Background

The Modern Jive Points Index arose from a need to have a competition points system that could meet the many challenges facing particularly Modern Jive competitors. The two mains concepts are:

  • Concept of points paths.
  • Reflecting the size of a competition category in the amount of points awarded.

This new approach was initially proposed by Deb and Matt of Fevah Modern Jive, Christchurch.

The most complex task was to come up with the actual points values in the tables above, this was handled by one of teachers and judges - Dave Kerby. In his non-dance life Dave works as an accountant for a $100m+ p.a. organisation specialising heavily in the area of forecasting models.

Dave created a sophisticated data modelling and forecasting program to optimise the points values by simulating 10 years of competitions to see how the points distribution would evolve over time. The whole process took over 100 hours of development. As part of the testing, a simulation was run prior to the 2016 Christchurch Champs and compared against the actual results, the difference in expected points per competitor was less than 2.

We are extremely fortunate to have Dave's combined knowledge of modelling, forecasting and dance competitions to arrive at a solution we believe will benefit all our competitors and anyone who wishes to use the Modern Jive Points Index.

Deb is one of the co-directors of Fevah Modern Jive with 16 years of Modern Jive competition experience, 4 years Dancesport competition experience and 12 years experience of judging Modern Jive competitions both in New Zealand and Australia.

Deb worked with Dave to ensure that the Points Index would help serve the needs of our dance community.

Matt is the other co-director of Fevah Modern Jive with slightly less experience than Deb and does the backend database and web site development.

Below is a copy of our announcement in 2016.

Making Competitions – Even Better!
Enter: A New Competition System
Getting started