Quo Vadis WDC & WDC Amateur League?

I think this is good news for dancesport and finally WDC and WDC Amateur league has accepted the fact that if you run a sporting event, you have to ensure that there must be a level playing field. Now with this commitment it only shows that what IDSF did many years ago is the right way and I suppose those detractors who scoff at IDSF must now realised that they have made a mistake after all. When you become a member of WADA it is not just being a member for name sake, you must also show that you are committed to enforce and follow the WADA guidelines. 
Many of you would realise that WADA maintain the highest standard in making sure that such rules are being applied. If you are a member of the International Olympic Committee (OIC), it goes without saying that the WADA members must be invited to conduct random testing for not only the winners but any of the athletes that participated in the Olympic Family Games. It can be a pain but it lends integrity to the sports. 
Now I suppose WDC members are popping champagne bottles celebrating its membership to WADA thinking that the gate to the Olympic family Games are now open to its members. In the event that is the impression, then I think they have got it all wrong. Membership of WADA are divided into many categories. In the case of IDSF their membership to WADA is under the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federation (ARISF). For IDSF it is not a choice, it is a mandatory requirement. 
There are also other bodies that are non Olympic Sports WADA members and finally the last category are the OTHERS. By others I am referring to the International Cheer Union, International Federation of Cheerleaders and of course WDC. To be or not to be in WADA is not even an issue, but if there is a feel good factor why not.
Just Google WADA and go to its web page, it is all there. So to those who have not popped their champagne you should do and and do not be discouraged for Confucius says "A Journey of a Thousand Li begins with the First Step". To WDC, I am glad that you finally are looking at Dancesport as a Sport. Perhaps the other areas that you care to look into is the accreditation of your adjudicators                   

Tokyo Grand Slam 2011- Cancelled Earthquake & Tsunami

The Malaysia Dancesport Federation (MYDF) would sincerely like to extend their heart felt condolences to the people of Japan. We were informed by our counterpart in Japan that never in the last 100 years Japan has faced such a strong earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter Scale.

The Earthquake coupled with the following Tsunami was indeed a terrible double tragedy.  

The Tokyo Grand Slam that was to be held today 13th March 2011 (Sunday) at the Tokyo Metropolitant Gymnasium is now cancelled. Below is a report extracted from the WDF website on the status of the situation of the Grand Slam participants in Tokyo.     

 

Japan Earthquake 11/03/2011

IDSF Communications was finally able to get a hold of the organisers of the Tokyo Grand Slam that is scheduled for Sunday, 13 March. Chieko Abe - on behalf of the Japan DanceSport Federation (JDSF) - communicated with Heidi Goetz by e-mail.

Please be advised that the Grand Slam leg here in Tokyo has been cancelled due to earthquake. The Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium considers it unsafe to run the competition on Sunday and decided to cancel it.  We, JDSF, have to accept the decision. Sorry for what has happened, and kindly understand the situation.
Chieko Abe

After countless tries, we have also been able to speak by phone with Lukas Hinder, the IDSF First Vice-President, who was at the Tokyo Hyatt Regency during the quake. Lukas reports all athletes and officials to be safe and sound, but still digesting the magnitude of what has happened over the past ten hours.
Vice-President Hinder confirms that the entire Grand Slam (GS) contingent at the Tokyo Hyatt was temporarily evacuated from the rooms and brought to open space. Hinder is also aware of a number of GS participants who are currently at different airports around Japan. Most of them wil fly back to their countries from there.
The IDSF Adjudicators' Congress, which is scheduled for tomorrow, will be held at a location still to be determined, after the Metropolitan Gymnasium needs to be surveyed for safety before it can be reopened.

"They say it was the strongest earthquake in 100 years. I saw the high-rises sway from the street and cracks in some of the walls as I was allowed back into the hotel. However, as we speak, construction workers are fixing them already."
Lukas Hinder

Our thoughts are with the people in Japan and the other parts of the world, where the tsunami could still cause more devastation.

MYDF National Champion in China

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On the 26th of February 2011, Chua Zjen Fong and Evon Chong our reigning MYDF National Championship left for Guangzhou to study and train in the Angel Dance School in a town outside Guangzhou City. They will be there for one year and we hope after their stint in Guangzhou, they  will return and impart their dancing skills in Malaysia. It is dedicated people like Chua Zjen Fong and Evon Chong that will change the Dance image in Malaysia, They will introduce new ideas and new method of teaching and generally keeping us updated. This is Chua Zjen Fong's narration. If there are any alteration it will be very minimal. Incidentally he did ask me what is the status of the Challenge Trophy, I told him nothing so far. This is so sad!

