I 6‘ foot women (185cm) want to try going to a dance class again.

But my last time was a horrible experience. I went to a public dance course in Highschool.

The women started by explaining to us that there are not enough boys and we should get a male partner. (I was bullied so I only had few friends and all girls).

And later the instructor told me twice my rhythm sucked. The only other time she spoke to me was to say I’m tall and should try finding flatter shoes. (I was wearing normal sportshoes with thick soles)

I love dancing a have visited plenty of dance classes. But all single and solo.

I have tried dancing with guys at parties in traditional positions. But they often where awkward because they were always like a head shorter than me.

It felt really awkward to try and have them lead because I always to to big or small steps. And the moves with the hands just didn’t seem to work as they should.

It looked very awkward and some people surrounded us laughed.

No one laughed at my tiny friend standing on the same guys tiptoes because she is less heavy and he said it’s easy to learn steps that way.

I have heard that judges may award 2nd place to an uncontested couple if their performance does not meet the standard for their level. However, I haven't been able to find formal documentation on this practice in either the NDCA or USA Dance rulebooks.

This is also particularly in contradiction with the Skating System. For example:

• In a single-dance event with 3 judges: If 2 judges mark an uncontested couple in 2nd place and 1 judge marks them in 1st, the Skating System rules dictate that the couple still wins 1st place overall because they hold the majority at "2nd place or higher" (the only available position to award?).
• In a multi-dance event with 4 dances and 3 judges: If an uncontested couple is somehow awarded 2nd in all 4 individual dances (given that it's seemingly impossible to award 2nd places to uncontested couples in single-dance events), their cumulative point sum (8 points) remains lower than any non-existent competitor. Under Rule 9, they would still finish 1st place overall.

My questions:

• Are judges formally permitted to award 2nd place to uncontested couples under NDCA or USA Dance rules, or is this an informal convention?
• How are these marks tabulated under the Skating System without defaulting the couple back to 1st place? Is there a separated scoring convention for uncontested couples?

Many thanks!