Three separate seminars were held last week during the Solo Dance Championships at Sheffield .

Monday began with a Refresher Course and Pre-event meeting for Judges and Referees before they started to officiate. Garry Hoppe, ISU Judge,International Referee and Chairman of the Dance Technical Committee moderated assisted by International Judge Sandra Barker.
Technical Rules, particular to Solo Dance, were covered in detail in addition to in depth discussion on the various connections between RJS and IJS and the necessity for Dance in the UK to retain the Technicial Quality and Timing aspects required for international success.

Then on Tuesday new, probationary and junior judges joined Garry, Liz littler, NISA Judges/Officials Director, and Ann Findlay, NISA Technical Director, who was also the Championship Technical Delegate, for the start of 2 1/2 long days of dance education.

Competitors and spectators present may well have been surprised to see judges working with a multi-coloured parachute, footballs and Native American Indians in between classroom sessions!

Judges made use of dvds from IJS events and the Sheffield Junior Grand Prix throughout the week to ensure that they were au fait with the standard of skaters within IJS as well as that required for National Tests and Open Competitions and rather worryingly, by the end of the week all judges,led by Garry were heard, in unison, quoting sections from the ISU Regulations concerning Timing issues impacting on both Technical and Presentation/Component marks. Last Choir Standing watch out!

Following the Championship Presentations and Post-Event meetings on Thursday lunchtime the judging panels rejoined the seminar delegates to work more on the IJS system and the final day was completed by a practical assessment of IJS knowledge .

The results of this Assessment should allow easier planning of the training of IJS judges in advance of the IJS roll-out in due course and as an additional precursor to this roll-out, Judges of all standards and disciplines have been invited to the Sheffield IJS Event to see the system at first hand.

NSA Office
13th July 2009