For candidates
Taking your examinations.
How this works — what happens in the room, what I'm watching while you dance, how long preparation takes, and what the whole thing costs. Including my own rates, which I'll get to.
Most of what follows isn't published anywhere, and not because it's secret. Nobody has written it down. The boards publish syllabi. They don't publish what a session is like, what an examiner is registering while you dance, how long candidates actually take, or what the bill comes to once travel and floor time are counted.
I examine for Dance Vision and USIBDA, and I'm a Fellow of the ISTD. This is the account I'd have wanted when I was starting.
One thing worth saying at the top, because it changes how you should read the rest: I can't examine anyone I train. No board allows it. So if we work together, somebody else examines you. If I examine you, we never worked together. You need two people, and one of them is probably getting on a plane — which is the most expensive line on the worksheet further down.
Most of it is what the boards have set out in writing — rules, durations, requirements, fees. Those sections name their source, and if a board changes something, the page is wrong until I fix it. Tell me if you spot one.
One section is mine — what an exam is actually like from behind the table. That's marked, and it's one examiner's account rather than a standard. Other examiners work differently inside the same rules.
The online setup guidance is a third thing again: practical advice filling a gap where nothing is published yet.
One naming note. USIBDA — the United States & International Ballroom Dancers Association — was AIDA, the American International Dancers Association, until 2026, and the USISTD before that. Same body throughout. The older names still turn up on certificates, handbooks and email addresses while the change works through, so if your paperwork says AIDA, nothing is wrong.
What's documented
From the examiner
The numbers
Documented · 1 of 11
What the examination is.
Everything in this section is set out in the boards' own handbooks. Sources are named as they come up.
Dress is specified: a suit, or a jacket and tie; a dress, or a skirt and blouse. Pants are acceptable. Tails, ballgowns, and costume-type clothing are not. USIBDA handbook
You are introduced to the examiner and the dancing follows immediately. The examiner will indicate when the music stops, and will not discuss your performance or your score. USIBDA handbook
You dance every dance in the syllabus as both leader and follower. You may change shoes between the two, but no additional time is allowed for it — the clock keeps running. There is no time allotted for changing clothes.
From Associate upward you also dance solo to music, one or two figures of the examiner's choice in one or two dances of their choice; and you start an imaginary class in time to music, in a dance the examiner picks. Both are requirements of the level, not extras. USIBDA handbook
At Member and Fellowship you are additionally required to show practical methods of teaching any dance or figure the examiner selects.
The partner and the music operator leave; this section is the examiner and the candidate. It is not a seated interview — demonstration is required throughout.
At your level the figures for that level are the focus, and you may also be asked about lower-level figures. USIBDA
| Level | Ballroom / Smooth | Latin / Rhythm |
|---|---|---|
| Student Teacher | 1¼ hours | 1½ hours |
| Associate | 2 hours | 2¼ hours |
| Member | 2½ hours | 2½ hours |
| Fellowship | 2½ hours | 2¾ hours |
| Single dance | 1 hour · International Viennese Waltz 30 minutes | |
Fellowship requires two examiners. Both are present for the practical; the dances are divided between them for the theory. Dance Vision runs its own schedule — 2 hours for Associate, 2½ for Master and Grand Master.
A concurrent exam covering two levels takes considerably longer than either figure above. See the examiner's account.
Age minimums: 16 for Student Teacher, 17 for Associate, 21 for Member. Member additionally requires two years teaching in a responsible position with verifiable references. Fellowship requires having held Member in the same branch for at least three years. USIBDA handbook
Starting at Member without an Associate requires permission from the Examinations Coordinator, and an assessment may be required. An examiner may downgrade the exam to Associate if appropriate.
Applications and fees are due no later than thirty days before the date. Fourteen days' notice is required to cancel; candidates who do not attend forfeit their fees. Dues must be current to be eligible. USIBDA handbook
Documented · 2 of 11
What you're expected to know, and how deep.
The list of terms barely changes between levels. What changes is what I want you to do with them, and that's the part nobody spells out.
