In the back of Walter Laird's "Technique of Latin Dancing" are several suggested amalgamations of international-style figures, labelled Grade I, Grade II & Grade III.

Does anyone know what levels these grades represent, and what relationship they bear to , say, amateur medal tests?

Is there any way to tell based on the included figures? (e.g. if it contains Gold level figures, it has to be Gold)

Jonathan

I'm going to take a wild guess that Laird wasn't that concerned about "legality" of the material for a particular purpose, but instead about its value as dancing. And even if he was concerned, the lists of what is legal have changed somewhwat over the years, and differ today between different organizations.

So Jonathan's suggestion is basically the only choice: you'll have to look at the figures themselves, and then compare it to what is legal today for your purposes.

My immediate assumption was that if there was a direct equivalence of the figures used to the syllabus of, say, Bronze, Silver & Gold, then they would have been named accordingly, rather than as Grade I, II & III.

The IDTA, of which Laird was a member, no longer specifies ANY figures at any medal level of the amateur tests, but merely gives a minimum of five different figures at bronze level and six at silver, chosen (by the teacher) to give a "sound presentation of the dance which is within the capabilities of the candidate". Interestingly, as the levels progress, the syllabus does not require more advanced figures, but a higher standard of dancing - which is a very different approach to, say, ISTD, with its lists of figures, some of which are bizarre (why, for example is the double reverse spin in waltz (silver) considered an "easier" figure than the turkish towel in cha cha (gold)? Alex Moore (an ISTD man himself) says the DRS "should only be attempted by advanced dancers (silver - advanced?), whereas the turkish towel is very simple and can be taught in about five minutes flat, even if it does have 30 steps.

Could anyone with an older edition than mine (2003) say whether these amalgamations have always been named after "Grades", or is this a change to reflect the fact that the society's syllabus no longer prescribe different figures at different levels?

My 1988 edition also refers to Grades and I suspect that came from the original back in 1961.

AFAIK other branches of dance such as ballet, stage and tap use the term for their class descriptions and examinations.
Each dance organisation makes its own choice of which figures are included in which level, and how that level is described both for medal tests and for competitions, so the earlier advice to look at the figures is the best way to go.

Different levels are described in different ways for;

Teacher qualifications: Associate, Member/Licentiate, Fellow.
Medallists: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Gold Stars/Bars.
Classes: Beginners, Improvers, Hobbyist etc

Societies originally found it simple to base Bronze medals on the Associate syllabus etc but changes and developments have meant that the two do not now always align completely.