National Solo Dance Championships

[Debbie S]

http://www.usfigureskating.org/Story.asp?id=43067

Interesting idea. Odd that the USFSA is starting this in the middle of a budget crunch but I think it could eventually be very profitable. A lot of kids lose interest in competing when they stop progressing in FS and start testing dances to have something to work on, and for various reasons, finding a partner is not realistic. This could keep a lot of kids involved in the sport.

Note they have opened it up to all ages. I wonder how this might impact solo dance at AN in the future, if this event catches on.

[jazzpants]

I'm soooooo taking ice dance too when I get $ in!!! :twisted:

[phoenix]

I love it!!! This is something that has been needed for a long time.

I think the solo CD/OD event that Lake Placid started a few years ago was the pre-curser & I'm very glad!!

ETA--looked at the announcement--not crazy about the setup--you have to have 6-8 dances ready to compete, as it's a draw from 2 levels once you get there....that's pretty tough!!!

But at least it's a start. I hope at some point they do it the same way as Lake Placid (give them another place to compete that program), or else add solo free dance.

[RachelSk8er]

I love it!!! This is something that has been needed for a long time.

I think the solo CD/OD event that Lake Placid started a few years ago was the pre-curser & I'm very glad!!

ETA--looked at the announcement--not crazy about the setup--you have to have 6-8 dances ready to compete, as it's a draw from 2 levels once you get there....that's pretty tough!!!

But at least it's a start. I hope at some point they do it the same way as Lake Placid (give them another place to compete that program), or else add solo free dance.


I think the setup is kind of cool. You really have no idea what to expect until you get there and the dances are drawn (if you're like me and like costumes, think of all the dresses you'd have to pack!) I think it keeps people on their toes because that's a lot of dances to be prepared for. Maybe they could narrow that down a little (list 2 dances from each level and 1 from each will be pulled, so that's 4 dances to be ready for rather than 6 or 8). I'd like to see a solo original dance added, that would be cool.

Interesting that the test restrictions are a little more broad than what we had for ANs.

I don't see it having a negative impact on solo dance at ANs at all. That's a LONG way to go just to compete 2 solo dances (well, unless you live in Colorado). Most of us who did solo dance at ANs also did at least 1 other event (freestyle, dance w/a partner, interp). I guess for people who have partners and can do the Pike's Peak competition it's in conjunction with could do both.

I'd do it if it were driveable in 4 hrs or less, hopefully in future years it will move around.

[jenlyon60]

It's weird, because the announcement for Pikes Peak Classic solo dance (of which these are supposed to be a part, at least for now) describes it as follows

Solo Dance Championships

Events: skaters may enter any or all of the dances in the following events:

Bronze: (all Prelim-Bronze dances are listed)
Silver: (all Pre-Silver-Silver dances listed)
Gold: (all Pre-GOld -Gold dances listed)

<some other stuff about levels, same as the new announcement linked on USFS site>

Point Calculation: Each skater will accumulate points for the each dance entered. The total score for each competitor will be calculated based on the following table of values ... followed by a table

see link here

http://www.broadmoorsc.com/Doc/Updated2009PPCcompleteannouncement.pdf

Am wondering if this is really same event, and someone tried to edit things to be more terse.