1. Worlds
The world championships held the first week of January every year. It's what everyone is excited about!
2. Overall
An overall placement in a division. It requires 5 dances (out of 8) and must include 2-Step, Waltz and one Swing (East or West) plus 2 of the 4 remaining dances.
3. Dance Boots
Country boots specifically made for dancing. They are quite comfortable to dance in.
4. Warm Ups
Each competition gets a 30min warm up period before you compete
5. Triple Two
A slow moving dance traveling counterclockwise around the floor. It's one of the newer competitive country dances.
6. A Buckle
A 'Worlds' championship buckle is available to the winners of each division at worlds! We all want one 😉
7. PantyhoseÂ
They are required for ladies to compete. Not sure why but those are the rules.
8. Penalty
Breaking a rule in a competition. Could be a costume penalty, could be an illegal move. Not a big deal. We just needed 25 terms for this blog post.
9. Hat
Yep. The boys wear cowboy hats. (Although they are not required in the newcomer divisions)
10. The 2 Song break
A typical social dance break in middle of the competition before Waltz so the ladies can change to their waltz costumes. You'll also get '2-song' breaks during the comp to get up and stretch your legs.
11. West Coast Swing
The most popular social dance at country competitions. It even beats out 2-Step LOL
12. Heat Sheet
How you will track the competition. They are placed on the wall in the 'on deck' area before you walk on the floor.
13. Floor Mom
In ballroom they are called deck captains. In country the nice lady who organizes the competitors before they walk on the floor is called a floor mom. Aren't we sweet?
14. Number
The competition number you wear on your back. In country all the Am competitors wear numbers in ProAm. Event the ladies.
15. Gold Graduate
The highest grade you can get as a ProAm competitor. It's marked on your score sheet as a GG. It means you're pretty awesome and ready for the next level.
16. Linedance
A solo division where you learn a set of repetitive choreography. This is not your momma's line dance. You'll hear quite a bit of NON country music. The costumes reflect a less 'country' feel as well. It's pretty awesome!
17. Masters
The top professional division of country. You can't even just dance in this division. You have to qualify with a set of wins in Division 1.Â
18. Superstars
The top division of linedance. These dancers will knock your socks off. You don't even know!
19. Crowne
The top division of the age group amateur division of 40+ year old dancers.
20. Crystal
This is what we call the 30+ age division (people get testy about turning 30 😉
21. Diamond
This is what we call the 40+ age division
22. Silver
Yep you guessed it. The kids have moved out of the house... This is the 50+ age division.
23. Gold
60+ age division!
24. Dispensation
If you were to get injured and not be able to dance a qualifying competition for the world championship... You 'could' get a dispensation where they allow the event to qualify you for worlds.
25. Event Directors
The person running the event. They are typically former dancers, some competitive, some not, but they all LOVE country dancing. You will get to know them well. They are a great group of people and will take great care of you!
Comments 2
This is awesome! We had several spectators from Birmingham at NDC and they asked a lot of questions and this would have answered a lot of them 🙂
Author
Thats EXACTLY what we intend to do.
There are so many things to enjoy about country dance events…
so want to help get to the fun stuff.
Plus it’s kinda fun to learn 🙂
Thanks for the support!
B