I remember seeing a pro walking off in obvious disgust because his student didn't dance to her potential. He was taking the dancing pretty seriously.
We are talking livelyhood, ego, competing against ones equals. I don't think I ever saw Ben Ermis not take his pro/am seriously. He seems to be professional in every sense of the word. In fact I heard once he didn't dance in the Professional Heat because he was so tired from all the Pro/Am he danced. I think the pros who make it to finals with their students take it seriously or why bother trying to make it to the final?
Quote: I am sure you did not mean to be insulting, but pros, even very, very top pros, take their ProAm events seriously, and are out to beat each other.
You can take something "seriously" without taking it "very seriously". In the context of my original post, "very seriously" would mean seriously enough to make conflict of interest issues relevant. Sure, pros want to win their pro-am events - but I don't think most of them want to so badly that they would take it out on the other pro if they happened to be judging them in another event.
To put it another way, I might take my investing seriously - but I don't take my investment in, say, Apple Computer so very seriously that I would sabotage their competitor Dell if the latter should hire me to write software for them.
The reality is that it came off as "most pros don't really give a flip" about pro-am results. "Not very seriously" vs "not seriously" doesn't come across to me as very different in meaning, at least not in this case.
For what I believe, if you want to get better result in pro-am, you have to dance with well known pro, other wise, you will have no chance, or else you will have to do a lot of entries. I think without pro-am in this country, we don’t have such business to hire the judges and who want to organize a competition. If the pro you dance with do no politics, forget all about it. It is true that you dance for enjoyment. It is true you don’t have to compare with anyone but yourself. If you keep dancing n not placing anywhere, will you being encouraged to dance in the future. Regarding judging, I always feel it is not fair that some retired dancers that the wife is judging, and the husband is in pro-am, although they need to make money, but they almost control the result. As I remember, when I looked for my pro. My friend told me you should dance with so n so, or else, you can forget it. At first, I believe what I believe. And now I really think it is the truth. You pay what you get.
I must agree, if you want the result, you need to dance with a high ranking pro. The problem for people wanting to dance pro-am is that the highest concentration seems to be in NYC or LAX. It is a very sad state of affairs, but it is about the money. If you can afford to go to a comp about once a month and do about 40 entries, then you have a chance of the judges really looking at you. The other thing is that a ranking or competing pro is more able to a)cover your mistakes and b)really dance himself/herself well. Why do you think the ranks of competitor thins out so much after bronze?
Or Igor Suvorov, whom they all want to beat! And yes, anytime the discussion on these boards drifts over to the world of ProAm, the postings become very hostile. This is mild compared to others I have read. I have no idea why this is so. At least no one here is (as yet) saying ProAms don't know how to dance. Judges I happen to speak to socially say the level of Pro Am dancing is very high now - probably why I'll never place again!
Quote: I must agree, if you want the result, you need to dance with a high ranking pro. The problem for people wanting to dance pro-am is that the highest concentration seems to be in NYC or LAX. It is a very sad state of affairs, but it is about the money. If you can afford to go to a comp about once a month and do about 40 entries, then you have a chance of the judges really looking at you. The other thing is that a ranking or competing pro is more able to a)cover your mistakes and b)really dance himself/herself well. Why do you think the ranks of competitor thins out so much after bronze?
They say;
PRO-Am = Tricycle. Am -Am = Bicycle. Pro-Pro= Motorcycle.
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Posted
It is sooooo tempting to agree that, unless one does many entries and/or dances with a well-known/well-connected pro, one isn't going to get too far in pro-am comps. Except that I know of quite a few exceptions to this rule. Just from the Northeast region: Laurence Bolduc dances with Michel Milmore. Neither one does tons of entries. I don't think Michel was a shining star in the pro world (with all due respect) before he began training Laurence. She is a good dancer, who has progressed steadily, undoubtedly because she has a good teacher. Her results reflect that. Michael Ulbrich and his girls - Lauren Schelhaudt and Julia Bernstein. None of them is a "frequent competitor", but boy do they get good results, and with good reason. Yeah, there are politics, but good dancing will also prove itself.
