Blind dating is mandatory for Polka and Salsa competitions for CloseD/Open class dancers, but it is only voluntary for Breitensport dancers. In blind dating, you can choose to compete with any dance partner, which is not your competition dance partner. Friday and Saturday evenings will be held for dancers with blind dating on mind – so that they can meet, try dancing together, and register for a competition together. You can have the same, or different dance partner for every competition – this is entirely up to you.
Random partners for more experienced classes – CloseD and Open tournaments in Standard and Latin will have a random dance partner selected during the tournament for each dance, just as it was in Kiel 2018. For Standard and Latin, they will not be able to dance with a single partner of their choice.
ETDS Special rule – Every dancer who has reached one of the first three places at least twice in the highest possible Breitensport class during the last three tournaments of an ETDS (champions in Aachen 2017, masters in Kaiserslautern 2017, masters in Kiel 2018) is blocked for the next two tournaments of an ETDS in this corresponding discipline in the Breitensport tournament. These dancers will be allowed to dance in the CloseD tournament. In addition to that, a single participant can compete only in a single Standard, and a single Latin competition = e.g. dancing both Breitensport in Standard and CloseD in Standard is not allowed.
Competition clothes are forbidden for all dancers. This includes tail-suites, suites, dance dresses with any kind of rhinestones. Allowed are casual training clothes. Please see gallery with pictures/videos from previous ETDS events to get the feeling of possible dresses:) That being said, your national/folklore costume, or anything funny, or movie related is welcome:)
No rhinestones (on clothes, shoes, jewelry, or hair). This rule was made to bring more equality independent on someone’s budget. We want to have a fair competition open for experienced and new dancers alike. Feel free to do your hair in a way you like, but without any rhinestones.
Heel protectors are mandatory for ladies. Please bring them along. As we won’t have any special dance floor, we need to be careful not to damage the hall we will dance in.
Volunteering is an integral part of the ETDS spirit. Even when you don’t have experience, don’t worry, there are easy tasks to do:) In average, every participant needs to help with at least 1 hour of volunteering shift. Team captains will make sure that their teams are helping with appropriate average hours. For example, if the team has 10 participants, the team needs to help at least 10 hours.
Dance whatever you want: it doesn’t matter on any competition – Breitensport, CloseD nor Open, whether you choose to dance basic or open repertoire/figure/routines. Enjoy the freedom of what you can dance, and how you want to dance it. But be aware that adjudicators might prefer good basics in contrast to bad open repertoire.