Thursday, December 24, 2009

IDSF Grand Slam 2009 Shanghai Part II


As the premier sporting body governing dancesport I would like you to look at these group of adjudicators and Presidium members. These are the people who has made history in IDSF by introducing and testing the new judging system that will be adopted in future Olympic family Games and the Grand Slam events in the future. 
So what is this new judging system all about? Previously the judging of the competitors are based on the skating system. The results are keyed in the Pro Dance program and it will churn out the winner. Now think about it, what does it tell you about the Dancers performance and do you know the adjudicators' basis in selecting a particular dance couple to be better than the others? 
The new IDSF judging system is similar to the system adopted by the ice skating union. They place certain fixed routine and they mark you based on certain criteria. Certainly what is good for ics skating may not necessarily be good for Dancesport. The IDSF in line with turning dancesport into an olympic class sporting event have decided that they must evolve to suite the needs of time. 
A day before the Grand Slam event were to take place the athletes were called for a briefing on how the new judging system works. To sum it in a nut shell, the finalist are judged based on 5  component criteria and they are as follows: 
PB - Posture, Balance, Coordination; QM - Quality of Movement ; MM - Movement to music PA- Partnering and CP - Choreography and Presentation. Under each criteria stated above there are sub-criteria say in PA - the judges will look at Physical Connection, Communication without physical connection; Appropriateness, Effectiveness and consistency. 
A marking scale of 1 to 10 will be given 1 would be Very Poor till 10 Outstanding. The couple with the highest point wins.
The computer system was develop by the Japanese Dancesport Association and the results are given to the Dancers immediately. It is indeed a very transparent system. 
I had a chat with Simone Sigattori at the welcome dinner, he appeared nonchalant for this is a departure from the norm. Benedetto Feruggia saw the importance of moving forward if we want Dancesport to move in the direction of sports. After the Grand Slam Standard Finals, the finalist took the new judging system very positively and it certainly is here to stay. 
Now with the new judging system , it does not means that the skating system will be done away with. IDSF will still use the skating system for the IDSF competitions. The new adjudicating system will be used in the Olympic Family Games like the coming Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010 and also the Grand Slam.
What about the audience what do they think about it? Dancesport after all is a spectator sport and the aim certainly is to entertain the audience to in a sporting way. The audience love it and from the cheers and the rumble in Luwan Stadium I would not be misrepresenting to say that the audience were enthusiastic when the couples were introduced to do the solo dances. Yes, the new system judges the 6 couple individually in all the 5 dances. Now can you imagine having a show dance in all the 5 dances by the top 6 couples in the world. 
I can see that Carlos Frietag and Heinz Spaeker were looking at the time and guaging the audiences response. I can say this, their concern are totally unfounded and the new system is an absolute success. 
You can get the full result from IDSF web site however just in case you do not know the Grand Slam Final Champions for  Standard is Benedetto Ferrugia and Claudia Kholer from Germany and the Latin American Champion is Alexy Silde and Anna Fistova from Russia. 
I have seen Blackpool a couple of times and now I have seen the IDSF Grand Slam Finals in Shanghai. There is no comparison at all. Blackpool is a Dances Festival in a leisure park setting. It has a long history and a good place to do your shopping there. I do not know why they still have it at the Winter Gardens, it is a very old historical building where the ventilation is much left to be desired and there are hardly adequate standing space let alone sitting. 
The IDSF Grand Slam on the other hand is a sporting event and with the new format of judging, my vote will go to the Grand Slam any day.
The opening season of the Grand Slam for 2010 will be in Tokyo, Japan. You have the time and if you love to see Dancesport at its best, the Grand Slam is where you want to be.                                 

Picture are the Adjudicators, Scrutineers, Mr. Carlos Freitag, Mr. Heinz Spaeker and Mr. Shawn Tay.                  

4 comments:

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Anonymous said...

What is the Grand Slam?

Skydancer4 said...

In the IDSF Calendar, the Grand Slam is the most prestigious Dancesport event. 12 of the top IDSF ranked couples in Standard and and 12 in Latin are invited to dance in a series of competition through out the world. I believe 6 competitions in total with 9 top IDSF adjudicators.
In Shanghai last year it is the Grand Slam Finals, and that is the final to determine the Champions for that year in 2009 in both Standard and Latin American.
The Grand Slam by tradition is the President of IDSF project.
The marking of the Grand Slam has been changed , they no longer use the skating system, they use a system that is similar to ISU or the International Skating Union. Read the Blog below on the marking criteria.