For Ballroom and Smooth you're working from the standard headings: foot positions, alignment and direction, amount of turn, rise and fall, footwork, dance positions, CBM, CBMP, and sway. Plus counting — in rhythm, in beats, and in beats and bars.
Latin and Rhythm run shorter. The leader gets five headings and the follower four, because rise and fall, sway, and CBM come out and the follower has no lead column. What comes in is hip action in every dance except Paso, and bounce in Samba. You'll also be asked for full descriptions more often in Latin than in Ballroom.
The same material, four depths
| Student Teacher | Associate | Member | Fellowship | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The terms | Briefly define | Define | Thorough knowledge of all of it | Discuss the technique in depth, and justify your opinion |
| Holds and walks | Simple description | Description | — | — |
| Precedes and follows | One each | Two each | Three each | Several |
| Teaching | Explain simple methods | Answer simple questions on method | Show practical teaching methods for any figure I pick | Same, plus how a syllabus figure develops into an advanced variation |
| Counting | Beats only | Rhythm, beats, and beats and bars | ||
USIBDA published
How much of it gets asked
Not all of it. The figures at your level are the focus, but I can ask about anything below it as well, and I will if something needs checking.
What I'm sampling for is whether you know this generally or you've memorized it in patches. Two well-chosen questions usually settle that, which is why an exam doesn't have to cover everything to find out.
Documented · 3 of 11
Pass, fail, and the thing that happens instead.
Two results. You pass or you don't.
But there's a third thing that happens in the room, and it's actually written into the rules rather than being some favor an examiner does you. If it becomes clear early that the exam isn't going your way, I can stop it and turn the remaining time into a lesson. The exam fee gets deferred; you pay me for the time as coaching. Or I can suggest we downgrade to the level below and examine you there instead.
This isn't failure with better manners. If you're going to fail anyway, I'd rather spend the hour making you better, and you'd rather leave knowing what was missing than leave with a mark. Nobody has ever objected to it in the room.
How the grade is arrived at
Two sections — practical and theory — scored separately, each averaged across all the dances. Your final grade is the lower of the two, not the average. A candidate who dances at ninety and answers at sixty-six gets a sixty-six. There's no compensating.
USIBDA, Dance Vision and the ISTD all do it this way. Those are different skills that hopefully live in the same person, and the exam checks for both. All three
The two boards band it differently, so check which table you're on before you read anything into a number.
| Grade | USIBDA | Dance Vision |
|---|---|---|
| High Honors | — | 97–100+ |
| Honors | 95–100 | 91–96 |
| Highly Commended | 85–94 | 85–90 |
| Commended | 75–84 | 75–84 |
| Pass | 65–74 | 65–74 |
| Fail | Below 65 | Below 65 |
Both published Sixty-five is a pass everywhere. Above that the boards disagree about what to call you.
A pass at any level, with any grade, means you met a real standard. Honors is icing.
The report
You get one written report and that's the whole record — it's what you'll later submit to the NDCA if you go the adjudicating route, so keep it. It covers your strengths and what to improve, separately for demonstration and theory, and it answers the question the whole exam exists to answer: do you know this syllabus well enough to teach it.
USIBDA mails the results sheet and certificate within about two to four weeks. Dance Vision processes through their corporate team after the fact.
One thing worth setting expectations on: the report is an evaluation, not an essay. I can't watch you and write at length simultaneously, and the time to do both isn't in the schedule. Nobody's being terse at you.
And the decision is final. No board enters into correspondence or discussion about an examiner's report. A credential you can argue your way into isn't one.
If you fail
USIBDA requires at least thirty days before you retake. Dance Vision's exam fee covers a retake within six months at no additional charge to them — though you'll still owe the examiner for their time, which people miss.
What failure actually looks like from the other side of the table.
One examiner's account · 4 of 11
From the other side of the table.
Everything above this point is published somewhere. Everything in this section is mine — what I see, how I work, and what I aim for. Other examiners work differently, inside the same structure. Take it as one account rather than a standard.
The questions don't stop
In a recent combined Latin exam I asked one candidate somewhere around a hundred and sixty questions across three hours. That's one session and other examiners work at other paces, but it should tell you the shape of the thing.
