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Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Ratings for Dancers
Laughter this morning , lots of it, discovering that in the computer-rating system of Dancesportinfo.com. Stefan & Zeudi, after Blackpool, are now higher rated in their secondary interest Ballroom, than in their speciality Latin. The trouble with the computer-ratings is that they have no way of taking account of the 'political' judging -- to give it its polite name -- in all dance competitions. The computer just has no idea of what was going on behind the scenes in Croatia or Slovenia or anywhere else, that had a bearing on results there, let alone the possibly wayward results at Blackpool.
I quote from a forum comment on Dancesportinfo website: " @Bozenka This does not explain the strange results at Blackpool. Not just the Amateur latin was strange, a lot of good couples were out very early in other events too. It´s of course a big lottery when you have 20 or even more couples on the floor, but this does not explain everything. The russian champion out after the 48, that is just ridiculous."
Ridiculous if you expect Dancesport to produce results that are based on objective judgments. The absurdity of that expectation is currently being exposed in NZ's Dancing with the Stars, where the least able dancing 'star' [according to the judges] has survived to the semifinals on the basis of organising a large body of public votes [which count 50-50 with the judges].
Yet among dancers and judges there would be a moderately sound consensus about the relative standard of dancing of the top fifty in the world to the next fifty or so, give or take a dozen either way.
In exactly the same way an All Black coach or coaching panel can pick a test squad of 25 players, leaving another twenty-five in a reserve of obvious talent. There will always rightly be questions raised about the borderlines between the two. Quality shows, but it is not something that can have a meaningful precise number attached to it.
There is, I have noticed, a view among musicians that competitions are ruinous to music-making.
I quote from a forum comment on Dancesportinfo website: " @Bozenka This does not explain the strange results at Blackpool. Not just the Amateur latin was strange, a lot of good couples were out very early in other events too. It´s of course a big lottery when you have 20 or even more couples on the floor, but this does not explain everything. The russian champion out after the 48, that is just ridiculous."
Ridiculous if you expect Dancesport to produce results that are based on objective judgments. The absurdity of that expectation is currently being exposed in NZ's Dancing with the Stars, where the least able dancing 'star' [according to the judges] has survived to the semifinals on the basis of organising a large body of public votes [which count 50-50 with the judges].
Yet among dancers and judges there would be a moderately sound consensus about the relative standard of dancing of the top fifty in the world to the next fifty or so, give or take a dozen either way.
In exactly the same way an All Black coach or coaching panel can pick a test squad of 25 players, leaving another twenty-five in a reserve of obvious talent. There will always rightly be questions raised about the borderlines between the two. Quality shows, but it is not something that can have a meaningful precise number attached to it.
There is, I have noticed, a view among musicians that competitions are ruinous to music-making.
Posted by: Tony Green / 12:27 AM 
