Originally Posted by susie-4964:
“Well, there must be rules about ballroom and Latin dancing that apply to judging competitions today. I know nothing about dancing beyond what I've seen on TV, but it happens so many times that Len will criticize a dance because he says they're doing illegal lifts, or some other thing. Now, either Len is wrong, and modern rules say that you can now do these things, or the professional dancers are doing the wrong choreography, and therefore setting their partners up for a bad mark. Whatever the answer is, they need to sort it out so that we all know what's going on.”
In competitive dancing there are no lifts whatsoever, none in any ballroom or latin dances ( standard 10 dances). There always has to be a 1 foot on the ground. ALL the ballroom dances are done in full hold with no breaking away. You would never ever see any competitive couple stray away from these rules.
Of course, this is strictly and rules are not adhered to, the pro's will want to push to see how far they can go, and breaking few rules, to make the choreo interesting and entertaining for the audience.
I personally don't want to see lifts in a dance that shouldn't have them. I like ballroom in full hold, but as is always pointed out, this is entertainment not a dance competition