Life in a Dance School in China - date line : 3rd March 2011

we train from monday to friday, saturday half day.
every morning we wake up at around 6.45am and start stamina training by jogging a few km from 7am onwards and then continue with stretching. then we go for breakfast. classes start from 8,30am until 12.30pm then we have our lunch. its the best time ever through out the whole day because we got a 1 and a half hour lunch break. classes resume at 2 pm then continue dancing till dinner at 6pm. then group training at night starts from 7.30pm till 9.30pm.
we do latin and ballroom here. every thing has to start from basic. from posture into technique. it is really good. we have ballet and jazz classes too. basically everybody here can do 10 dances. they can really do it very well. they then choose to specialize in one field when they turn older.
we have supper after that. rules are very strict here.
the boys and the girls all stay in different hostels.
electricity is very limited. if we want to use electricity for charging hp and laptop, there are specific hours to do so.
hot water is based on prepaid basis and we have to purchase a hot water card,every time we want to use the hot water for shower we have to bring the card and insert into the machine just like using a pubic telephone.
lights will go off at 11pm. everybody have to sleep by then. its really healthy, but young malaysians typically has already got used to staying late at night on facebook and other stuff really need some time to get use to this environment. i think this is great because now we finally had the chance of sleeping early and wake up early practice.
weather is really cold here. about 10 degrees. morning and night is typically cold.
we have a school competition this coming sunday. where everyone studying in this school has to take part. it seems its like a monthly or semester activity. to get use to competitions and gain experience. even those without partners also have to dance solo. i think it is great. this competition is only open to the school's students only. really excited about it. everyone here is soooooo good. we really need a lot of work to catch up with them.
we also had a group lecture with klaus kongsdal a champion from Denmark, he visits this school for lessons very often. he is very good.
michael stylianous, and jugan is also coming to this school for lessons this month. michael stylianos, next week. i heard they are really great. every month there is at least one or two foreign coaches coming to teach.
this is all uncle john. basically weekends there's nothing much we can do, our school is very far from town. we have to take bus down town to do some major shopping. grocery shopping can be done opposite the school where there is a small convenience store.
going out is not as simple as going out just like that, we have to get 3 different teacher's approval to go out. but normally shouldn't be a problem.
everyday lunch and dinner definitely will be rice. breakfast and supper would be porridge or noodle.
healthy but really sick of the food now. but no choice. just makan only. when we get tired and hungry, every thing taste good.
that's all, we have to hit the bed and wait for head counts already.
chua

Pictures Shows Chua and Evon with their respective room mates

Dato' Wee Jeck Seng DanceSport Challenge Trophy

As the National Sports Association for Dancesport MYDF are bound by the rules of the Asian Dancesport Federation (ADSF) and its international body International Dancesport Federation (IDSF). Now if you have been following the IDSF web site lately, you would have noticed that IDSF is now part of a bigger body call the World DanceSport Federation. Their web site now is http://www.worlddancesport.org/. This evolution as IDSF sees it is inevitable, because DanceSport does not only revolves around the Latin American or the Standard Dances that IDSF has been promoting. IDSF have many application for many other bodies promoting their dance form to join IDSF such as Rock n Roll, Break, New Vogue , Swing, Salsa and many more. IDSF accept the fact that Dance style are not static and being dynamic IDSF decided that perhaps a greater body be formed to accept and incorporate other dance forms in a more systematic and orderly manner. Go to the site, it is interesting. IDSF will remain unchanged and will be part of this greater body of World Dancesport Federation (WDF).
Now coming back to the Dato Wee Jeck Seng, the then Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Challenge Trophy. MYDF forerunner MPDC had approached the then Deputy Minister to contribute and lend his name to the Malaysian ranking Challenge Trophy. The kind Minister donated two Challenge trophy to MPDC and financially supported the ranking partially from the Ministry and also from his own pocket. MYDF are grateful to Dato Wee Jeck Seng for his kind contribution.
The Challenge Trophy as the name suggest are meant for Malaysian Grade A athletes who participated in the National Ranking to acknowledge that they are the Champion for that competition. Like in previous year the overall winner gets to keep the trophy after they win the most out of five (5) National Ranking.
The previous overall winner that kept the Challenge trophy were Michael Yong & Janet Gooi (Latin American), Anthony Chua and Anita Tan (Standard). They won all three (3) National Championship in a row and deservedly kept the challenge trophy. At that time it was called the OCM Challenge Trophy.
Year 2010 was the start of the next season of the National ranking. The first National  Championship was held on the  18th of April 2010. Alfred & Cecilia won the first MPDC National Ranking and they were handed the Challenge trophy for Latin American. Anthony Chua and Anita Tan had no problems whatsoever to return the Standard Challenge Trophy to MYDF before the 2nd National ranking. The understanding has always been that the Challenge trophy are to be returned to the organisers before the 2nd National Ranking.
The 2nd National Ranking was held on the 16th day of January 2011 in Muar,  Johore. I was reliably informed that the President Mr. George Tan has personally tried to contact both of them by phone and e-mail, months before the ranking to return the Challenge Trophy, but to no avail.
The 2nd National Ranking proceeded and Chua Zjen Fong and Evon Chong emerged the National Champion. It is highly regrettable that they were unable to lift the actual Challenge trophy, but to acknowledge that they are the Champion, the organisers have to borrow the Standard Challenge trophy for them to lift for the record.
Even after the event, the President of MYDF tried to contact Alfred Choo and Cecilia Yong to return the Challenge trophy so that it could be passed to the new MYDF National Champions, Chua Zjen Fong & Evon Chong.
Personally I can understand the pride of winning, I can understand that to lift the coveted Dato Wee Jeck Seng Challenge Trophy is an acknowledgment of their hard work and achievement. To lift the Challenge Trophy in the MPDC/MYDF Championship even once speaks volumes on your ability. It is commonly  acknowledge that you are judged by a fair panel of International IDSF adjudicators from local and overseas. Most of all, the Challenge Trophy cannot be obtained by means of manipulation and bribe.
However as the name suggest this is a challenge trophy, the winners are only given the license to keep  and return it to MPDC before the next National ranking. They have failed to do so.
To cling on to the challenge trophy is really pointless, in bad taste and reflect poorly on them. In the event if they have a problem or a question to ask, they can always contact the President George Tan, which they never did.
Whatever this ugly incident serve as a record of what poor sportsmanship is all about. Sigh!


