Thanks. You never know, I may indeed go down there sometime!

I just had a discussion about pro/am versus am with a young pro-ammer today. Something that she said that I found particularly interesting, was that she thought dancing am was more fun because of chemistry, as opposed the notable lack there of with a teacher. She also had an interesting attitude about amatuer partnerships. Though from what I have seen her dancing is quite good, she wanted to feel more confident about her dancing before she started trying to dance with another amateur. So it's not that she doesn't want to dance am, it's that she doesn't feel comfortable with it yet, having started out dancing proam

I wonder is this a common attitude amongst proammmers? I find it a curious...

Well, in my experience it is not uncommon at all, but 'conventional wisdom' from the anti-pro-am-faction holds that Pro/Am women think they are a lot better than they really are.

Personally, and take it for what you will because my anecdotes on this subject seem to be unusual because they don't fit the conventional wisdom, I know many people -- myself included -- who feel or have felt the way you describe. I was really apprehensive about competing with another amateur for quite some time because I was afraid I wasn't good enough. I knew my teacher could put up with me and make me do things, but I had no confidence that I could be a pleasant and effective dancer with another amateur. Finally I got a guy from a group class I was in to give it a try with me, and I found that we could do it and that it was great fun. I like the peer-to-peer feeling in amateur dancing. Sometimes I get very anxious about dancing Pro/Am because my teacher knows every little thing I'm doing wrong and that I haven't mastered -- and he's always reminding me of them :-) It's hard to relax into what I'm doing when I'm dancing with my teacher. Dancing with my amateur partner is more enjoyable because that kind of pressure isn't there. There's an "us" to concentrate on, it's a team effort rather than all on me.

I think its a valid point. I would imagine quite a few of us out there are not ready to put other ams through the sheer torture of dancing with us. When you think about it this image of ourselves is reinforced by others who wouldn't touch us with a 20ft barge pole. Your d***ed if you do adn d***ed if you dont.

Tash

I am always think the Pro/Am should be separate in to two judgment divisions; the Male Pro/Am, and the Female Pro/Am, would be fairly judged, I like to hear you guys opinion.

At NDCA sanctioned competitions, male and female students are judged separately in the single-dance events. In most of the scholarships male and female students are judged against each other, however, in the largest competitions (like Ohio Star Ball) there are separate mens' and women's scholarships.

Separate events for male/pro and female/pro? Yes Yes Yes!! I am SO for that! Why have 'unfair' competition? Or even any competition at all? And, especially, why be compared to someone who dances more than the 2 hours a week you do?

We can add these divisions to the other 300 divisions that will help keep proam people from any real competition - such as 'open gold A2' or the ever popular 'open silver B1'.

This will assure the proam dancer of a 2 couple or 3 couple heat - it's waaay too crowded out there with more couples, right? And allow the ultimate goal - the ability to come in in the 'top 3' of your 'category' to be achieved ("Yeah, I placed first and second in all my events").

Maybe they'll name an award after you at one of the big comps. After all, you'll have increased the 'entries' and you'll have moved your teacher ever closer to the real award at a proam comp - top teacher.

Why not?
Promo more ? First Place? titles.
Double the pleasures for dancing. :cheers
Make more couple happy. :love
This is the win win case.
Go for it!