WDSF became a member of the International World Games
Association (IWGA) in 1995. DanceSport premiered in The World Games 1997 Lahti, FIN, and it has been on the Official Sports Programme of every subsequent edition held at intervals of four years under
the patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). WDSF First Vice-President, Mr Lukas Hinder, serves on the IWGA executive since 1997.
DanceSport looks back at truly stellar moments in its five World Games participations. During The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung, TPE, a spectacular 13,000-capacity venue assigned to WDSF was packed to the last seat on the two days of competition. Revenue from
ticket sales was second only to that of the Opening Ceremony and by far the highest of the 37 featured sports.
Four years later, during The World Games 2013 Cali, COL, DanceSport established yet another record in terms of success at the gate and sales figures. The assigned venue, the bullfighting ring Cañaveralejo, sold out on both competition days, with crowds of
18,000 each.
Two IOC Members - one for Chinese Tapei, the other for Colombia - praised DanceSport's record draw in Kaohsiung and Cali respectively.
DanceSport has very impressively demonstrated how popular it is here. We have seen people of all generations attending
– young, old, entire families – and I congratulate WDSF on this outstanding achievement.
C. K. Wu, TPE, IOC Member
It was something spectacular, something never seen in Colombia or South America: watching the best dancers in
the world compete in the Waltzes, the Tango, ... the Salsa! Beautiful! And that we were able to fill the Cali bullring with DanceSport to the very last seat - something that had not happened in the last 17 years! That was the most spectacular event for me
...Andrés Botero, COL, IOC Member
Published on 29 June 2024
(last update on 29 June 2024)