What I'm aiming for is roughly twenty-five to thirty questions per style at Associate, and closer to forty per style when a candidate is sitting two levels at once. Whether I get there depends partly on the candidate. Someone with a firm grasp answers quickly and we cover more ground; someone who has to reach for it answers slowly and we cover less. The number of questions you get through is itself part of the picture.
That's the honest weakness of an oral examination and I'd rather name it than defend it. It is a slightly imperfect instrument, and it asks a good deal of expertise from both people in the room — mine in asking well, yours in answering without padding. A written paper would be more consistent and would tell me much less.
Questions arrive in chains
Very little of it is a list. I ask about a figure, then about what precedes it, then about what changes in the figure because of what preceded it. The first question is rarely the one that matters. Preparing for breadth — a thin layer over everything — falls apart on the second follow-up. Depth on the material you actually have holds up better.
On concurrent exams
You'll be offered the option of taking two levels in one session, and plenty of people take it for perfectly good reasons of time and money.
Understand the trade. A combined exam gives every topic less air than a single-level exam does. It isn't two exams stapled together either — even a standalone Member exam has to establish a baseline in the lower syllabus before it can assess the upper one, so the lower material is always in the room. What a combined exam changes is how much room is left for everything else.
The theory behind it is that a candidate who isn't genuinely prepared won't survive the compression. That's a real theory and it mostly holds. It is also the reason I'd rather you came in for one level, properly, if your circumstances allow it.
What I'm doing while you dance
Working out whether you understand the components of the movement and can explain them in a reasonable way. That's the whole question.
How you demonstrate tells me a great deal about whether you can articulate it, which is why the demonstration carries the most weight. Best case, the description matches the demonstration and follows the manual. But people trip over the language, and that happens to good candidates every session.
Some deviation from the book is acceptable as long as the meaning comes through. Just don't wander too far. I'm not a mind reader.
Where candidates lose it
Footwork faults and wrong foot positions are the usual reason for a failing grade otherwise. The basics, under pressure.
Running out of floor. Candidates build a routine for the studio they trained in, arrive somewhere smaller, and spend the second half taking baby steps to get through the choreography. Nobody publishes floor sizes. So ask.
Talking too much. If the chart says "RF forward," say "Right foot forward." Saying "on step one you step forward with the right foot" isn't more polite, it's just longer. Think, then speak. Don't recite.
Leaving things out. In CBMP, outside partner, left side leading, small step. The omissions cost more than the errors, because an omission looks like you don't know.
What doesn't cost you: a mistake you catch and fix yourself, right away, without me prompting. Almost nobody gets through an exam clean. Correcting yourself is not a penalty. It's better than hoping I didn't notice.
Preparation takes about six months
That's what it takes most of the candidates I've trained, and hours per week isn't really the unit. You can only cram so much into your head at once. The material has to go into your body, get tested on a live student, and then sit a while before it settles. Experience does some of that work and so does sleep.
Six months of steady, unglamorous contact with the syllabus beats six weeks of panic. Every time.
Which style to start in
International Ballroom, if you're choosing on the merits. The manuals are the most tightly written in the field and they've been field-tested and peer-reviewed over a longer period than anything else. They set the standard for how we talk about movement, and if you learn to describe it there you can describe it anywhere.
If you already have a strong background in another style, starting there is fine — you own the movement and you're only learning to put words on it, which is one new skill instead of two.
On failing
It's rare for a professional candidate to fail without having known beforehand they weren't ready. Almost every failure I've seen was visible to the candidate weeks earlier.
Practical guidance · 5 of 11
Setting up an online exam.
USIBDA and Dance Vision both examine online. The exam is the same exam — same sections, same standard, same time. What changes is that you're now responsible for the production, and that part isn't in anybody's handbook yet. The Examinations Director will give you some guidance. This is the rest of it.
Self-check · 6 of 11
Where you stand right now.
Eleven questions on one page. Change anything at any time. Organization-agnostic — these test what's common across syllabi, not one board's phrasing.
Documented · 7 of 11
Everyone starts in the same place.
Teacher or adjudicator, the first move is identical: the Associate exam, in one style, with a trainer.
