For an event with more than six or seven couples entered, the competition is run in several rounds. When the floor is not big enough to accomodate all of these couples at once, they will dance in several heats.
For each round (except the final), the judges are asked to call a certain number of couples back (usually a little more than half). Each judge writes down the numbers of the couples he wishes to call back (the competition numbers are made of cardboard or cloth and are safety-pinned to the gentleman's back). Then the scrutineer tabulates the marks to see which couples have received the most callbacks. For a five-judge competition, it usually takes about three marks to be called back, but it varies depending on how much the judges agree. The couples that have enough marks are called to dance in the next round.
There are usually six couples in the final. Each judge ranks all the finalist couples from first to sixth, and then the scrutineer tabulates the marks to determine the order of the finalists. The scrutineering system is based on median ranking - anyone who is interested in details or in learning to become a certified scrutineer should talk to Elizabeth Nugent.
Written by Elizabeth Nugent