Ballroom dance team cha-chas to second place at competition
USU’s ballroom team snagged second place in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Devil Dancesport Challenge, a competition that brought six schools together in front of a panel of judges to perform dances from the mambo to the quickstep.
The ballroom team is especially pleased by this title because they were able to beat their rival school, University of California-San Diego, which they originally set out to do, ballroom team coach Jeanne-Louise Shelton said.
“The team was really crisp and clean in their formations,” Shelton said. “We knew we had a chance. We definitely thought we would be in the to three and that was our goal.”
Ballroom team member and junior physics major Scott Stephenson specializes in Latin dancing, such as the salsa, cha-cha and rhumba. This type of dancing is what put the ballroom team in second place for the Latin Medley arrangements. Stephenson said the team felt prepared going into the competition to beat UC San Diego; however, the anticipated first place would go to Southern Utah University because they have a dance program, unlike USU. SUU has a ballroom team twice the size of USU’s and dancers who have more experience, he said.
“Utah State is trying to get a dance program back at the univeristy,” Stephenson said. “They had one several years ago, and I don’t know why they stopped. I think the arts are important in education and I feel it’s important to have that option.”
Shelton said she and her husband, Adam Shelton, who also coaches the team, are hoping to take next year’s ballroom team to a competition in Ohio and another in Canada, but must raise enough money to do so. The team has previously competed in California, Idaho, Nevada and Utah, she said.
“Ballroom dance is addicting and I think it’s addicting for a couple reasons,” Shelton said. “One reason is you get to dance with a partner and there is no other sport where you can compete as a partnership. This makes it really unique and fun.”
She said the second addicting aspect of ballroom dance is its artistic elements, in addition to the athletic ability it requires, so the dancer has “the best of both worlds.” Tryouts for next year’s ballroom team will be held April 28 at 3:30 p.m. in the Golden Toaster chapel on 1200 East, and students who make the team will be split into three groups: competition team, performance team and beginning team. Students have shown an increased interest in the sport throughout the year, and Shelton said splitting the team will allow more participation.
Stephenson said he is impressed by the growth of the university’s interest in the sport as well as the growth of his teammates as dancers.
“I am impressed with how far we’ve come and how much we’ve progressed in the years we have been doing this. With the few numbers we have to work with, we have still been able to compete well,” he said.
Shelton encourages all students who make the ballroom team to narrow their selection of dance to a few styles in order to master them for competitions. Many current members of the team have a few dances they focus on practicing while others decide to compete with 10 dance styles.
Stephenson said the hardest part about preparing for competitions is memorizing the dance routine. Overall, ballroom is difficult because the dancers have to pay close attention to the lines of their formation in order to keep them from looking sloppy.
Adam Shelton said, “The USU team practices nine hours every week. We work on technique such as correct foot placement and hip action, choreography and synchronization.”
Unlike gymnastics and other dance-type sports, ballroom dance has no concrete guidelines to navigate how well or poorly a team did.
“In ballroom, it’s all very subjective,” Shelton said. “Sometimes, it’s hard to know how we did because they don’t have an exact criteria, so it kind of comes down to the personal styling tastes of the judges.”
In addtion to the ballroom team’s second-place ranking in the Latin Medley, USU’s ballroom team placed third in the International style team match and then came out in first place in the American style team match. Overall, the ballroom team walked away from the Las Vegas competition with 40 individual and team awards.
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu