From: death@alexandria.lcs.mit.edu (Mark A. Sheldon)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.dance
Subject: Restricted syllabus
Keywords: ballroom, mailing list
Date: 8 Nov 92 17:16:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: cbnews.1992Nov8.172547.5888
Reply-To: death@alexandria.lcs.mit.edu (Mark A. Sheldon)
Organization: None
Gatewayed-From: ballroom@athena.mit.edu


  From: Reid "Turtle" Alyn Brennen <rbrennen@iron.berkeley.edu>
  Subject: Re:  Restricted syllabus

  I don't know much about this subject but to get
  the ball rolling I can comment that, in the
  local competitions here in the San Francisco Bay
  Area, when there is a "closed syllabus" event
  we have "penalty" judges.  Since I have never
  seen anyone completely disqualified from one
  of these events, I assume that their placings
  are penalized when there is a syllabus infraction.

  Anyone else have any comments on this?  I would like
  to hear more.

There is a big difference between East and West Coasts in the US on this
issue.  First, the Novice divisions in the East are all closed syllabus,
and nearly all are divided into separate Bronze, Silver, and Gold
competitions, corresponding to restrictions to the figures in the
appropriate ISTD syllabus.  There are ``invigilators'' whose job it is
to enforce the restrictions.  All the judges are also responsible for
invigilating, but very often there are also other people are just
invigilators.  Competition entry materials clearly state that
competitors must obey the ISTD syllabus for chosing figures, alignments,
and legal precedes and follows.  Thus a Gold Foxtrot dancer may dance a
reverse wave (a bronze figure) and a back feather (a gold figure), but
these two may not be danced in combination because of the
precedes/follows restrictions.  (This was true when I competed in Gold;
the syllabus may have changed in this case, but the example still
conveys the sort of restrictions there are.)

Violators may be disqualified, but usually, at least in multi-round
events, the dancers receive a warning.  In a final, you will simply be
marked last (especially if you have been warned in earlier rounds).  My
intuition is that most invigilators are reasonable --- I never received
so much a warning, and I'm sure I must have done some incorrect
alignments, at least to avoid other couples.  I was, however, very
careful to follow the guidelines.  I think some of the restrictions are
silly (like the reverse wave, back feather rule), and some of the
classifications of figures may be bogus, but I feel the restrictions are
very helpful.  When I started competeting, I stoped learning Open
figures and concentrated on the technique of the syllabus.  When we
finally graduated to pre-champ, I found learning advanced figures much
easier.  I continue to work much of the time in my lessons on basic
figures (natural turn, feather step, reverse turn, walks and link,
etc.), and all the other stuff gets better as my balance, awareness of
partner, body/weight position, hold, use of feet and ankles (and on and
on) gets better.  I work on the open material, to deal with its greater
complexity and speed, but probably about half the time.  I also try to
keep our open material relatively simple.  We regularly beat people who
do far more difficult chorreography --- they are only showing how they
can knock each other over at great speed, while we knock each other over
more slowly :-)

-Mark
Newsgroups: rec.arts.dance