World DanceSport Magazine

Best Wishes for 2009!

At the time of my writing, the highlights in DanceSport’s annual calendar are upon us. In fact, the Standard World Championships for Adult have just concluded in Vienna, Austria. They confirmed once more that our athletes are making steady progress – year after year – and that success comes to those who truly apply themselves. The level of dancing in the semi-final and final at the Vienna Stadthalle was astounding! One of our missions as the administrators of DanceSport is to ensure that the performances are being evaluated properly at all levels of competition. As athletes improve by leaps and bounds, the IDSF Adjudicators are challenged to keep in step. The IDSF DanceSport Academy was first presented to the delegates at our Annual General Meeting in Moscow. It aims to serve as the knowledge repository and a place of higher learning for the international community of adjudicators as well as trainers. In this issue of World DanceSport Magazine, IDSF Presidium Member Petr Odstrcil expands on the innovative concept and provides the first blueprints. The latter are to guide this federation towards implementation of the Academy from 2009 onward. The Moscow General Meeting approved of the Presidium continuing its dialogue with several organisations with a view towards uniting all forms of dance practised as sport under a single umbrella. It is my honour to inform the readers of a milestone development in this quest. On 14 October 2008 the President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Sir Philip Craven, and I formalised a cooperation agreement between IPC and IDSF. Under the terms of this agreement, both organisations pledge to jointly develop Wheelchair DanceSport and to work towards establishing a single world governing body for the whole of DanceSport. The IDSF Secretary General travelled to Minsk, Belarus, for the IPC Wheelchair DanceSport World Championships in late October. There he had the opportunity to exchange with the members of the IPC Wheelchair DanceSport Committee on topics such as the collaboration in the authoring of rules and in the officiating at competitions. The synergies which develop from the association with IPC will benefit all athletes: they allow for Wheelchair DanceSport to be incorporated better into the competition structure for the able-bodied. VISION 2012 – the name which has become programme for IDSF to gradually evolve into the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) – was at the core of a two-day brainstorming session held recently in Barcelona, Spain. Together with our consultants and experts, we discussed the further proceedings in making DanceSport more relevant for today’s society.

2 Best Wishes for 2009!

international DanceSport federation

The production and worldwide distribution of television coverage on IDSF events was one of the issues we dealt with. In this context, I can report that the Organiser Contracts and the Host Broadcasting Agreements for future key events are now in place. IEC in Sports, our television partner, will thus be able to produce quality highlights and sell the “Best of DanceSport 2009” series internationally. Our long hours of deliberating the democratic and federalist structure of WDSF only confirmed that through circumspective planning and well-considered action will the future world governing body emerge. It might require time – even beyond our target of 2012 – but the rewards are bound to outweigh everything we invest in terms of effort – and of patience. At this stage already, we receive encouragement and praise for endeavouring a true shift of paradigms. “IDSF has taken on new challenges: the agreement with IPC to develop Wheelchair DanceSport, the adaptation to the requirements of television, new competitions … I congratulate you on a job well done!” The words of our Ambassador at Large, HE Juan Antonio Samaranch, appear in his foreword to the programme for the World Youth Standard Championships. Remember, the Honorary President of the International Olympic Committee was one of the catalysts for IDSF setting out on a course of action which will eventually culminate in the emergence of WDSF. As our eyes are on Berlin (GER) and Melbourne (AUS) – with the Adult Ten Dance and Latin World Championships held in cities of great sporting tradition – we wrap up a year that featured DanceSport performed at its very best in magnificent arenas and before capacity crowds. Two of our organisers tell the readers of WDSM how they go about staging such successful events. In this issue too, we hand over to the people who are the focus of all our efforts: the athletes. I am particularly glad that our youngest talents get their opportunity to speak up! I wish all our readers a happy 2009 and hope that it will bring even more positive developments to DanceSport and to our Federation. Carlos Freitag IDSF President