A teacher is showing this step in waltz going up on the balls of her feet with her legs apart-and staying apart for the three count and then finishing with the closing of feet together like bronze.
I can't find any info on the subject. She claims it is int'l gold. She claims it looks better than the silver. Any thoughts?

I normally close the feet together, but I think it depends/varies from person to person, or am I wrong on this?

I was taught to close my feet in bronze and do a brush step in silver. I don't know gold

What she's doing may in fact be an open gold Int'l variation, but I can't quite tell what it is the way it's described. At any rate, to answer your question in more general terms, there is no such thing as a "Gold Twinkle" per se. As others have mentioned, there are foot closing and foot passing actions, typically being deemed bronze and silver level, respectively. This is not limited to Twinkles; It applies to almost all actions in the American style smooth syllabus, such as basic Naturals, Reverses, Changes, etc.

Many people have their own interpretations or variations of figures. When such an interpretation is minor, such as a slight variation on sway or a turn of the head, it's considered artistic license. But when it's too great a departure from the basic figure, it would be considered a separate figure, and therefore "out of syllabus". In the pro-am competition world, non-syllabus events are labeled Open Gold, and so a teacher might label any such variation "Gold". I suspect this is the case here.

Regards,
Jonathan