The Invitational Jack & Jill at Dallas D.A.N.C.E.

 

For several years prior to 2000,  Dallas D.A.N.C.E. had only two Jack & Jill divisions: Novice and Advanced. In 1999, we had a very large  turnout for the Advanced Jack & Jill, but our success created a problem. After the event, several competitors complained  that they (or their friends) were accustomed to making the finals at other events but had not done so in Dallas, and they implied this might be attributable to Texas judging.  

We defended the event, noting that most of the judges for the Jack & Jill had not been from Texas and that almost no Texans had made the finals in the division. The real problem was that,  because Dallas D.A.N.C.E. had only the two Jack & Jill divisions, dancers accustomed to dancing against those of comparable skills at events that offered three or four Jack & Jill divisions were being forced to compete against the superstars here.  

The idea for the Invitational Jack & Jill grew out of this situation. When we first began considering it, however, we had no idea how to develop the list of invitees, and that first year, we brainstormed all sorts of approaches before we hit on the final list.  

One of the first ideas was to go strictly by Jack & Jill points as recorded by the World Swing Dance Council ("WSDC"). Another idea was to use placements in National Association of Swing Dance Events ("NASDE") divisions: Classic, Showcase, and Strictly Swing. Each of these approaches had the advantage of being completely objective, so, when challenged about individual selections, we could blame the system rather than taking the heat for a personal bias for (or against) somebody.  

However, each of these systems created a large set of questions that had to be answered. For example, in the WSDC approach, how many points would be enough? What level(s) of Jack & Jill points would count? Did it matter how long ago the points were earned? What did we do about some clear superstar who had not been on the circuit long enough to earn significant points? What about somebody who had a bucket full of points, none of which had been earned in the past several years? Despite these questions, we began developing tentative lists of successful NASDE competitors and dancers with a large number of WSDC points.  

We also were worried about offending people who were not invited, especially those who were longstanding supporters of Dallas D.A.N.C.E. Therefore, at one point we began adding the names of  these individuals, too, most of whom had been successful at the event at some time (even in the distant past).  

Adding all these tentative approaches together, we arrived at what we quickly named the "Everything But the Kitchen Sink" list, which was incredibly long and which included several individuals who had not competed in a decade or more. Looking at this list, we realized that we could not permit the Invitational list to grow too large, because it inevitably would siphon good dancers away from the Advanced Jack & Jill, which, so far, has remained a very strong and entertaining division at Dallas D.A.N.C.E.  

Finally, we realized that there was no way to create a good list without making some tough choices and that whatever selections we made would be open to criticism. Nevertheless, Terry still wanted the list to be as objective as possible, so that, if questioned, he could at least explain the system. We also decided that, since a Jack & Jill involves different skills from dancing a routine, we would emphasize Jack & Jill results (rather than success with routines) in making our selections. Finally, we agreed to focus on recent accomplishments.  

Armed with these criteria, we set out to research which dancers had been having repeated successes (i.e., placing in the money) at recent major national events from around the country which held true, Invitational Jack & Jills. For the next several months, we kept an eye on the internet discussion groups and dance event websites for results in these major events. We kept track of those who placed in the invitationals, and then consolidated those results into a single list.  

When we took a look at this consolidated list, we realized that we were very close to developing a workable list because there was a relatively small, fairly consistent group of people who were having recent, repeated successes at multiple Invitational Jack & Jills. We also realized three other things, however.  

First, when we tried to predict which of the men and women on this first, preliminary list would attend Dallas D.A.N.C.E. that year, we quickly saw that the likely male attendees outnumbered the women. Terry wanted the number of men and women dancing at the event to be equal if at all possible, which meant that we had to find several women in addition to those who appeared on our original list.  

Secondly, that year there were (and we realized most years there would be) a few new or young dancers just joining the scene who clearly were talented enough to dance at the Invitational level but who had not danced long enough to appear on our basic list. All of us wanted the flexibility to include new talents like these on the list. Moreover, we saw that if we simply piggybacked on the results from other events, we would help perpetuate a closed system without much room for new dancers to break into the ranks of the Invitational.  

Third, we saw that we would also need the flexibility to invite  additional dancers for the good of the event, e.g., (i) dancers who lived far away and might need the incentive of an invitation to attend Dallas D.A.N.C.E. for the first time, (ii) dancers from a wide variety of locations to achieve regional diversity; (iii) local or regional dancers who might not meet the objective criteria, but whose presence in the contest would be in the best interests of Dallas D.A.N.C.E., or (iv) enough dancers to ensure that the total number of dancers accepting invitations made for a good, full contest with an equal number of leaders and followers.    

So, finally, we settled on a system that generated a core group of invitees based upon recent successes at multiple, national Invitational Jack & Jills. We retained the discretion, however, to add new stars in the dance world or others whose inclusion would be in the best interests of Dallas D.A.N.C.E.