USA Dance plans to make a long overdue change in the coming months – all their sanctioned competitions will be gender-neutral. This means that regardless of a dancer’s gender, they are welcome to compete in the role that best suits them and all couples of any configuration will compete on the floor together. This change will establish USA Dance nationally and internationally as an organization that affords all dancers the equality, dignity, and respect that they deserve.

In the summer of 2018, the DanceSport Council (DSC) first put out the word asking for volunteers who would work together to identify and address the necessary changes to make all USA Dance competitions open to what was then termed “same sex” couples. The newly formed committee consisted of amateur and professional dancers of all experience levels and various gender identities. One of their first actions was to adopt the term “gender neutral” over “same sex” in recognition of the fact that a competitive couple might consist of various gender configurations. That term has now been adopted industry-wide as other organizations have followed USA Dance in making similar changes.