Northwestern’s Ballroom, Latin and Swing Team hosted the NU Dancesport Classic at the Woman’s Club of Evanston Saturday. Every year since 2019, the ballroom dancing competition has drawn entrants from schools across the Midwest, competing in a variety of dance categories from Viennese Waltz to International Latin.
Each couple enters the dance floor knowing what category they will compete in, but not which song they will dance to. To prepare for this, couples choreograph dances to the time signature of the style of dance — for instance, a waltz is counted in 3/4 time. As the music begins, each dancer listens and falls in step with their partner performing the choreographed moves.
Some pairs don’t know their partners until the day of the competition. When ballroom dancers find themselves without a partner for an upcoming competition, they are considered “dancing TBA,” meaning their partner is to be announced.
The Northwestern Dancesport Classic provided a spreadsheet for TBA dancers to sign up and find partners in their categories. Alice Li, a fourth-year chemistry Ph.D. student at NU, found her partner Anthony Prabhu-Hensley of Purdue University through the TBA list, and they ended up winning a ribbon.
BLAST President and Weinberg junior Abby Miggiani said her favorite thing about ballroom dancing is dancing with other people, whether she knows them or not.
“You can start dancing with someone that you don’t know at all, just because you have both been trained in certain moves,” Miggiani said.
In ballroom dancing, couples consist of a lead and a follow. Miggiani said BLAST does not have enough lead dancers, so some of the club members competed in multiple pairs.
Weinberg junior Andre Shportko competed with both Weinberg senior Kaytlyn Mittag and second-year communications graduate student Lynette Zhang in the International Standard category, which includes the Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Quickstep and Viennese Waltz.
Shportko won three first-place ribbons before lunch in Standard Novice and Viennese Waltz with Mittag and Standard Pre-Championship with Zhang. Shportko started ballroom dancing when he was 11 years old in his hometown and got involved with BLAST when he came to NU, he said.
Shportko said the club played a very important role in the competition because they organize it every year.
“We are a very small club, and the way that we organize all of it is outstanding,” Shportko said.
Shportko’s dance partner Mittag, the BLAST Competition Chair, is responsible for organizing a large part of the competition. Mittag came across the club when she was researching colleges and decided to apply her previous dance experience to learn something new.
Mittag said she loves all the connections she has formed while competing with her fellow club members, whether in Evanston or when traveling to other universities. She emphasized the club’s welcoming environment toward new members and encouraged students to join.
“We always like new members. Almost everyone comes in with no ballroom dance experience. I had no ballroom dance experience,” Mittag said. “You get to know the people pretty well.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Alice Li as a second-year Ph.D. student. Li is a fourth-year Ph.D. student. The Daily regrets this error.
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