                                         

Dean Craig Kim Jong June

Mr. Dean Craig Kim who is the resident coach of Kuala Lumpur Dancers' Association (KLDA) application to join MYDF has been accepted. In his early days Dean Craig Kim has competed in both the Amateur and Professional circuit. He has competed in Blackpool with very encouraging placing. Reading his resume, Dean Craig Kim has competed almost all the championship in Korea and in Asia.
He has trained many top dancers in Korea and also in Malaysia. Dean 's family is in Kuala Lumpur and he have a 5 years working visa to teach Dancing in KLDA. Dean, as he would like to be called is running several classes in KLDA for all grades.
Dean is also available for private lessons and for further information you may contact KLDA in the evening at :-

Kuala Lumpur Dancers' Association

Level 2, Indoor Sport Complex, Wisma OCM,

Jalan Hang Jebat Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel : 012-2339123/012-3255380

Kuala Lumpur Dancers' Association is a neutral venue and Dean is a coach and teacher first. His priority is to get you to look good on the floor and is not at all interested in Dance politics.
MYDF have absolutely no hesitation and would strongly advise our members and friends, that if you have children who needs a good responsible and honest Latin American Teacher, you may wish to give Dean a call, have a chat with him and he will be able to advise you on how to go about it.
For those who are not familiar, Latin American Dancers that Dean teaches comprises  Samba, Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Jive and Paso Doble'. Many local schools claim to be able to teach all the five dances, but not many of them can choreograph and teach the Paso Doble as well as Dean Craig Kim.
Have a chat with this friendly Coach, he is always willing to share his idea on dance with you.
       

IDSF Ruling

Today I want to discuss the IDSF Dress regulations. Now we all know that the dress regulation was introduced for a purpose. Rather than to go into the aim and logic of it all, I just want you to think about the two pictures of the same dance athletes that I took at the Guangzhou Asian Indoor Games.
The subject is an extremely beautiful lady from Uzbekistan, and she dances very well. If there was a competition for the best dress costume, I would certainly vote for her to be in the finals.
When we talk of the IDSF Dress regulations, the immediate thing that comes into your mind are the Latin American dance athletes. More often than not we train our guns at the female dancers and sometimes the male.
Seldom does this subject is trained at Standard Dancers. In the preliminary rounds, the subject wore the white costume. As you can see the costume is skin colored, and I think all of you knows that by any stretch of your active imagination, she is not naked. Those decorative appliques only enhances the dress.
What I was given to understand was the chief adjudicator told the Uzbekistan Team coach that the dress did not comply with the IDSF Dress Regulation and as such she had to change to the black costume as you can see below.                    
Is IDSF being sticky in the interpretation of the Dress Regulations? I really do not know, and I would certainly like to hear your opinion. Let's not be kind, if the dress rules sucks, say so, and we can bring this up to the IDSF top guns to perhaps review in the interpretation of the Dress regulations. IDSF rules are not carved in stone, they evolves and they are not afraid of criticism to improve themselves. Let's be constructive and let's bring this up to them to think about it.
I am not sure what to think about it, on the one hand I understand the need to regulate rules of sports, on the other hand I do not want interpretation of rules to be so strictly that it borders the rediculous.
  

Is IDSF being unfriendly?