Which one to start in is a judgment call rather than a rule. My recommendation, and the reasoning behind it.
USIBDA also states plainly that it is doubtful anyone would fare well on a first exam without coaching from an examiner or an experienced trainer, and recommends training with somebody at least one degree above the level you're taking.
Plan for this early. If your trainer is the only credential-holder within driving distance, your examiner is traveling — the most expensive line on the worksheet below.
On how long preparation actually takes, see the examiner's account.
If you write to me I'll ask which organization you're going with and point you at the right person and the right page. That's the trainer rule again — if I'm training you I can't examine you, so knowing who can is part of the job.
Documented · 8 of 11
Same road, further along.
The order is identical. Adjudicating just needs more of it.
| To teach | To adjudicate | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you start | Level 1, one style | Level 1, one style |
| Styles | One is enough. Four is the well-rounded education, not an obligation. | All four. |
| How far up | As far as you want | Level 2 in all four |
| After that | — | NDCA adjudicator training and exam |
If you got certified only in the style you competed, adjudicating means three more styles at two levels each — six more exams. That's usually the biggest number on the worksheet, and it's the reason to know about it now instead of later.
What the license actually buys
Adjudicating is a net loss of several hundred dollars a day.
Nobody does it for the fee. What the license buys is position — a circuit, a level in the industry, and doors that don't otherwise open: coaching invitations, teacher training, relationships with organizers, faculty work. That's a real return. It just isn't the kind you can put in a spreadsheet, I can't put a number on that and I'm not going to pretend I can. What I can tell you is that most of the good coaching relationships I have started with somebody watching me work.
Documented · 9 of 11
Which board does what.
Structural facts only. I examine for two of these, so I'm not the right person to tell you one is better — here's what differs, and you decide.
| Board | Intl Ballroom | Intl Latin | Am. Smooth | Am. Rhythm | Theatre Arts | Apply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dance Vision | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Their page → |
| USIBDA | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Their page → |
| ISTD | Yes | Yes | Amateur only | No | No | Their page → |
Considerations either way
Organizations in this business restructure about every five years. I hold credentials with three of them, and that isn't collecting — it's insurance. The certificate you're issued may not mean much in fifteen years. What you learned getting it will.
Does anything transfer?
Not much, and less than people assume. Dance Vision's Teacher and Professional tracks don't transfer into each other at all — their own words. Coming in from another board generally means a review exam rather than a waiver, and you can't skip levels to get there.
The ISTD one catches people. ISTD technique is the foundation the American organizations built on, so an ISTD Fellowship means a great deal about what you know. But the ISTD is not an NDCA member organization and not an NDCA credentialing body — an ISTD qualification routes to the British Dance Council for adjudicating, not the NDCA. Those are two different things and conflating them is an expensive mistake.
Do I have to keep paying dues?
Yes, and you should want to. The exam gets you the qualification; the dues keep you a member of the organization that stands behind it. Those are two different things and people conflate them.
What lapsing actually costs you: you stop being listed, you stop being someone an organizer can verify, and your credential becomes a piece of paper from a body you're no longer part of. The NDCA route runs through member organizations in good standing — so if you let it go and later want to judge, you're paying to get back in anyway.
The dues are the smallest number on this page by a wide margin. Don't be the person who spent five thousand dollars on a credential and let it lapse over eighty-five.
My rates · 10 of 11
Published, because nobody else does.
Not one organization in this industry publishes what an examiner charges. That's how you end up with candidates who can't budget and studios that can't plan.
The exam rate is higher than the coaching rate and the reason is straightforward: an exam doesn't take an hour of my time. For every hour in the room there's a report to write and paperwork to get in order afterward, and that work is real whether or not anyone sees it happen. The hourly figure covers the whole job, not the visible part.
It's billed by the hour rather than per exam because exams aren't the same length. An Associate in one style and a Fellowship across five are different afternoons.
When I'm examining for USIBDA I charge USIBDA's rate — they set a published schedule at $125 an hour and I'm not going to undercut or overcharge my own organization's fee table. Everywhere else, the rate above.
