FORMER Wagga residents and Australian ballroom dancing champions Matthew Rooke and Anna Longmore were ejected from a national competition on Saturday night after they wore a yellow sash in support of their dancing peers who had been banned from attending the event.
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Mr Rooke said the yellow sash - worn by Ms Longmore in their dance of honour after the couple was named winner of the Australian Dancesport Championships - symbolically represented the Freedom to Dance movement which had quickly swept through the dancing industry in past months.
Six Australian couples had been banned by the World Dancesport Federation from competing for the next six months after they entered an event in London which was not endorsed by the federation.
Mr Rooke said the movement was not well-known outside the dancing industry and had the event organiser not made such a fuss on the night their sash would have remained a silent protest.
"We didn't expect it would have this effect," Mr Rooke said.
"Within the industry there has been a lot going on about it, but we aren't a high-profile sport."
While DanceSport Australia does not put restraints on which competitions its dancers can enter, countries such as Italy and Russia do.
Now that the World DanceSport Federation has followed suit, Mr Rooke said that the situation was becoming complex.
"There are events that have been around for hundreds of years," he said.
"I think it needed for something like this to happen for things to change."
Ms Longmore and Mr Rooke began dancing together in 1992 and have since won 11 Australian ballroom dancing championships.
Mr Rooke's father John said that he was proud of the success Anna and Matthew have enjoyed at an international level and paid tribute to their hard work and dedication over the years.
