Ballroom Dancing for Enjoyment and Competition
Local chapters of the national non-profit organization, USA Dance, are formed to promote the enjoyment of social and competitive ballroom dance. They usually sponsor a variety of social dance opportunities, public demonstrations, ballroom dance competition, publish newsletters and much more!
While historically ballroom dance may refer to any form of formal social dancing as recreation, with the emergence of dancesport in modern times the term has become much narrower in scope, usually referring specifically to the International Standard and International Latin style dances. In the United States, two additional variations—"American Smooth" and "American Rhythm"—have also been popularized and are commonly recognized as styles of "ballroom dance".
In competition ballroom dancers are judged by diverse criteria such as connection, frame, posture, speed, timing, proper body alignment, proper usage of weight/ankles/feet, and grooming. [5] Judging in a performance-oriented sport is inevitably subjective in nature, and controversy and complaints by competitors over judging placements are not uncommon. The scorekeepers—called scrutineers—will tally the total number recalls accumulated by each couple through each round until the finals, when the Skating system is used to place each couple by ordinals, typically 1-6, though the number of couples in the final can vary.
See the most current USA Dance DanceSport Rulebook.