FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
USA DANCE ANOUNCES IDSF REGULATIONS
From: USA Dance
To: NDCA Competition Organizers
IDSF Certified Adjudicators
Sandy Britain, CADA President
Nicole Jolicoeur, CADA Vice-President
July 24, 2007 – Wilmington, DE – USA Dance wishes to remind all DanceSport
participants of the content of the IDSF Press Releases regarding competitors and
adjudicators that participate in IDU (International Dance Union) and IDSA (International
DanceSport Association) events, dated March 18, 2005 and February 22, 2006
respectively.
These releases preclude DanceSport Athletes registered with an IDSF federation from
participating in competitions with competitors or adjudicators of the IDU and the IDSA.
As such, organizers of NDCA competitions should be advised that competitors that are
members of an IDSF member federation, such as CADA (Canada) and USA Dance
may elect not to support your event if determined that entries have been accepted from
competitors registered with the IDU and the IDSA.
In addition, organizers should be advised that any IDSF Certified Adjudicators hired to
judge an event that also has adjudicators from the IDU or IDSA may have their
certification revoked by the IDSF.
Organizers that are willing to declare their event will not violate IDSF policies are
encouraged to notify USA Dance and provide proof that this position appears in the
competition’s registration/entry information. Upon receipt of this notification USA Dance
will be able to advise its athletes, certified adjudicators and those of other IDSF
member federations accordingly. Please submit this information or any questions
concerning this matter to Ken Richards, VP of DanceSport, USA Dance
at {email removed}.
There is some additional discussion about this on Dance Forums.
How the dispute developed
The dispute in this 2007 notice was part of a larger fight over who controlled amateur and professional DanceSport. IDSF, which later became the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF), was building the sport-governance model around national member bodies, Olympic recognition, anti-doping rules, licensed adjudicators, and centralized competition authority. Rival or parallel organizations such as IDU and IDSA challenged that structure by offering or supporting competitions outside the IDSF system.
That is why the language in the release mattered. IDSF had issued a March 18, 2005 notice saying that IDSF athletes and officials were not allowed to take part in IDU tournaments, and that IDSF could suspend or revoke privileges for athletes, adjudicators, or chairmen involved in those competitions. USA Dance was passing that warning along to American organizers, athletes, and officials, especially where NDCA events might include competitors or adjudicators connected to IDU or IDSA.
The Dance Forums discussion linked above is useful because it shows the controversy was not just about whether IDSF disliked IDU and IDSA. The argument was also about precision: did the rule actually say what USA Dance said it said, and did a press release have the same force as a formally adopted rule? That distinction mattered to dancers and organizers who needed to know whether entering or judging a mixed event could really threaten their eligibility.
In the years that followed, IDSF continued moving toward a broader sport-governance structure. Its own history notes the creation of an Athletes' Commission and Disciplinary Council in 2006, the establishment of the International Professional DanceSport Council in 2007, and the later absorption of that professional structure into the IDSF/WDSF Professional Division. The federation also changed its name from IDSF to WDSF as part of that evolution.
The basic tension never disappeared completely. A modern echo appeared in 2024, when USA Dance said it had left the World Dance Organization after WDSF changed rules to prevent national member bodies from joining other international dance organizations that WDSF considered competitors. In other words, the question raised by this old 2007 notice remains familiar: how much freedom should athletes, officials, and organizers have to participate across competing dance organizations, and how much control should a recognized sport federation have in order to protect its system?
Sources and notes: Background is drawn from the WDSF history page, the March 18, 2005 IDSF notice on IDU tournaments, the linked Dance Forums discussion, and USA Dance's later 2024 explanation of its relationship with WDSF and WDO.