Is The OOT Category Still Useful?

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Sun 26 May 2013

Is The OOT Category Still Useful?

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 04 October 2012 12:44

Drew Alexander & Uneek Freeman

According to Pete Frazier, the Out-of-Town category of the World’s Largest Steppers Contest, born in 2007, was created for 2 reasons. One was the notion that progress in the dance would be slower for those with less access to the dance, so out-of-town dancers could have a category to compete in until they felt they were ready to challenge the very best. The second and more prominent reason was a reaction to the 2005 World’s Largest Steppers Contest, where Out-of-Towners felt they’d never get a fair shake against Chicagoans. Nowadays Pete Frazier has changed his tune a bit – he feels that the Out-of-Town Category creates bragging rights for the other cities that challenge each other, although he readily acknowledges that some of the contestants dancing in this category could very well compete in the Original categories.

Five years following the advent of the Out-of-Town Category a new set of questions and circumstances are at hand. Just about every major city has a heavy hitter teaching. Some of these cities like Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Milwaukee among others have multiple top level dancers teaching. These dancers are bringing in waves of top tier talent. So whereas as high level prospects like winners Richard Cochran and Ann Hunter, products of awesome teachers out of Detroit, have a category that allows them to showcase their talent, Chicago prospects at the same level like Jerry Harris and Cheena Davis are forced to go straight into competition against the big dogs.

One can argue that having an Out-of-Town category has paid dividends for the Out-of-Town dancers. While I’m cautious about disregarding the natural aptitude of the out-of-town performers, I’ve noticed an interesting trend. The individuals who were winning the Out-of-Town Categories in the past, are winning the Original categories today. Let’s take a look …

Drew Alexander has gone on to win 1^st in Walkers twice, 1^st and 3^rd Original New Skool , Trio once, and now 3^rd in Original Old Skool. His first win however, was 1^st in Out-of-Towners

This year’s Trio Winner, James Pacely first achieved success with a 2^nd place win in the Out-of-Town Category.

This year’s 3^rd place New Skool Winner Jamie Graham won 1^st in Beginners in 2008, then moved to the Out-of-Town Category and won 2^nd in 2009, then moved up to the Original Category in 2011 and won 2^nd, and then won 3^rd in this year’s Original New Skool Category.

LaKeesha Anderson won 1^st in Original New Skool in 2011, 3^rd in Original New Skool in 2010, but her first victory was a 2^nd place win with James Pacely in 2008.

Even veteran Heavy Hitter Sherry Gordon’s first World’s Largest win came in the Out-of-Town Category, before she went on to win 1^st in Walkers with Drew Alexander.

Now, the fact that these couples are doing well is also a testament to their skill level and dedication to improving their craft. Not to mention, it could be argued in the cases of Drew Alexander and Keesha Anderson that the Out-of-Town category was actually a step up in competition for them, as they chose to forego the Beginner’s category for more fierce competition.

Even so, it is a common notion that small successes breed larger successes, so it is quite possible that having the opportunity to find competition success at an intermediate level before challenging the very best actually bolsters one’s confidence heading into the big dance.

It now seems that the Out-of-Town category has outlived its usefulness as an exclusive category and would be better served as an intermediate category. After all, can a new dancer really be expected to compete with Drew, LaKeesha, Feo, Candace, Nikee, Tori, Jamie, Smoke and so many others after only 2 years of dancing? The current structure of the contest is, quite frankly, setting these new couples up for failure, and many of them are bowing out instead of going to the next level and subsequently thinning the overall talent pool of qualified competition dancers.

And for those that would like to argue that Andre Blackwell won 1^st in the World’s Largest in 1998 among the very best after only 2 years dancing, or Tyk Myn won 1^st in Trio after only 3 years dancing against the very best, you would missing a major point. These guys were special in every way. Not only did they win early, but they went on to become stars in the dance and inspire a whole new generation of dancers. Your Drew Alexander’s will be far and few between; the rest of us, who start off with two left feet, might benefit from a more level playing ground.

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