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Hosting A College Challenge


Does your club host or want to host a competition? Consider hosting a USA Dance recognized event! Hosting a USA Dance Collegiate Challenge is available to any college team, whether you are an official USA Dance College Team or not.

Benefits of Running a USA Dance Collegiate Challenge

There are numerous advantages to having your competition sanctioned by USA Dance, the USOPC-Recognized Organization for DanceSport in the United States. Here are some key benefits that will not only enhance your event, but also provide a significant boost to its reputation and success:

Your competition becomes part of the qualifying process for the USA Dance National Ballroom DanceSport Championships: Competitors of all ages who participate in your event can earn two of their six qualifying points in their ‘natural’ age category. Qualifying lets College Students compete in additional competitive events for free, while Adults and Alumni can earn the right to compete at the National Championships. Even youth and seniors earn qualifying points!

Access to Additional Marketing and Promotion: by sanctioning your competition with USA Dance, we will promote your event to our network of dancers in your area and around the country. This enables you to raise your event among a highly targeted and passionate audience. This exposure, combined with the benefits a Collegiate Challenge provides, increases the likelihood of attracting competitors to your competition.

Support from Our Development Team and College Committee: USA Dance is not just a sanctioning body, but a community of passionate dance enthusiasts and experienced organizers. By aligning your competition with us, you gain access to our development team and network of successful organizers. They are eager to share their expertise, providing guidance on what works best and helping you navigate any challenges you may face. This support system ensures that your event is well-equipped for success and growth.

Affiliation with your USOPC-Recognized Organization for DanceSport: By aligning your competition with USA Dance, you become part of the USOPC’s Recognized Sport Organization for DanceSport in the United States. Many college administrations value their sports groups and clubs having this formal affiliation, and may offer additional funding as a result.

Becoming a USA Dance Collegiate Challenge

There are just four simple steps to becoming a College Challenge:

  1. Review the Requirements: For most events, the requirements are things you would already do. However, we do want you to be sure a USA Dance College Challenge is a win-win for your event.
  2. Fill out the Sanctioning Form: Fill out a few short pages of information about your event and submit it to the email in the form.
  3. Put a little wording on your webpage: This helps explain what a college challenge means to your competitors, to make your life a little easier.
  4. Ask your Officials to become SafeSport Compliant: The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee requires our officials to pass a background check and pass a short online training about ensuring the welfare of minors at an event. Both are simple and straightforward to complete, and help us ensure ballroom events are a safe environment for all competitors. USA Dance has a small pool of financial assistance available to help first-time College Challenges cover the costs of SafeSport Compliance ($0 for Officials who are USA Dance members, about $40 per official otherwise). Use the SafeSport Compliance link to have your officials become safesport compliant. If you need assistance, please contact us.
    • If your officials are certified to judge by a national organization and they haven’t submitted their information to USA Dance before, the process is straightforward. They can submit certifications in each ballroom style (‘A, B, C, D’, etc.), to ballroom-certificationschair@usadance.org with their name, the competition they are judging, and any proof of certifications. This can be pictures/scans of exams/certificates, or even links to their status in a national member database such as DVIDA’s or NDCA’s. Common nationally recognized organizations are DVIDA, Terpsichore, Arthur Murray, Fred Astaire, etc.

And that’s it! We’re eager to help your event be a success, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to the College Network at collegiatenetwork@usadance.org! You can also check out our additional resources for additional help!