No administrative fee and no floor fee. Travel gets billed at cost and splits evenly across everyone examining that day.
Booking and cancellation
Loose, mostly. This industry runs on people rearranging things and I'd rather be easy to work with than hold you to a schedule that stopped making sense.
If I'm traveling to you, I'll ask for a deposit. Flights and hotels get booked in advance and don't refund themselves, so the deposit covers what I'm already committed to — not a penalty, just the part that's already spent. Cancel far enough out that nothing's booked and there's nothing to settle.
What I need before a date goes in the diary: which board and which level, whether you've got a partner arranged, and your trainer's confirmation that you're ready. That last one saves more grief than the other two combined.
Whoever organizes your session — me or anyone else — is required to give you a good-faith estimate of examiner costs before the exam. Ask for it in writing, and ask early enough that the number can still change your plans.
Costs · 11 of 11
What one exam costs.
Start with a single exam, because that's what you actually book. The full credential path is underneath, once the per-exam number makes sense.
This exam $0
Examiner travel $0
Preparing for it $0
About six months' worth. This is the largest block and it's the actual education — everything else is administration.
The whole credential $0
Once one exam makes sense, this is the rest of the road. Set how many you still need — the self-check fills this in if you've taken it.
NDCA adjudicator training and the adjudicator exam aren't in here. Those are arranged separately, through the NDCA, and cost $100 each.
If you're wondering whether this is for you
Two camps, opposite traps.
Nearly everyone taking these exams arrives from one of two directions. Neither is better. I've worked with plenty of both, and the best teachers I know have come out of each. But both have a trap waiting, and the traps are opposites.
The competitor
You danced, you trained, got to be pretty not bad, and the paperwork was somebody else's problem. Now you're near the end of it and you'd like the exams done so you can take the NDCA adjudicator's exam.
The teaching profile
You're building credentials because credentials mean something, and you'd like the letters after your name to reflect what you actually know.
The long version of this is in "Most Dancers Wait Too Long" →
Questions
The ones I actually get asked.
How long does preparation take?
About six months for most people. Hours per week isn't really the unit — you can only cram so much into your head at once, and the material has to go into your body, get tested on a live student, and then sit a while before it settles. Experience does some of the work and so does sleep.
Where it genuinely shortens is when you arrive with some of the preparation already done — earlier training that covered a lot of this ground, or a long stretch of studying at a modest pace. Either one can cut it down considerably.
Can you examine me if you're also training me?
No. No board permits it, so you'll need two people. If we're working together I'll point you at someone who examines; if I'm examining you, we haven't worked together. Worth sorting out early, because it affects who has to travel.
Do I have to take every style?
To teach, no — one is enough, and plenty of excellent teachers hold exactly one. Four is the well-rounded education, not an obligation. To adjudicate, yes: all four, through level two.
I've taught for twenty-five years. Do I really start at Associate?
Yes — and it isn’t a comment on your teaching. Associate is the first full professional degree, not a beginner’s certificate. What it tests is whether you can put what you already do into the shared language, and twenty-five years of good teaching doesn’t automatically produce that. It tends to produce something that works beautifully in your own room and doesn’t travel — your words, your shorthand, built with your own students. The exam is where it has to travel.
What you can do is take two levels in one session. That’s accelerated examination, and it takes two things: written permission from the board, and your trainer’s sign-off that you’re ready. Both gates are deliberate — a signature you can’t back up doesn’t do anybody any good, and it catches up with you at the NDCA exam, where somebody asks you a foot position and the answer has to be there. Ask your board how they handle it before you plan around it.
What happens if I fail?
See pass, fail, and the thing that happens instead. Short version: if it's clear early that it isn't going your way, the exam becomes a lesson, and you leave knowing what was missing.
Retake waiting periods and fees are set by each organization and they change. Check the examination handbook for the board you’re testing with rather than taking a number from me.
Next
Most of you should go straight to a board.
If you know which organization you're testing with, the application links are in the boards table. That's the right next step for nearly everyone reading this,
If you're training toward an exam and want somebody who's spent time behind the table, that's what I do — and per the above, it means somebody else examines you. Get in touch.