World DanceSport Federation

World DanceSport Federation

Formation	12 May 1957
Type	International sport federation
Headquarters	Sant Cugat del Vallès, Spain
Membership	90 national member bodies[1]
President	Carlos Freitag
Website	www.worlddancesport.org

The World DanceSport Federation (WDSF), formerly the International DanceSport Federation (IDSF), is the international governing body of dancesport and Wheelchair DanceSport, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

Originally founded in 1957 as the International Council of Amateur Dancers (ICAD), it took up the name IDSF in 1990. In 2011, it was renamed to WDSF to emphasise the global character of the organization.

History

• 1909 First unofficial ballroom championships in Paris
• 1957 ICAD founded in Wiesbaden on 12 May 1957
• 1960 First television broadcast of Dancesport
• 1990 Name changed to IDSF
• 1992 Becomes a member of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GASIF) (now SportAccord)
• 1995 World Rock & Roll Confederation (WRRC) joins IDSF as an Associate Member
• 1997 Recognised by the IOC
• 2001 Subscribes to World Anti-Doping Code
• 2004 International Dance Organisation (IDO) joins IDSF as an Associate Member
• 2007 Presentation of the VISION 2012 project to the IDSF General Meeting^[2]
• 2008 IDSF and the International Paralympic Committee "enter into a collaboration agreement to promote Wheelchair DanceSport jointly"
• 2008 United Country and Western Dance Council (UCWDC) joins IDSF as an Associate Member
• 2008 IDSF General Meeting delegates the Praesidium to pursue a restructure of the federation under VISION 2012^[3]
• 2010 Launches the IDSF Professional Division
• 2011 Changes name to WDSF on 19 June

Members

The WDSF has 90 national member associations, 66 of which are recognised by their National Olympic Committee.^[1] Eighty of them are full members while 10 are provisional members.

Full members

Provisional members

Associate members

Membership in other organisations

• SportAccord (formerly GAISF)
• International World Games Association (IWGA)
• Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF)
• International Masters Games Association (IMGA)

Relationship with the World Dance Council

The WDSF is not the only international organisation in the field of competitive dance: the World Dance Council (WDC) is another prominent international dance organisation.

In the past, the WDC focus was on administering professional dancers and competitions. However, the launch of the WDC Amateur League in 2007^[4] put the two organisations in direct conflict. The launch of the IDSF Professional Division in 2010 has since become an additional point of conflict.

The WDSF prohibits^[5] its members from participating in any competition that is not listed and registered by either WDSF or a WDSF National Member Body. WDC competitions fall into this prohibited category. This policy was revoked in 2012 at the Annual Meeting by vote of the members. The WDSF now supports an athletes "right to dance".

Like the WDC, WDSF bans Same Sex couples from entering competitions, under rule D2.1.1, which states a couple must consist of a man and a woman.

Publications

The International News (Tanzsportmagazin), which served as WDSF's official publication since 1998, was replaced in 2004 by DanceSport Today, and in 2009 by World DanceSport magazine.^[6]

Presidents

See also

• List of dance organizations
• SportAccord
• Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations
• List of DanceSport dances
• Formation dance
• Ballroom dance
• Dance basic topics
• Wheelchair DanceSport

References