/organisers will ultimately sully ballroom dancing competitions. I was just recently at the Emerald Ball. This is a wonderful competition. But Sam Sodano never marked through anyone who had not participated in his competition. This was discovered quite inadvertently by chance.
Organisers quite simply should not be allowed to judge. Nor for that matter should coaches. If you look at the scores at the Emerald Ball it is clear that several judges were pushing students that had had coaching lessons with them before the comp. This is a common practice done before almost every comp and it is wrong. It makes competitors often give up competitive dancing rather than play that kind of sleezy dishonest game or forget about judging all together because they know it is so bad. I can name ten competitors without batting an eye that never check their scores because they know what judging is like in ballroom dancing. That is sad. This kind of behavior on the part of judges gives competitive dancing a sleezy back ally kind of aura. Why doesn't the NDCA finally do somthing really constructive for ballrooom dancing and tackle this problem which all professionals complain about.

" But Sam Sodano never marked through anyone who had not participated in his competition. "

Has it occured to you that since Sodano's competition is one of the flagship events in his country, it's generally only by schedule conflict that strong competitors would have skipped it? The vast majority of people that ideal judges should be marking would have been there. Statistically, it can be demonstrated that the voume of ice cream sales correlates quite well to the frequency of rape. Does that mean one causes the other? No. Both go up in the summer.

Does that mean everything is perfect? Of course not. But as the same couples appear and are ranked against each other in international competitions with different judging panels (with different potential biases), there exists a safety net to prevent markings frome straying very far from reality.

As for the NDCA doing something about competition organizers, you need to realize that the the NDCA is primarily a trade organization of competition organizers. If the US professinals are unhappy with it, they have their own organization, the PDF, which is fully within its right to organize competitions using whatever judges it chooses - provided that such competitions are open only to PDF members. That would of course mean that these would be professional-only events, without the moneymaking pro-am sideshow... which is of course why they aren't happening. Or the PDF could decide to leave the NDCA and do things on its own, but again they don't, because that would be bad for business.

So in the end you see, while the absolute best couple may not always win, they usually don't end up far from where they belong. The industry has to achieve a balance - it's not going to promote someone who offends everyone in power, but then it would not have any legitimacy if the dancers who were winning were not justified in doing so.

There is some obvious truth to what you've observed, but also inherent difficulties in changing the system (as pointed out). For instance, I am one of the many supporters of Pino and Alessandra who believe they've been under-rated by the judging system in general. (I also believe some couples are over-rated, and many would agree). I don't blame Pino for getting discouraged, but I think we should all persevere in spite of it all. It is what it is, and truthfully EVERYONE knows it. If you are not a professional (which I am not)...my advice is to dance for yourself and your AUDIENCE (who knows how many fans you may have). It's not an easy pill to swallow, but no one can stop you from dancing well. Otherwise we'd all end up bitter and miserable. Hopefully we are dong this because we love it and believe in quality dancing regardless of marks. (Because you are right...they almost never match perfectly) Doesn't mean you might not get a standing ovation...go for it!

I'll just throw this one into the hat. a few years ago. I have the score sheet. In S Africa a major competition was held where on each single dance over five dances the judges were rototated. There were five judges for each event. It can be done especially if the judges didn't know which dance they were judging untill the were quickly called to the floor.
Feather and three. Don't blame just the NDCA. You can throw them all into the hat world wide.

Being an adjudicator and coach, for over forty yrs,if you were to eliminate ALL coaches, there would be a large void in the assembled panel at world class events .

If sams scores were out of line with the judging panel as a whole, in, for e.g. a final, then it is possible for Chair to address this matter .

When judging in earlier rounds , particularly when the heats are large, it is quite possible for someone to slip thru the cracks.
Feel assured, sam nor any ohtrer organiser, has an "Axe " to grind whilst making his selections.

We have rules, by which we must abide (not allowed to judge relatives for e.g. ).

For your hypothosis to be given merit, one would have to compare all of the other judges marks .Even then., it is still an opinion.

Coaches judging competitions are in an obvious conflict of interest, that is for sure. However, as someone pointed out, we need highly qualified judges and if we were to eliminate those who coach, there would most certainly be a void. A solution might be to encourage a separate stream of people who will get qualified as judges only (with very strict exams, etc.).

Bad judging happens at all levels. I have noticed that those competitors who sponsor events or enter an enormous number of heats tend to garner a lot of first places if they are somewhat competent dancers, sometimes at the expense of much better dancers who can get ignored. I have video footage that supports this position. That is why, as an amateur dancer/competitor, I always take my placings with a (large) grain of salt and that is also why I do not support the idea of this sport being part of the Olympics... Figure skating is enough!

"Bad judging happens at all levels. I have noticed that those competitors who sponsor events or enter an enormous number of heats tend to garner a lot of first places if they are somewhat competent dancers, sometimes at the expense of much better dancers who can get ignored. I have video footage that supports this position. That is why, as an amateur dancer/competitor, I always take my placings with a (large) grain of salt and that is also why I do not support the idea of this sport being part of the Olympics... Figure skating is enough!"

Your concerns are understandable, but your actual examples are obviously drawn from the unusual business of pro-am events, which are far more blatantly profit-maximizing commerical, than the pro or amateur (hard to tell the difference any more) event that were being pushed for the olympics.

Olympics and Ballroom is a pipe dream. Whoever tried to push this one forward just didn't think it through. For instance, if Brian Watson were to compete who would he dance with. It wouldn't be Carmen she's German and he is a South African. Do you think that for one momment a couple are going to break up a partnership for a possible Olympic Medal. I'll leave it for you to figure out how many other snags there are. One would be that the Professional controlling body are in opposition to the Amateur controlling body. Even if they ever get together there is still the nationality problem. Other than that the competition would be sub standard. Lets forget it and come back into the real world..