More Work Is Waiting 21/01/2017

Lukas Hinder, the WDSF President, welcomed his fellow members of the executive to the first of three days of meetings held in Barcelona, ESP, with insipiring words on the most recent developments in DanceSport.

2017 and 2018 will be decisive years for the future development of DanceSport. With the tenth edition of The World Games taking place in July 2017 and with the sport added to the programme of Youth Olympic Games in October 2018, important windows will open up to showcase the breadth and inclusiveness of the sport to the world. President Hinder elaborated on that very point in his opening remarks.

Dear Members of the Presidium,
Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to welcome you to this meeting of the WDSF Presidium.

6 December 2016 will go down in the history of our federation as the day when DanceSport became Olympic in the true sense of the word.

Let us not be making petty distinctions by specifying that it is “only” the Youth Olympics - or that it is not necessarily “our” kind of DanceSport that will get featured in Buenos Aires. All of you here know how long and how hard we have been working towards this elusive goal. You were there when we received IOC recognition in 1997. You were there when – ten years later and here in Barcelona – we embarked on a course of action that was to redefine our brand, once and for all, and to adapt our structures to accommodate for the governance of an all-encompassing DanceSport at international and national levels. Now, another ten years later and again in Barcelona, we could still be rubbing our eyes, asking ourselves whether this really happened – or whether it was a dream.

Well, let me tell you: it did happen. The doors to THE GAMES have finally opened up – just a crack – and we are in. With 24 dancers aged 16 to 18 and with three Olympic events that could be called something like “B-Boying,” “B-Girling” and “Mixed Battle” … Or similar; in any case, it will be along these lines!

Just like two sports that were recently added to the Tokyo 2020 Games, we are given the opportunity to prove ourselves at the 2018 YOG, Olympic Games in their own rights but also the testing grounds for the young and the new. Climbing and skateboarding had theirs in the Nanjing 2018 YOG: both IFs left a positive impression on those who decided on the programme for Tokyo – and will likely decide again for the Games in 2024.

Having said that, what we need to do now, in January 2017, is to focus on the mission at hand. That we can organise technically perfect and spectacular events in Argentina, I don’t doubt that for a second: with Jean-Laurent, we have the best man at the helm of this project. That these events will be successful for the YOG organisers, for the IOC and for the breakin’ community, I know that simply because I know the powers of DanceSport.

But much work will need to be done by us, Presidium Members, Commissions, NMBs and Associate Members, to ensure that this organisation stands poised to seize the moment in October 2018. To take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and to present WDSF as the modern organisation it is – perfectly geared to govern as diverse and as inclusive a sport as ours! If we succeed, it doesn’t even matter whether we will make the games in 2024, our brand – DanceSport – will be sufficiently strong to pursue other options to generate revenues: like the World DanceSport Games, for instance. 

Some work has been done already, more is waiting!