The Division

WDSF Professional Division has been legally established in June 2010 at the IDSF General Meeting in Vienna by the amendment of the IDSF Statutes. The Division became operational within the structures of IDSF by the decision of the General Meeting of the International Professional DanceSport Council (IPDSC) on 15 August in Stuttgart to dissolve IPDSC as an independent body and to merge it into the IDSF (with the new name WDSF since June 19, 2011, adopted at the General Meeting in Luxembourg).

IPDSC as predecessor of WDSF PD was established in 2007 following the proposal of the Italian DanceSport Federation and supported by IDSF. Its first President was Mr. Peter Maxwell, followed by Mr. Daniele Tondon when Peter Maxwell had to retire for personal reasons and was awarded with the title Honorary Life President.

Even prior to merging IPDSC into IDSF Professional Division, IDSF President Mr. Carlos Freitag and IPDSC President Mr. Daniele Tondon had been encouraging IDSF National Member Bodies as well as IPDSC Members to work on establishing professional divisions or departments within IDSF National Member Bodies. In WDSF PD this process has been further encouraged under the leadership of Mr. Aleksandr Melnikov who took over the position of WDSF PD Director from Daniele Tondon in 2011 and the same policy will be carried on under the actual PD Director Mrs. Verena Sulek.