Rules and Regulations
Registration
Registration is now open at http://www.ballroomregistrar.com/register/MIT09/.
Registration email: mitDOTcompDOTregistrarATgmailDOTcom
Please read the rules below carefully before registering as there have been a number of changes from past years.
Here is a copy of the waiver you will have to agree to if you were to register through ballroomregistrar. As it will be handled electronically, there is no need to print this out to give us a signed copy.
Deadlines
- Regular registration: Monday, April 6
- Late registration: Sunday, April 19
Fees
- Regular registration: $40 per competitor
- Late registration (after April 6 and on site): $50 per competitor
- Newcomer only (regular): $10 per competitor
- Newcomer only (late): $20 per competitor
- Onsite registration: $50 per competitor
- Onsite newcomer registration: $20 per competitor
Please have your payments postmarked by April 11, 2009 unless alternative arrangements are made with the registrar. Competitors will not be permitted to dance unless their payments are received by MITBDT.
Please mail checks made out to the MIT Ballroom Dance Team to:
MIT Ballroom Dance Team
c/o Ron Hoffmann
MIT W92-189
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Individuals may alternately pay online by following this link.
Register early! We reserve the right to close an event to further registrations once a critical number of couples had registered.
Although we will try our best to have the names of the dancers who had registered online published with the results, we cannot guarantee that. It is unlikely that the names of dancers registering onsite will have their names published on the results pages.
Eligibility
The MIT Open is open to dancers of all ages. It is a competition for amateur dancers only so professional dancers will not be permitted to compete.
Newcomer
Competitors are eligible to dance in the Newcomer level only if both dancers in the partnership had not started their competitive training and/or competed in a ballroom competition before January 1, 2009. Dancers who are eligible to dance as a newcomer also may not have accumulated 7 or more YCN points in the individual dance(s) they will be registering for at the MIT Open. We will not be counting USA Dance points.
As there is a special discounted fee for newcomers, dancers who had paid the newcomer fee may only compete in dances at the newcomer level. If someone qualifying to dance at the newcomer level wishes to dance an event not offered at the newcomer level, they will need to pay the regular registration fee.
Beginner
Amateur competitors are eligible to dance in the Beginner level only if both of the competitors in the partnership have less than 3 full semesters (or half year equivalents for non-students) of competitive ballroom dancing experience A full semester (or half year equivalent) of competitive ballroom experience includes participation in one or more competitions and/or competitive training during that semester. Any dancer competing in the beginner level may not have accumulated 7 or more YCN points in bronze in the individual dance(s) they will be registering for at the MIT Open. We will not be counting USA Dance points.
Intermediate, Advanced, Pre-Championship
The Intermediate, Advanced, and Pre-championship levels are open to amateur dancers who had accumulated less than 7 YCN points in Silver, Gold, or Pre-Champ respectively. Eligibility will be based on results for individual dances. For instance, if someone had 7 points in silver bolero, but fewer points in the other rhythm dances, they will need to compete in advanced for Bolero but may still compete in intermediate for the other dances. We will not be counting USA Dance points in the syllabus events.
Eligibility to dance pre-champ will exclude any dancer who has accumulated 7 or more points in ANY prechamp or open level competition with non-collegiate competitions scored in a similar manner as YCN competitions.
The YCN point system for prechamp eligibility will also be applied to placements earned in "Open Latin" and "Open Standard" events (or their equivalents) in comps that did not divide Open International events into Champ and Pre-Champ levels.
There will be no time restrictions for dancing experience in any of these levels.
Championship
All amateur competitors are eligible to dance at this level.
Role Changes
The eligibility rules apply to dancers regardless of the role they had previously competed in. For example, if a dancer had by the above criteria is not eligible to dance at the certain level as a follower, those criteria will also apply if the dancer wishes to compete as a leader.
Eligibility Enforcement
If you have any questions about your eligibility to dance at a certain level, please feel free to contact the competition registrar at (mit.comp.registrarATgmailDOTcom).
In the spirit of fairness, we will be doing our best to enforce the eligibility rules. We would urge all team captains to try to make sure their team members are registered appropriately.
If you believe a couple may have registered for an inappropriate level, please email the Competition Registrar at (mitbdt-comp-regATmitDOTedu) and we will look into it.
Syllabus Restrictions
Newcomer
Permissible figures will be restricted to the ISTD Bronze syllabus for International Style and USISTD, NDCA, DVIDA, FADS, AMDS or similar Bronze syllabi for the American style dances.
Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
For all three levels, we will be allowing any figure that is gold or below in the ISTD syllabus for the International Style events and the USISTD, NDCA, DVIDA, FADS, AMDS syllabi or similar for the American style events.
Pre-Championship and Championship
Open choreography is permitted. No lifts are allowed.
Double Registration
Double registering will be permitted only if one of the events is an open event (Open, Pre-champ or Champ). Double registering for events at two syllabus levels will not be permitted--ie, each competitor may compete in each of the 19 dances only once at the syllabus level (newcomer, beginner, intermediate, or advanced).
