Spring Council Meeting Overview

Once again the UCWDC Spring meeting has concluded and we are excited to share with you these updates.

We are happy to report that Associate Membership renewals are strong, volunteers are engaged, competition participation is up at almost all our Member Events world-wide including a record year for the Country Dance World Championships and the Executive Board and various Committees are focused on implementation of several exciting initiatives that will enhance member services. We are proud of these accomplishments because they reflect a renewed energy and commitment throughout the organization.

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Give Em’ What They Want! The Judges That Is!

It is a known fact; major companies spend countless dollars and time researching to find out what their

customer(s) want. Applying this important information to their product helps to insure it will be a

market success!

So how does this analogy apply to dance which is an art form? Every dancer is unique! Dancing maybe

something inherent in our makeup or it may be a challenge that we are passionate about developing. No

matter where you fall in the spectrum you must give the judges what they are looking for! Under those

beautiful costumes, cool choreography, the vanilla in line dance and the list goes on, judges must see

the character of each dance as well as outstanding performance of dance fundamentals. It is every

competitor’s duty to seek out and find what fundamentals of movement need to be present in their

dancing in order to attain the highest medal possible! Your professional instructor/coach is certainly

your main go to source, however lesson time goes quickly so here is where you can do that “market

research” and go that extra mile “give em” what they want!

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Fundamentals A and B are offered at Peach State Dance Festival in Atlanta, GA. Friday March 18, 12-4 pm. $25 for each 2 hour class. http://www.peachstatedance.com/eventschedule19.pdf

 

What Do Those Medal Grades Mean?



This year the UCWDC ^® will standardize by using medals not just in ProAm, but in all Dance Types: Line Dance, ProAm, Couples and Teams. The medals are Honorable Mention, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Gold with Honors, and Gold Graduate. What do the medals really mean? There are different expectations for each level, but we will start with general explanations. Honorable Mention means a failure in performance: for that level, the dance was not recognizable or performed. Bronze means a poor performance: the expectations for the level were not reached. Silver means an average performance: the expectations for the level were reached, but not exceeded. Gold means a good performance: the expectations for the level were solidly accomplished and some expectations were exceeded. Gold with Honors means an Excellent performance: expectations for the level were not just reached but were far exceeded. Gold Graduate means that not only were expectations exceeded, but the competitor(s) performed at the next level in that dance.

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Making History

There are so many talented dancers that have been a part of the UCWDC over the years in both

couples and line dancing genres. However, there is a part of our recent history that not many

people know. There is a small, select group of exceptional dancers that belong in our history

books.

We all know that Masters is the top professional division for couples and Superstars is the top

professional division for line dance. There are a few people that have made it to both, and

considering these genres require vastly different skill sets and training, it’s an accomplishment

that cannot go unrewarded.

Here is a list of those dancers, and some that have truly made history……

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The Benefits of Membership

As a reminder, all contestants and Pros have to be a current member before they compete in any UCWDC Division at any UCWDC event. Also, each Team must have a distinct and separate membership for each Team “Name”. Finally, all UCWDC staff (Contest Coordinator, Judge, Scrutineer, and Scoring Director) who work at an event must be current members. In 2018, we were almost 2000 active members from twenty five countries and we were happy to welcome more than 500 of you, who joined us for the first time.

Now, you might question why you need to pay to be an Associate Member; the answer is simple. The UCWDC strives to create a fair, international dance competition circuit, and to do so we have create a set of rules and process to allows us and yourself, to track your performance at regional events, your eligibility for the UCWDC Country Dance World Championships®, and also to track your graduation to the next level. Your benefits as a member don't stop there - as a member you will be added to our email list so that you will stay up-to-date on what happens at our directors’ meetings, rule changes, news, blogs and more! The entire council team is constantly working to create and roll out more added value services and enhance our dance circuit. Talking about new offers and services, in 2018 we secured a deal with Country Music Corner providing to all our active members a 30% discount off the annual subscription.

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