ITALIAN NEWS......1 PART

Augusto Schiavo
February 6, 2011

ITALIAN NEWS......1 PARTT

HIS IS AN ARTICLE THAT WAS PUBLISHED LAST WEEK ON AN ITALIAN MAGAZINE THAT IS DISTRIBUTED NATION WIDE.


DANCING IN THE CONTROVERSY

Growing up in Italy the followers of dance sport. But also the protests are growing.

There are disputes in relation of the access to international competitions and accusations of fraud in our national competitions.


Ruches and high heels. Paillettes that glitters over the big belt and buttocks that moves from striped clothes. Males that shaken, women that sway at the order “crusado walk”.

All dancing, the italians. Tango, Samba, Rumba, Cha Cha. On television, in the gyms, in the squares and in the dance halls.

A mega and simultaneous virtual mega meeting that, especially on Friday night, appeal a million of persons and open the door of ten thousand schools, involving a hundred thousand licensed to FIDS, the dance sport federation that provides rules and organization.

And while Italy dance and enjoy, while our athletes are winning a lot of awards around the world, while the television increase the audience with academies and dance show on dance: between lessons (from 100 to 250 Euro per hour with the teachers more accredited), meeting before the competitions, travels and costs for the clothes (technicals and fabulous: it starts from thousand Euro).

But it’s not all gold what glitters. And to understand correctly the current climate, it’s enough to look at the site of the Federation (https://www.facebook.com/l/630d3QVejG2h_EPoBpV0XJZ8p5A;www.federdanza.it):
already on the home page there are open letters, arguments, many responses. Signed by the President, Ferruccio Galvagno. “They call it the system” complaint Alberto Pregnolato, a dance sport technical from Padova, that for ten time was the winner of the title of Italian Championship in the various specialties with his wife, and that over the years is engaged in the federation. He say: “The people who don’t agree, it’s better that leave”. The situation need clarifications. A teacher wrote asking what is happening: “Comes to me some rumors, sayint that the dance world is changing, but for the worse.

The athletes are mortified and the most talented competitors are demotivating because of all that seems to happen in the halls during the competitions. It whispers of cheats, of notes with the numbers of the winners already established, of judges that reward their students.”

“The athletes are mortified? Why the judgments are impartials? Their ego that makes caprices?” responds Mr. Galvagno, class 1969, former dancer, counselor in the World Council of the International Federation and Commander of Merit of the Italian Republic upon a proposal by Berlusconi: “Read again the script “Le Verrine”, in which Cicerone, 70 years before Christ, told about cases of corruption. Good and bad live in humans since their inception”, he minimizes.

And at the magazine “L’Espresso” adds: “We have expanded the panel of judges from 11 to 60. We want to separate the judges from the teachers: today, actually, there is a conflict of interest, because the technicals are also judges. But if the members have questions, they may call the federal justice agencies”.

Someone has already done: exactly Pregnolato has just filed a complaint. He put in the middle of his complaint the most important annual event for dance: the Italian Championships. In Rimini, between May and June 2010: kermesse of 32 thousand athletes, 150 thousand attendances, 11 days of competition.

“I had long been the clear impression that the results of the dance sport competitions were not consistent with the performance of the athletes themselves. On that occasion I have had confirmation”, say Mr. Pregnolato that documented all, along with other technicians: judges approached, exchanges of notes, the ambiguous role of the federal counselor. And even the goal of these manipulations: to win the athletes followed by some teachers and increase their weight. Realizing, at the same time, a more sofisticated project: “According to what emerges, the operation aims to select, among all technicals, hundreds of trusted people with promises of future work. The call it the federation on the federation. From this “structure” with the commitment to each of a hundred clubs, they calculated to obtain several million of Euro”. It’s up now to federal prosecutors to determine the facts.

But to create discontent among the athletes it’s also a prohibition, fired last year, to take part in some competitions that take place in Britain, the birthplace of dance sport, places of undeniable charm, like the International at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

An edict, with the threat of severe disciplinary action that, if does not disturb the dreams of the italians that dancing as a hobby, instead dividing the world of professionals, so as to bring many members of the italian national team to leave the federation.

END OF PART ONE