Here is a question for ya'll, How do Pro- Am comps work? I know about the $ aspect but the actual running of the comp escapes me. I have been to a zillion colegiate comps, are Pro-Ams run differently? Are there things to watch out for etc?
The fundamentals of competition are generally the same, but for these differences:
1.In syllabus events, only the am competitor is judged, not the couple, supposedly.
2.There are generally many more levels and age categories than in college comps. So you will have in pro-am often both bronze closed and bronze open, silver closed and silver open, etc., and you will have these proficiency levels in multiple age categories.
3.More categories generally means smaller fields, so events are more often combined, meaning that whereas in college it might be unusual to have more than one event running on the floor at once, in pro-am, it could be common, especially in syllabus.
4. Higher level of costuming than in college/usabda events, especially in syllabus, with more attention to most current fashions, usually enforced by pros who are bringing students.
Excellent summary. I have two points to expand on. First of all, the proliferation of categories is astounding. In single-dance events (i.e. everything except for a Scholarship or a multi-dance "Championship") male students are not judged against female students. And then there are the age levels -- some comps have six *adult* age levels, some offer as many as nine. Add that to the dance levels (typically about a dozen or more) and you usually end up with 1-3 couples competing against each other. The larger fields are usually in the Bronze and Silver levels, Gold fields are miniscule. Open (out of syllabus) fields can get reasonably large for scholarship events, though.
My second point is that when there are so few couples in an event, it is combined on the floor with another event but usually is judged separately. That means that while you might see six or eight couples on the floor, there could be several competitions going on simultaneously. Rather than collapsing, for example Ladies A-1 and Ladies A-2 into a larger "Ladies A" event, they will still run them seperately. If you've been doing amateur events at all the whole Pro/Am thing can get kind of disappointing after a while. Or at least it has for me. The exception to all this is the scholarship events. Male and female students are judged against each other, and the age groups are collapsed (although sometimes in the Open events there is a second event for 35-and-over students). You can go from being the only person in your single dance events to having fourteen couples in your scholarship event. I've been in scholarship events that go four rounds.
I do know what you mean about small fields. I went to two comps in the last year and there was either no one or only one person against me. At first it's fun. I do know that if things are done correctly, you still have to meet the criteria for a 1st place in an event and so even if you are uncontested, it's possible to receive a 2nd. (heard that happened at City Lights Ball)
So, now I think I'm going to one that's larger (gee maybe there will be three of us in a heat?) and we'll see how that goes.
One interesting side note about the size of the heats. In the summer of 2002, I went to Nevada Star Ball and there were anywhere from 6 couples minimum to as many as 8 in some of my heats. Last year, a friend of mine went and she danced in the same category as me. She had something like 4 couples and 6 if she was lucky. Could it be the economics of things that also affect how many are in these heats? May our pro teachers are raising their rates too much? I'm happy with mine. He's reasonable but I know there are some who charge way too much.
Here's one other interesting twist on the pro-am competing altogether. I met a teacher who said something to the effect of, "Sure I can get a student to pay $5000 for a comp, but then I have to wait TWO YEARS before I can teach her again. She's broke. I'm better off having her go to 3-4 comps a year for $800-1200 and in this way I keep her as a student."
Now if only ALL pro-am teachers were like this? We might get more people willing to compete. DancingDiva
I don't know if this has any bearing on your question, but from the teacher's point of view, he could have 3 students, all over 35, all bronze level, (or all silver). With 3 levels of bronze, he keeps his students from competing against each other, which is also an impossibility unless he gets another teacher to dance with one his students or he clones himself. A teacher wants to avoid any student jealosy of who is better, who is his favorite. So even if there are many bronze dancers in pro/am, there are still less dance teachers, so that also keeps the number of competitors down in each heat.
Scholarships are also important to the teacher, because he gets more lessons to teach after the comp. The student never really gets the money because it is for dance lessons.
Then there are those teachers with one student, who dance that student in every eligible catagory doing the same open and same closed, over and over and over and over and over and over and over, (that is just the first day's morning session).
For a non-championship comp, how many times do you need to dance the same dance in front of the judges? There is staying in the eyes of the judges and then there is "are the judges even bothering to look at you anymore?"
Thought I'd take a short break from some work that's keeping me burning the midnight oil and beyond, so to speak. A brief comment on the pro-am system, which gets bashed a lot here. There is a lot of true competitiveness in that system, both among the students, and among the teachers. The second part should be kept in mind, in the midst of all this talk about how money drives pro-am teachers. Well, of course it does. I mean, it's their job and that's how they make a living. On the other hand, the majority of them (the ones I'm familiar with, at least) are or used to be competitors themselves. That competitive spirit never goes away. A lot of their decisions of how to place their students has to do with juggling schedules and categories, but a lot also has to do with trying to "beat the other guy" in total placements, or in the high placements of some coveted events (e.g. scholarships and championships). The successful pro-am teachers are the ones who keep the right balance in all these considerations, and everyone ends up satisfied. It's not a perfect system, but it's the best we have :-)
1.In syllabus events, only the am competitor is judged, not the couple, supposedly.
Sorry, I'm a bit late to this thread (I've been on vacation and then to competition).
But I want to add that as stated above the am is the only one judged in single heats, however in a scholarship or championship the pro and the am are judged as a couple, so a partnership between the two is very important.
Really? I thought in a pro-am scholarship, only the am was judged. Or are you referring to am championships? If the pro is judged, I find it interesting.
