Monthly e-Newsletter | August 2021
NASSPDA's 2021 North American Same-Sex Championship is around the corner and we couldn’t be more excited to invite you to compete with us this year on October 9th! This year's North American Championship will be hosted at the New England Open competition in Dedham, Massachusetts. Registration is OPEN at https://register.o2cm.com/events-NewEnglandOpen

New England Open is offering:
Single Dances Events
Teacher- Student Scholarships
Amateur Couples Championships
Showdances category
Formation Teams category
NEW - NEW - NEW: Solo Dancer Events (no partner needed)
and of course - NASSPDA's 2021 North American Championships!

Compete in a safe and friendly environment this October 9th at the New England Open. If you have a passion for dance, you belong dancing with us!
Proof of vaccination is required or negative PCR test [from not later than 72 hours prior] to enter the ballroom, with recommended masks wearing.
NASSPDA members can use a membership discount when registering to compete.
Hotel reservation and group rates for competitors and spectators are available at the near by host hotel Homewood Suites by Hilton, Dedham-Needham! Hotel Reservation Link -> bit.ly/3iBbd9X

See you October 9th, 2021 for the New England Open!

Scholarships for 2021 Events
Six Scholarships are available to anyone that is planning to attend a NASSPDA sanctioned competition taking place in 2021, in support of covering expenses related to participating. 
Each one is in the amount of $400 plus a one-year NASSPDA Individual Membership.
Ambassador Program
  As many North American DanceSport organizations have changed their definition of a dance couple, we are witnessing interest and participation of newly formed same-sex, reverse role, and gender-neutral couples at their events. Many of those couples haven't been introduced or exposed to NASSPDA as an organization; hence, they also do not know the benefits of being a member of NASSPDA.
Membership Directory
Have you checked out the NASSPDA Membership Directory? 
This is a resource to allow NASSPDA members to connect with others in the community. Please contact Horace Luong (hluong@nasspda.org) if you'd like to be added to the directory (being added is a privilege available to NASSPDA members only).
Blackpool: Richard Folie & Thomas Marter
Dancer Partner Connections
We understand how hard it can be to find a dance partner. Therefore we'd like to help by offering this connection service where individuals in our community interested in searching for a partner can proactively post an ad and/or passively review ads. 
If you'd like to post an ad, please complete this form. It does not cost anything AND you can share as much or little information as you want. This page is maintained by Horace (hluong@nasspda.org) so please contact him if you want your ad removed or edited.
Here is the Dance Partner Connections webpage: nasspda.org/dance-partner-connections
Donation
A Big Thank You!
The Board of Directors would like to sincerely thank all the individuals and businesses who have donated to NASSPDA in our recent fundraising drive. Through the generosity of our community, we’ve exceeded the match offered by NASSPDA Vice-President Debbie Esparza and have raised a total of over $4,200 ! 
The funds will be used to support programming, scholarships, maintaining our presence in the dance community and beyond and to help further our mission to expand.
Competition Calendar
Competition Committee


NASSPDA sanctioned competitions

New England Open, hosting
2021 North American Same-Sex Championship
300 West St., Dedham, Massachusetts
October 9th 2021

 


NON sanctioned same-sex competitions in USA

Dance Fiesta
New Mexico, Albuquerque
September 24-27




ESSDA sanctioned competitions

Eurogames 2021
In person, August 17- 20, 2021
Copenhagen, Denmark


ESSDA sanctioned competitions 2022

Eurogames 2022
July 27-30, 2022
Nijmegen, Netherlands



IFSSDA sanctioned competitions

The XI Gay Games
Hong Kong
November 13 to 17th, 2022 (for the DanceSport section)
pre-registration is open 
Connecting with Our Community
We aim to grow back from the pandemic with a stronger community. Therefore it's more important now than ever where we want to make sure our membership and community can freely communicate with the NASSPDA Board. 
If you have ideas to share, questions for us to address, or a concern to raise, please submit your thoughts to info@nasspda.org. 
We look forward to hearing from you.
Under Construction
Our Website Committee will be refreshing the content on the NASSPDA website over the next couple of months. If our community has any ideas or content to improve our NASSPDA website, please feel free to share them with Horace , Website Committee Chair (hluong@nasspda.org)