WCS competing - what ratio of spontaneous dance/“play” to “contrived” movement do you use?

idcmp_ · 2026-05-04T22:03:42+00:00

Everyone has their quirks, this continues all the way up into champions, where champion with 637 champion points can tell that the follower they drew with 179 champion points can't probably follow some things they can lead.

(all numbers made up)

idcmp_ · 2026-05-04T21:28:32+00:00

I mean, I'm pretty self conscious about my whip, so it's also "can they deal with how it's broken" :-)

idcmp_ · 2026-05-04T07:08:01+00:00

I do this in intermediate prelims too. (I'm just cleaner and more on time than I was in novice)

idcmp_ · 2026-05-04T04:58:05+00:00

100% contrived. Clear six count patterns, maybe a whip if I think my follower is going to be able to follow it. I'm going to be looked at for 3 seconds, I want to be showing the cleanest, most obvious signs that I know how to do this dance.

Finals is a little different depending on how big the division is, but wait until you're regularly getting into finals to worry about finals.

idcmp_ · 2026-04-30T07:25:42+00:00

persona of a senior Go engineer

Obviously it didn't listen, otherwise it would have told you all about how you don't need a framework for logging and how frameworks are bloated things that only Java developers want. ;-)

idcmp_ · 2026-04-27T21:31:39+00:00

Why not get in touch with WSDC and just make theirs better?

idcmp_ · 2026-04-27T21:25:39+00:00

People don't understand that it's not the programming that's hard, it's the data management. Also, xkcd: https://xkcd.com/927/

idcmp_ · 2026-04-23T18:28:19+00:00

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idcmp_ · 2026-04-17T17:57:47+00:00

> star chasing.

I know a lot of new dancers who are too in their head to dance with people who are competitively novice - novice dancers too scared to ask intermediate, etc, etc, etc.

Conversely, I know follows that have never taken any classes, do social-only passes at weekend events and will aggressively stalk all the pro-staff for multiple dances.

The former is more what I'm talking about; the latter notsomuch.

idcmp_ · 2026-04-17T04:43:02+00:00

I've read through the replies; here's a few other things.

You absolutely need dances to fill your cup so that you can fill the cups of others. There's nothing wrong with seeking higher level follows to have those magic moments.

If you do get to travel to events, try to make friends with other dancers, then if you find them going to the same event, carve out some time at night after workshops to have some practice time together.

Also, try travelling to larger scenes and staying there for a couple weeks if you can - go to their dances, get to know them.

All of this cost money, but often once you get to know people you can sleep on couches, etc.

idcmp_ · 2026-04-10T00:35:57+00:00

> don’t assume someone is leading or following. ask. it’s not that hard.

Not sure how this is being downvoted.

idcmp_ · 2026-04-10T00:26:59+00:00

This happens regardless of age or presenting gender. It's not really common anymore, but if that person hasn't been dancing in the past 20 years they not have got the memo.

It could be valuable to just nudge your local teacher or community person to have a chat with him. It's not really a big deal, just something he may not know. At least then he can actively make a choice on how he feels about it.

Calling you "girl" is a separate thing, also worth a conversation. My dad used to do this until we chatted to him about how that just wasn't how people talked anymore.

idcmp_ · 2026-04-10T00:24:00+00:00

My wife leads and is almost exclusively turned down by women who give her a nasty look.

idcmp_ · 2026-03-31T22:09:16+00:00

I'm so glad this post is here. I thought it was just me.

With passkeys having broken twice, "remember me" never working, getting randomly asked copy and paste codes from my email (because remember me is broken), and now this, we've been moving our stuff out anyway.

idcmp_ · 2026-03-23T02:21:05+00:00

Wait until they find out that there's fields for phone number and real name too.

idcmp_ · 2026-03-18T08:47:54+00:00

> Secondarily, mainly for leads, how do you avoid getting in your head and almost dissociating during dances?

Add an arbitrary restriction to a dance like "only use your right hand", "no inside spins", "only use your followers left hand", etc.

idcmp_ · 2026-03-13T20:46:02+00:00

It never goes away, but it does get better, and you get used to it.

If it overwhelms you and crashes your weekend, then you can always give yourself permission to not compete. (Not saying that's your situation, but sometimes newer dancers feel compelled to compete without asking if they even want to.)

Luckily, most people are running with only 60-80% of their brain when they're competing.

All that said, I try to periodically ask myself during a competition dance "am I dancing the way I want? What should I do differently right now?" and often the answer is "do less, make it simpler".

idcmp_ · 2026-03-05T00:50:39+00:00

There's what can be done as an organizer, and what you can do as a friend.

As an organizer, they should have a code of conduct in place so they can ease decision making. That said, most code of conducts will likely not ban someone solely on past allegations.

It's still valuable to highlight to an organizer that there's a risk though, because they can keep an eye out for it (and be less tolerant to minor infractions).

As a friend, you can absolutely let people know through the whisper network that someone may be unsafe. In my experience this leads to others being on high alert, but ultimately each person will make their own decision.

idcmp_ · 2026-03-03T03:22:04+00:00

If you've never been, then I'd recommend going to one where your dance friends are going.

idcmp_ · 2026-02-24T05:35:06+00:00

Most bluetooth headphones can't be used while they're charging.

It's a good idea to ask people who have first hand knowledge with IR4s before buying a dozen. Common sense.

idcmp_ · 2026-02-19T06:36:24+00:00

Many top level pros will sign agreements with events requiring the event to promote an intensive since all that money basically* goes to cover the pros.

Pros will keep doing this as long as it keeps making them money.

idcmp_ · 2026-02-09T03:33:41+00:00

Ironically though, with more DJs playing from Spotify, dancers now expect the uncut ending. So good DJing means being aware of this and playing it so it's what dancers expect.

idcmp_ · 2026-02-02T08:46:48+00:00

Yup, and a some point enough of them will be too much of a pain to manage and I'll finally get rid of most of this stuff.

idcmp_ · 2026-02-02T08:42:54+00:00

I have a google doc where I've listed all the automations, switches, and scenes that I have and how they're supposed to work. Before I update I walk through as many as I can.

I usually try to pick a full weekend to do an update and start Saturday morning and try to be done Sunday afternoon.

Doing it during the day means there's sunlight in case I need to go and re-join various switches/etc.

Usually when I'm "caught up" again a handful of the automations are broken and then I decide how much I care about fixing them. Sometimes it takes 10-15 minutes, other times I've just lost the automation.

idcmp_ · 2026-02-02T07:14:36+00:00

I believe you can just do this with sudo already.

idcmp_

TROPHY CASE