Costumes
Costumes are permitted but not required for all levels except the Newcomer level, in which no costumes are permitted.
Although there are no formal restrictions on costumes, please make sure they are appropriate. We reserve the right to restrict dancers from competing if a costume is deemed to be inappropriate by the Chairman of Judges.
Event Capping and TBA Policy
The MIT Open reserves the right to cap the number of registrants for any individual event. Individuals wishing to register for an event that is full may email the registrar at mitDOTcompDOTregistrarATgmailDOTcom to be placed on a wait-list.
After the registration deadline, individuals registered as TBA in capped events will be moved to the bottom of the wait-list. Full partnerships from the wait-list can then be added to the event. Openings in each event will be filled in the order that dancers registered for that particular event, with priority given first to full partnerships.
FAQ
I don't yet know if I can find a partner for some events. What should I do?
You can register and simply list your partner's name as "TBA" (To Be Announced). As soon as you find a partner, please update your registration. All TBAs must be cleared before your registration is considered complete and you are allowed to dance. The latest deadline is 45 minutes before the session for your event begins, but it's best to do it before the registration deadline. After that, the update will be treated as a late add for your partner, incurring a late fee for him/her.
If you cannot find a partner and need to drop that event, please let us know as soon as possible (no late fees for drops).
I'm a follower, but have been learning to lead. Can I dance Intermediate as a follower and Beginner as a leader?
Yes, it is possible as long as you meet the requirements listed above. In particular, you must be eligible to dance both levels, and you may only dance events for each dance regardless of role only once. You do not get another set of "registration blocks" by switching roles.
Also, please note that your eligibility level in your non-normal role is the same as in your normal role. You are not allowed to dance down because you changed roles. In particular, followers dancing at Beginner or higher levels cannot dance Newcomer as leaders.
I want to dance Beginner cha-cha with one partner, and Beginner rumba with another. Can I do that?
Yes, if you are eligible to dance at the Beginner level.
I want to dance Beginner international cha-cha, intermediate international rumba, gold international jive and pre-champ international samba. I started dancing last fall. Can I do that?
In theory, yes. We'd wish you the best of luck in pre-champ samba...
I want to dance Newcomer swing as a leader although I had preiously won pre-champ rhythm as a follower. I had never competed as a leader before. Can I do that?
No.
My partner and I had already registered but we now want to add bronze international rumba but the registration page won't let me. We registered for everything else three weeks ago. Can we be put in the front of the waiting list?
Sorry, but the order of the TBA list is based on the time you register for that particular event.
My partner and I had initially registered for silver swing but then decided not to do it. We want to do it now but the it looks like it's full. Can we be put in the front of the registration list?
Sorry, but since you had already dropped it before, that time stamp no longer applies to your registration for swing.
Can I double register for events?
Double registration is permitted only if one of the levels is open, prechamp, or champ. For instance, you may dance all 19 dances in advanced and all 10 International dances in prechamp or champ and the 9 American dances in open. You may register for both prechamp and champ for the International dances. You may also register for Prechamp and Champ for International and Open for American. But you may not do Advanced, Prechamp, and Champ.
Unfortunately, this year, we will not be offering double registration for the syllabus events alone. You may register for any or all of the 19 dances once in the collective syllabus categories (Newcomer, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced). You may not compete in any individual dance more than once in syllabus.
For instance, you may not do International waltz in beginner and intermediate. However if you were eligible to dance these levels, you could conceivably register for International Waltz in beginner, International Tango in intermediate, Advanced International Viennese Waltz, and Intermediate International Foxtrot and Quickstep.
I am a newcomer but I would like to dance 18 of the 19 dances (that American Foxtrot is too hard for me...). Can I do that?
Absolutely! To do so, you would register with the regular registration fee. The newcomer fee would allow you only to dance the newcomer events. If you pay the regular fee, you would not need to pay the newcomer fee too even if you danced newcomer events.
What happened to the 'blocks" for registration that you had in the past?
We are no longer using them.
I noticed that a couple registering for pre-champ Latin had previously won several large USA dance competitions in prechamp Latin that had at least a semifinal. Can they do that?
No. For pre-champ Latin, we will be applying the YCN rules to all competitions. Thus if there were a semifinal, they would get 3 points for every first place, 2 for second, and 1 for third. If there were a quarter final, they would also get one point for 4th through 6th. If they had accrued 7 or more points, they would have to dance champ Latin.
My partner and I had won three Open level events in Latin in non-YCN competitions that had at least a semifinal. There were no pre-champ events in any of those. We had never competed in any competitions in Pre-champ. Can I still compete in Pre-champ Latin at the MIT Open?
Congratulations on your achievements. Our rules would apply YCN points to those events to be counted as pre-champ points, giving you 9 points in pre-champ so you would need to compete in champ. Given your accomplishments, we're sure you'll do fine in champ!