Club Corner: Ballroom Dance

COURTESY DENISE HO Shall we dance?

"One, two, three, four and one..." While the sounds of rhythm counts may seem a little strange to the Yalie of today—who thinks that dancing is an activity to be done while drunk at the Safety Dance—to the ballroom dancing team, such sounds comprise its art. The squad brings the sounds and dance styles of Europe, Latin America, and early America to dance floors across campus. It competes against other colleges, runs classes each Sunday at Payne Whitney Gym, and sponsors dances on campus.

The team travels to many nearby universities, including MIT, Harvard, and UConn, to compete against hundreds of other students. Competitions include beginner, intermediate, and advanced categories, with dancers arranged in couples. Of the competing dancers, the best are selected to advance to the next level of competition, called heats. A competition may have anywhere between three and 15 heats, culminating in a final couple winning their category.

Dances can be divided into two broad categories: the Latin or rhythm dances and the smooth style dances. The first category consists of rumba, mambo, cha-cha, swing, salsa, merengue, paso doble, bolero and the samba. The second category includes the waltz, foxtrot, peabody, and Viennese waltz. Each dancer, however, is not responsible for knowing each dance. Some dances, such as swing and salsa, are more commonly performed at competitions than others, such as the peabody, which dancers do not usually need to know.

The ballroom team is a very tight-knit group of friends. "[Dancers] are the kind of people that love to party," Danny Chazin, ES '02, said. While obviously inspired and dedicated to each other and their performance, this group certainly has its share of fun. Sometimes, during competition, the dancers get to do "fun dances," such as "cross-dress" dances, same sex dances and, according to Chazin, "the Paso Doble for those who don't know how."

The dancers don't just compete at tournaments—they also try to give other, less-talented Yalies a chance to feel comfortable dancing socially. They offer classes every Sunday at Payne Whitney, allowing people from a variety of different talent levels to learn the art of social dancing. "The lessons were taught very well, but Ithought that they should focus more on one style of dance rather than try to teach them all," Alexandra Yates, TD '02, said. Maybe the dance team tried to teach their students a little too much.

—Matt Longo

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