User:Sambahips

Dancesport Organizations in the USA
Some projects that I would like to work on are related to dance. I have been very interested in the prospects of having dance be incorporated into the olympics as a medal sport, specifically ballroom dance, otherwise known as Dancesport. I am quite surprised as to how little coverage and attention this area of the world has become, especially in the United States where Dancesport is not as popular as it is in Europe. With TV shows like Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance, dancesport is becoming more popular as a performance and social dance form, but not competitive.

To increase awareness of dancesport and its movement to be incorporated into the olympics, my approach will be multi-fold:
 * Create an article for National Dance Council of America
 * "The NDCA is the Governing Council of NDCA Sanctioned Events, recognized by the World Dance & Dance Sport Council as it's sole representative in the United States of America. Its purpose is to provide, on a nation-wide basis, a united inter-association agency to represent the interests of those in the dance profession and other dance-related entities and organizations and to act as the agency for cooperation with similar councils in other countries."
 * Create an article for USA Dance (formerly the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association)
 * "USA Danceis the United States National Governing Body for DanceSport, the competitive version of ballroom dancing. We are a nationwide nonprofit organization of volunteers who love ballroom dancing. We greatly appreciate the excitement and romance, as well as the social and health benefits that ballroom dancing brings into our lives.This Web Site is dedicated to lovers of ballroom dancing. Its purpose is to inform and motivate all dancers. An additional purpose is to educate the public regarding this enjoyable but challenging recreational activity and sport that was recently granted recognition and membership in the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee."

There are a number of notable smaller organizations who are not organizing bodies, but are organizations that specialize in dance training and competitive preparation. Of note are the following:
 * American Ballroom Theatre is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build social awareness and confidence in children. ABrT is not about creating competitive dancers, but the program is valuable in that it fosters a dance community.  See the next:
 * Mad Hot Dancesport (not the movie) but the west-coast organization that was inspired by the movie to start a ballroom program in California. Not a competitive organization per se, but its the kind of organization that has created the infrastructure to facilitate a competitive dance community.  Because this program is targeted towards incorporating ballroom dance into the public education system, it helps to instill dancesport at a very young age.  The top ballroom dancers in the world have been trained since they were just a few years old.  Russia, one of the fiercest countries, has an extremely strong ballroom program incorporated into their education system.
 * Latin and Ballroom Dance Association. This organization has the potential to become a very strong organization, as it has the counsel of the world's top dancers and judges.  From what I've learned, this organization is very young but has gained an unpredecented amount of support from the community.  Only after 2-3 years in existence, the organization has beat out many top competitors in the US in formation team events.
 * Kaiser Dancesport. This organization is spear-headed by a dance-giant, attracting many high-qualified dancers including Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova (undefeatd US Latin Champions), Karina Smirnoff (on Dancin with the Stars).  Many world-class competitors have "graduated" from this facility, yet so little is known or written about them.  I would be very interested in collaborating with someone who knows more about this dance company.

The challenge in writing these articles is finding at least two independent third-party sites that can referenced. I'm currently experiencing difficulty finding these references because dancesport is not on the radar of many publication sites. Even national organizations like USA Dance, having existed for decades and is known as being the national governing body, is hard to find references for.

Dancesport in the Olympics
I'm currently collecting information about the movement to incorporate Dancesport in the World Olympics as a medal sport. Here are some important documents so far:
 * September 8, 1997 International Dancesport Federation receives full recognition by the International Olympic Committee.
 * Official IOC Certificate
 * IDSF page on olympic movement

Dancesport will not be incorporated into the olympics until after 2012, where the IOC will once again meet with IDSF to review the application again. Until then, the international bodies must wait for this meeting to take place. But on a more national and local level, organizations need to start training dancers now, which is why LBDA and Kaiser have my picks as becoming notable training organizations. The earliest dancesport can be seen in the olympics is 2016, 8 years away from now. But this is assuming the IOC talks go well. The imperative is that training needs to begin now and I'm casting my stocks onto Kaiser and LBDA. Anyone interested in pursuing this movement with me should send me a message.

Political Interests
I had a conversation with a professor years ago about how the US Presidency has a perfect streak for electing male caucasian into office. We laughed at the prospect of having a female president or non-caucasian president in our lifetime. At the time, the idea seemed out of this world. But now, history is going to change. A future article will be about
 * Female president in the history of the US
 * Africa-American president in the history of the US

External References

 * DanceSport in the Olympics: The state of affairs before 2000