Canadian Amateur DanceSport Association

The Canadian Amateur DanceSport Association (CDS), Canada’s national dancesport body, is a very different type of organization from DSAB. CDS has only five members, (DSAB, and the other regional Associations (British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic). CDS is not a producing organization like DSAB. Rather, it is administrative, coordinating, consultative and promotional aims are:

• to maintain communications and relations between the regions of this extremely varied country so Canadians can function smoothly at the national championship level (including making national rules and granting national and regional championships,
• to otherwise administer national-level dancesport within Canada (for example, dealing with interprovincial partnerships, which sometimes occur and,
• to deal with Canadian dancesport’s growing roles in our world movement, the International DanceSport Federation, and the Canadian Olympic Committee.

The country’s regional associations send up to two representatives each to CDS’s Annual General Meeting, which is ordinarily held in a different region every Good Friday, in conjunction with the principal Canadian Closed Amateur DanceSport Championships in Standard and Latin American dancesport. CDS’s board of directors is composed of its President and two Directors elected by each of its regional association members. Since April 2005, CDS’s President has been former OADA President, Sandy Brittain of Ontario. DSAB’s current CDS Directors are the current president and vice president of DSAB.

World DanceSport Federation

(Formerly known as the International DanceSport Federation)

Founded in 1957, the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) is the governing body for dancesport for the world. It is the international umbrella organization of which CDS and 85 other national organizations are members. Representing over ten-million competitive international-style dancers worldwide, WDSF is the organization with the exclusive right to grant continental, international and world amateur dancesport championships. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland, which is also home to the headquarters of the International Olympia Committee (IOC). WDSF’s twelve Officers and Directors, (the Presidium), are elected every three years. WDSF’s current President is Mr. Carlos Freitag of Barcelona, Spain; its 1st Vice-president is Mr. Lukas Hinder and 2nd Vice-president is Ms Natasa Ambroz.

Like all other WDSF members, CDS is permitted to send up to two representatives to WDSF’s Annual General Meeting, which is held in a different member country every year. From 1994 to 1998, Mr. Jim Fraser of Vancouver was one of CDS’s representatives at WDSF AGMs in Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland and France. At the 1998 meeting, he became the first Canadian to be elected to the presidium, and is now serving a second three-year term as Presidium member. A lawyer by profession, he is also in charge of WDSF’s legal affairs. Brian Dudley of West Vancouver served as a CDS representative to WDSF’s AGMs from 1999 to 2005. In 2005 he was joined by Nicole Jolicoeur of Montreal, Quebec. This June 2007 as well as last year, June 2006, Sandy Brittain with Nicole Jolicoeur took Canada’s vote to the AGM in Barcelona, Spain. It was the 72nd anniversary of the foundation of WDSF and so marks a significant milestone.The WDSF obtained full recognition for dancesport from the IOC in 1997, and is responsible for negotiations to persuade the IOC to admit dancesport as a medal sport in the Summer Olympic Games.

NB: Copies of the complete CDS and WDSF rules are available to all DSAB members and are posted on their websites, www.dancesport.ca and www.worlddancesport.org.

Canadian Olympic Committee

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) is this country’s governing organization for all activity involving the summer and winter Olympic games and all of the International Olympic Committee’s other activities, which include broad-based support for all sports. It is a member of the International Olympic Committee, has permanent voting members on the IOC, maintains offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto and carries on extensive business in-between Olympic Games as well as during the games themselves.

As part of CDS and WDSF’s initiatives to make dancesport a medal sport in the Summer Olympic Games, CDS applied for, and obtained, membership in the COC in April of 1997. CDS is now a voting member of the Canadian Olympic Committee with the right to send its president to the COC’s AGM and participate in its activities during the rest of the year.

CDS derives no financial benefit from COC membership at this time because only medal programme sports receive significant funding from the COC; but it is represented and is becoming more involved in the Olympic family in this country. CDS’s representative to the COC is Mr. Jim Fraser of Vancouver.

Based on an original article courtesy of Jim Fraser.

More information about CDS, WDSF and the future of DanceSport in Canada can be found on the CDS web site at www.dancesport.ca.