At The Dancer's Cup Competition this past weekend, the emcee announced that the DanceSport Superbowl events have been renamed The Dancesport Series events. Although the program listed these heats as Superbowl heats, he used the new name.

Apparently the football league objected to the use of the term superbowl.

I heard that Chel, what next is Wendy's going to go after anyone using the word "Biggie" -- geez --- like anyone would expect to see a "football" game at a dance comp.

Gee, this is a quiet area - I hope tha tmeans the pro/Amers are all out dancing and have no time to tap the keys!

Superbowl. I was really excited to be told that I was actually listed on a national board - and it was fun to look it up and seem myself in the top third. Exciting that is until I looked into the scoring system and discovered that win/loose/single entry/quarterfinals counted - but not really so much relative to the 'bonus points'. Bonuses for what? well for entering at least 10 competitions. So what the so called superbowl is really about is not who is doing the best but who spends the most money.

Am I the only one that finds this not only depressing but also degrading? I see why this is so - top teachers have always been designated so at pro/am compes more by how many entries they have than by how well their students did (it amuses me when I see an instructor ad with 'top teacher at so-and-so competition" as if this was a credit to their teaching ability and not that of their salesmanship. Degrading? Yes, that is the right word. It fits straignt into the stereotype thar pro/ams are just to be bought and sold and are only to be valued for the cash they put into the competitions.

I should also add depressing since we desperately need an organization to represent us but I can not get anyone here to even respond to such a suggestion.

Not being one for inaction I went to the Superbowl (now dancesport series) site and wrote a long and very courteous e-mail to the 'organizers' (I hvae no idea who they are - though there is some gossip - since nothing is revealed at the site). And the outcome? Well, its been about 3 weeks and I am still waiting for a reply - but I doubt seriously that anything is coming.

The sad thing is that this could be a really good idea and service. By all means give bonus points for entries but list these separately and rank everyone according to their performance points and not the bonuses.

Ah well, blowing in the wind again probably...

Elise