Would someone please explain how a studio can or does purposefully place their students so that they are the only ones- uncontested, that is- in a particular heat? We have a local studio who loves to come back from Hotlanta and brag how many first places they won, but when we look at the heat lists, they're the only ones on the floor, and when they DO dance with others, they place dead last. We've started asking them "yeah, but who all did you dance against?... the students never know, and the teachers blow us off.

Never mind the big surprise... uh... we don't compete. Unless they're counting socials, in which case, they'd STILL lose if there were such a system...

Sorry- had to get that off my Ds.

What kind of conversation is that, even? "Um, Hi, Mr. Ares, so... ah, we have some students coming up that the likes of some of the other students would chew up and spit out... can you, you know, just to reinforce their faith in our dated teaching methods and awful technique, kind of, um, put 'em by themselves, and we'll just keep this on the download?"

How does this work? They really need to be called out on their stuff, but frankly, we're too tired from dancing circles around them to worry with any of the small stuff. That doesn't keep me from being wildly curious, though, so the next time they say "You know, if you danced better (says the guy who picks his feet up four inches from the ground in American Rumba- and was TOLD to do so), you might start looking like me"... I told him if I ever started to look like him, I was burning my shoes with my feet in them.

It's amazing isn't it? They obviously appeal to people who want to come home with fistfuls of medals and trophies and don't care how they get them. An obvious cash grab for the studio, students won't go to comps and spend all that money just to be humiliated on the floor, better to have them win all the time. There is no point in confronting them. The students love the attention and no one is going to burst their bubble.

So it actually CAN happen? Can you just call and put yourself in any heat?

I ask this because I DO want to burst their bubble, fair and square, on the floor... with my spiffy flared heels. We've heard this crap ever since we started. They need to put up, shut up, and get off my LOD if they can't freakin' rotate a left box.

I agree with previous responses. It is rather annoying that there are some who do compete cannot seem to manage floor craft at social dances.

Ladydance,
Figure out who I am and come and confront me. Call me out, if you want. See if I care. Why are are you so theatened by someone like me who places last???? Are you insecure in your own dance skills?
LOL - compete against me and you'll place above at least one person - not that it would say a lot about your skills to place above the likes of me - but you seem to be really insecure, so knock yourself out against me.

I'm not threatened in the slightest and I have won my fair share of last places as well. I also got nine first places dancing in heats all by myself. No one else entered in my age group. I do not go around bragging about those first place finishes because in my eyes they do not count for anything except experience. My first I got in Tango competing against two other couples, is the one I'm proud of.
I admire anyone who gets out there and competes, it takes a lot of nerve. However, if a studio is purposely entering their students in uncontested heats just so they win, well, let's just say they are not fooling anyone. Sure, they go home with the top studio trophy but they lose credibility with other studios.
So Clary, do whatever makes you happy, I'll be the first one cheering you on from the sidelines.

???
Well, if they don't want to place dead last, then they should figure out who I am and compete against me. I'm the competitor who always places last (or gets no recalls if I happen to enter an event that has a quarter or a semi).
Have you seen the entire field that these people are competing in? Is it possible that just maybe the students that you speak of aren't quite as bad as you think they are compared with the other couples in that event? Do you watch the other competitors in the event and try to place them in the field that happens to be there?
If all you look for are their bad qualities, well, then that is all that you are likely to see. So can you, even very,very grudingly, see ANYTHING that they do that is good? That's what I have to do - because I'm the person that everyone is happy to see in their events - if I enter an event then everyone else entered knows that, at very least, they won't finish last.
It sounds as though you haven't actually watched the Hotlanta competition - I wasn't there last year, or else I would have been the one who saved that couple from a last place finish.

First of all: Clary, quit bein' a retard. I have the strangest idea that you have absolutely NO idea what place I'm even talking about.

Second: My beef isn't with competitors who have to buy their medals- if that's what gets them their kicks, it's fine... but they should own up to it if they're going to do it and then talk to me as though they competed fairly and in a sportsmanlike manner- danceSPORT, after all... It's like cheating at that little peg-game at Cracker Barrel and then bragging about how many times you've beaten it, yet you always seem to have a bad day if you screw up in front of someone else.

Third: Yes, I *can* see one good thing that comes of this... they're cash cows for someone out there, and more money makes happier people.

Fourth: I don't LOOK for their bad qualities- that's all that's visible.

Fifth: If course I watch others and play "Place the competitors"... that's part of the fun of going to a comp. It sure isn't the post-comp fajita/spaghetti pre-fab dinners. The other part is buying shoes and getting buzzed enough to nudge the competitors who use the GENERAL SOCIAL DANCE between heats to Zone, and crash into poor old couples and scared yet hopeful beginners and swear at them in Russian when their hairpiece gets knocked askew.

Anything else? If you're that proud of sucking, more power to you, but you should at least charge, otherwise you're just a slut, you know.




*disclaimer* and review: Take with grain or million of salt. Original question was "Can you actually pick who you're dancing against in which heat", and it was a fun ride from there. Main gist was "Stop trying to say you're something you aren't, unless you can actually pull it off convincingly."

DivaGinger,
No, I'm not a slut. I'm just a really bad dancer. I'm not particularly proud of it - it is just the truth. What is so wrong with accepting the truth?

And I'm too stupid to follow some of your train of thought (unless you aren't expressing yourself very well, but surely that can't be the case!).

Is this other couple HURTING you? If not, let it go. Otherwise, your rant makes it SEEM as though you are jealous of them, and threatened by them.

I don't understand what you mean by I should "just charge". Can you pleaes elaborate? (Please explain as though I am not smart.)
If you take the trouble to make a reasonable reply, I'd appreciate it.

I'll pitch it another way, hopefully sans brass:

Has someone ever come up to you in a social setting and said something SO WILDLY unbelievable that you and EVERYONE around you knows it's totally impossible, and a lie, like "Well, I'm the secret lover of Donnie Burns" or "I choreographed Bryan and Carmen's Jive."

Do you feel silly and awkward because: It's wildly untrue, and they've said it as though they A- either believe it, or B- expect YOU to believe it or C- both?

You have to kind of smile, cut your eyes sideways nervously and go along with it, otherwise you open up a "What, so you think I'm lyin'? Huh? HUH?" and then you wonder if they snicker and "heh, yeah, they bought that!"... or if they really need to say that to feel more socialized.

It's just... icky... all the way around, and a lot of us in the local scene are kind of bored with it. We're wondering how to deal with it, because they come up TO people and seek them out to brag, it isn't like we don't avoid them- we try like hell to do so.