What are "Medals"?

Medals are a dancing industry standard of teaching dancing in a progressive format. In a recent survey by a 5 times World Ballroom Champion talking to 17 past and present World Champions, nearly all had completed all their medals, and she herself had danced all her medals as man and lady!

Medals begin at Bronze level (or Rosettes and Social certificates for younger dancers), and work up through Bronze Bar, Silver, Silver Bar, Gold, Star, Premier Star and Oscar. Routines of a suitable difficulty level for each medal are taught, and then danced on one of our "Medal Days". A qualified adjudicator judges the performances, and medals are awarded for a satisfactory standard at that level.

Medals are awarded in four styles - Street Latin, Latin American, Ballroom & New Vogue.

For example, to be awarded the Bronze Medal in Street Latin, students are required to dance three dances to a satisfactory standard - Salsa, Cha Cha and Argentine Tango. At each higher level, the steps become more difficult, and a higher level of technique and styling is also expected.

Other awards are also available:

Rosettes - Dance examination for juniors in one style.

Sashes - For a single dance style in a particular level, ie. salsa at one particular level.

The dances at each level are shown in the following table (there are also higher levels after gold) :

Why Medals?

Medals provide a systematic, graduated approach to learning all dance styles, much like "belts" in Karate. They provide great goals for each student to work towards. Casual group classes and medal classes complement each other.

Other short courses, such as performance courses and others, and workshops, are also sometimes conducted.