Is IDSF being unfriendly to WDC's offer to smoke the peace pipe with IDSF? Personally I do not think so and before you chaps shoot me down, I was at the Vienna AGM when this issue was debated and presented to all the members of IDSF , comprising 86 countries. All the members voted and by an overwhelming majority, the members voted against the motion to sit down discuss with WDC?
Many spoke on the motion but let me try and give the back ground picture and the sentiment of the members in the IDSF. As you can read below IDSF just won a court case after being drag into court by WDC and although WDC have to bear the costs of proceeding, it was nevertheless a waste of IDSF time. In common language you do not slap your adversary and then after losing a battle, you now want to extend your hand in peace and say, lets sit down and talk how we can improve   dancesport for the common good of all concerned. 
Sure WDC can say that they are not adverse to the Anti Doping code, but the question that begs to be answered is whether they are a signatory to the anti doping code?  They are not!
Look at it objectively, as far as IDSF is concerned they have a solid structure tailored to make the sport of Dance into Dancesport. Just go to the IDSF web site and you can see the Statutes, Regulations to make this into a sport. Now if it is a sport there are rules to be followed , from the dressing of the athletes to the manangement  of the competition.
Now you readers who are dead against IDSF, can you tell me how the concept of " Freedom to Dance " espoused by Donnie Burns come into this. From IDSF stand point, if you want to have that freedom to do what you want, who is stopping you? No one is stopping you and really IDSF wish you WDC chaps all the best and we are not stopping you. Look at it and think, IDSF practices one of the greatest democratic rights for you chaps to do what you want.The problem arises when IDSF imposes rules and regulations and the WDC boys cries foul. Why? Just because you have missed the train, you are telling IDSF that we should delay our train for you. Come on WDC, be a sport, we can be friends and just as IDSF respect your beliefs you chaps also have to respect our IDSF beliefs. 
Okay some of you chaps may ask is there a possibility for the twain to meet for the common good of Dancesport? I personally say yes, but the change must come from within and WDC must do some proactive changes to gear the dancesport they practises to that of a sport. I am not going to embarrass them in this Blog to teach them how to suck eggs. 
My conclusion; IDSF is far from being unfriendly, there is nothing to talk about!                         

WDC Press Release
Date: Tue, Jul 27th, 2010 1:59:01 pm
Author: World Dance Council

IDSF refuses WDC offer to meet.

Press Release July 2010

The World Dance Council wishes the following facts to be clarified accurately in the public domain:

Having received bona fine applications for membership from the International Dance Union (IDU)) and the International Dance Sport Association (IDSA) thee World Dance Council considered at great length the issues on their merits. Contrary to statements made at different times from members of other organizations, the World Dance Council did not accept these other applicants as members, but instead left the applications “on the table” in the interests of peace in the Dance World at large, and with deference too our relation with the International Dancesport Federation (IDSF) at that time. Today the situation remains the same.

Following the court case in Alcobendas, Spain inn January 008, the costs to be paid were awarded by the court and indeed were promptly settled in full by the World Dance Council.

The World Dance Council, for the avoidance of doubt, has never at any time opposed or indeed refused to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code and indeed fully supports the aims, logistics and moral values implemented in the Code at all times.

The World Dance Council furthermore, does also, in common with all Western societies completely, have a policy of zero tolerance on racism.

It seems most important, at this particular juncture in time, too reiterate the WDC’s intent and commitment to support and encourage freedom to compete and teach, to organize and trade, and therefore we intended to meet with the IDSF in accordance with our letter as published recently, for the benefit of dancing worldwide, and the Presidium therefore wishes to act with absolute transparency and wishes to dispel any allegations and rumours, that could have been misused to, or even may in future be used to impede this process .

The World Dance Council announces with the deepest regret the IDSF refusal at least to talk, this decision allegedly fought for at the Annual General Meeting of the IDSF by their current President, Carlos Freitag.

A copy of our invitation to enter dialogue per the decision at our Annual General meeting in June of 2010 and the IDSF subsequent refusal are enclosed with this Press Release.

Hannes Emrich General Secretary & Company Secretary, WDC Ltd.

On behalf of the President and Presidium of the World Dance Council

The Letter from WDC to IDSF dated June 9th, 2010

To:  Carlos Freitag The President International DanceSport Federation

by email

Dear Mr. President,

Dear Carlos,

May I take this opportunity to wish you a successful Annual General meeting this weekend.

At the recent AGM of the World Dance Council, the Members through vote have mandated the Presidium of the World Dance Council to contact you and the IDSF to form a Joint Committee of four individuals from both the IDSF and WDC in order to explore the possibility of achieving peace and cooperation in the Dance World for the benefit of all dancers worldwide.

We therefore would ask you to consider our proposal to meet, without agenda, in the above format at a neutral location in Europe to discuss said possibilities.

We look forward to receiving your earliest and hopefully favourable reply .

Hannes Emmrich General Secretary & Company Secretary, WDC Ltd.

On behalf of the Presidium of the WDC Ltd.