Ballroom team preparing for big event
The USU ballroom dance team will perform their first themed showcase, “Jungles,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday with a 1:30 p.m. matinee Saturday at the Ellen Eccles Theatre. Entry is $5 for students and $12 to $15 for community members.
Jeanne Shelton, USU ballroom dance team coach, said despite half the team being novices, the team has shown great improvement during the course of the 2008-2009 academic year, competed at the collegiate level against other ballroom dance teams in the West and took second place in Latin medley in a recent competition in San Diego, Calif.
“It’s been fun to see some of the guys who have never danced a step in their life perform Latin medleys and waltzes. The team has so much grace,” Shelton said.
The team signed on Adam and Jeanne Shelton to coach the ballroom dance team in August 2008. They were originally asked by team president Hayley Hayden Axtell to attend the team’s spring 2008 showcase.
Axtell knew of the couple’s dance experience at Brigham Young University and their coaching experience at Timpview High School. When Axtell heard the couple planned to move to Logan to start a youth ballroom program, she contacted them to invite them to the team’s showcase.
“The main reason we wanted to move back to Logan was to bring ballroom to Cache Valley,” Shelton said. “Ballroom is an addictive sport. Once you start ballroom, you don’t want to go back to any other style.”
USU ballroom dance team secretary Idena Ward, senior majoring in law and constitutional studies, said after watching the team’s performance the couple said they would be willing to coach the team because of the potential they saw.
The Sheltons were aiming for a more family and community-oriented themed show so they decided to pick a jungle theme, Shelton said.
“We wanted something that would really get families and the community to the show so we thought a jungle theme would be a really fun theme to choreograph ballroom routines to,” Shelton said.
The showcase will be a mix of different styles of ballroom dance ranging from Latin medley, slow waltz and foxtrot to swing, Shelton said. Special guests from the African Student Association will also be performing on the drums in the show, she said.
“This show is going to be fun for all. There’s something in it that applies to everybody,” she said. “This is what we’ve been working all year for, all of fall and all of spring.”
Ward said the ability level of the team has really escalated since the start of the team in August 2008 and the team is becoming more well known in the community.
“For a long time the team was only known to the people on the team,” she said.
During regional competitions, western teams put more risque moves in their routines to win competitions but their team uses just straight dance, Ward said.
“I think people love what we bring to the competition,” she said. “We are more technically accurate and so I think we put a lot more competition than some of the other teams. We don’t resort to cheap tricks in order to get people to clap.”
Ward said she is excited for the show and there is something for everybody to come and enjoy.
“We are going to go out there and stun people with how good we are,” she said.
–candice.sandness@aggiemail.usu.edu