The board of directors governs the overall organization and maintains a standard of operations, uniform competition format, judging, scoring and comprehensive rules, adhered to by dancesport competitors.

[6] The movie influenced popular culture with not only the success of three #1 hits on the country music charts, but the portrayal of a country/western nightclub, country/western attire and a dance competition at the Dallas, Texas honkytonk, Gilley’s.

[11][12] In 1989, a group of 21 country/western dance-event owners met in Grantville, Pennsylvania with the goal of creating a national organization with uniform rules, teaching canon, judging, dance standards and competition formats.

[20] The world championships are the culmination of a competition season and have been located primarily inside the United States, however they were held once in Canada,[21] once in the Netherlands,[22][23] and once in Sweden.

[33] Dancesport contestants may register in couples, line dance, teams, ProAm, ProPro, cabaret or showtime competition divisions.

UCWDC couples, ProAm, and ProPro may compete in as many as eight country/western dances which are danced in the following prescribed order; triple two-step, nightclub, waltz, polka, cha cha, east coast swing, two-step, and west coast swing.

[35][36] In UCWDC couples competition, dancers compete at a dance level commensurate with their skill abilities and/or qualifications.

In UCWDC ProAm or ProPro competition, student dancers compete at a dance level commensurate with their skill abilities and/or qualifications.