Why Should Dancer Compete?
by Rog Greenawalt
posted July 10, 2006

My wife Amy and I have competed in ballroom for over 8 years and I do have some thoughts about competition that I think are universal among all types of dance. Competition is an extremely valuable tool to improve your dancing. We danced many years before ever competing. Now we wish we would have started competing the first year we danced.

What does competition do for you?
1. It can motive you to practice. Nobody wants to get out there and look foolish.
2. It adds focus to your dancing and gives you a goal; you know the time and date when you want to be prepared to dance well.
3. It forces you to pay attention to things like timing, appropriate body posture and good execution of the steps you lead (or follow); these are all those things your dance teacher tells you that drift in one ear and out the other.
4. 1, 2 & 3 will accelerate your rate of improvement and make you a more fun couple to watch (from the spectators perspective) and more fun to dance with (from your partner's perspective).

These things, over time make you a better dancer.

Competition is NOT about other people, it is about you and your partner and becoming "one" with each other and with the music, and drawing the audience (and judging panel) into your dance. Ultimately you are really competing to see if you can dance to YOUR potential at that point in time. There are many factors beyond your control:
1. How well others dance
2. What style the judges like
3. The politics of a subjectively judged sport.

In the ballroom world most of us are not vying for a shot at the World Championships and we tend to be supportive of our competitors. Sure we all would like to win, but primarily we are all looking to dance the very best we can and let the judges figure out the rest. You can dance your very best and two or three couples can be equal in ability and judges just like a different style a little more. A different group of judges could have a different outcome with the same competitors.

If you don't win, keep in mind:
1. Perhaps you didn't dance your best (you can usually tell better than a spectator)
2. Ask friends (ones who will give an honest opinion) or a dance teacher, how the better couples looked different than you.
3. Maybe the judge just liked someone else's style a little more, but you were of comparable ability.

If you win, don't let it go to your head. If may have been close enough that a different panel of judges would have selected someone else.

It takes guts to get out on the floor and "lay it on the line" in front of the judges and audience. For that all competitors should be applauded. Competition is a process that over time will raise your level of dancing. That is what most of us are hoping to achieve.