Hips swayed, toes were pointed, smiles gleamed, eyes winked at judges. Costumes glimmered with rhinestones, revealing ample exposed skin to catch your eye but just enough to leave you curious. Hair was gelled. Teeth were at their whitest. Skin was spray-tanned to perfection. And that just describes the guys on the dance floor.
Thanks to over five months of planning and execution from BU’s Ballroom Dance Club, the Ninth Annual Boston University Terrier Dancesport Competition waltzed into town on Sunday, February 14th. Held in Metcalf Hall, the competition consisted of about 20 events and involved 360 registered dancers from schools and dance studios around the East Coast, according to BU Ballroom Dance Club president Amanda Paloian. The competition also included a showcase by the world’s third-best professional Latin dance couple, Franco Formica and Oxana Lebedew from Germany.
This year’s competition cost an estimated $15,500 and made anywhere from $7,000-$9,000, which will go towards next year’s competition, Paloian said.
“I was more than satisfied with the execution of our competition. As always, there are things that could have gone better, but
overall I would consider it a huge success for our ballroom club and team,” said Paloian in an e-mail.
But while e-board members spent the day registering couples, dealing with a judge calling in sick, coordinating with the showcase couple and a multitude of other backstage details, some club members tackled issues of their own on the competition floor.
“[Mid-dance] my shoe ran into another couple and I stepped sideways on my shoe, so my shoe went sideways,…and I had to tell Aaron to stop so I wasn’t three inches shorter on one side than another,” BU journalism major Mariah Sondergard explained.
Sondergard and her partner Aaron Colby, a BU graduate student studying biomedical engineering, are silver level ballroom competitors and have been dancing with BU’s Ballroom Club since last year. Together, they prepared for BU’s competition with their typical nine hours of practice each week during club lessons, private lessons, and individual practice. At the BU competition, the couple competed in all silver International Standard and American Smooth events, in addition to gold American Viennese Waltz and novice International Standard Viennese Waltz.
“In the first few rounds I’m always nervous, very nervous,” Colby said. “As we get into further semi-finals, quarter finals, it’s not so much being nervous, it’s enjoying it….” While on the dance floor, Colby said he worries about timing, steps, where judges are, where other couples are around them.
“It’s much harder to be him,” Sondergard joked. “Ideally I am not thinking about very much, because then it doesn’t go well. Ideally I am enjoying the dancing and…now I know the dances so I get into the feeling a little more … If it’s not going well, I’m thinking about not being heavy so he doesn’t have to carry me around.”
Regardless of any competition jitters, the couple won the silver American Smooth events, earning first place in American Foxtrot, third in American Waltz/Tango, second in gold American Viennese Waltz, fifth in International Waltz/Quickstep and seventh in novice International Viennese Waltz.
“I thought I was going to throw up while we were on the on-deck area,” silver dancer and BU Ballroom Club’s public relations e-board member Stefanie Rich said.
She and her partner, BU co-captain Steven Adam, danced in silver American Rhythm and International Latin events at BU’s competition.
“Honestly, I wish I had practiced more. I wish I had planned on competing in BU from the get-go,” Rich said. “I wish I had practiced with my dress on because my dress got caught on Steven’s button and that was a problem.”
“When I’m out there, all you can hear is the music and I’m wearing the dress I bought, it’s fun…and you feel pretty proud of yourself, especially when you get a call back, because even if you aren’t the best, you know you’re better than somebody else,” Rich added.
Silver BU competitor Harrison Wright described the sensation of ballroom: “There are times during the dance where you get done from a dance where you’re like, ‘That was okay.’ But, then there are times when you get off and you’re like, ‘Wow, we hit it.’”
He and his partner, Jessica Lee, started preparing for BU’s competition specifically two weeks prior, following their last competition at Brandeis University. After competing in silver American Rhythm and International Latin, the two left the dance floor with first place in American Swing, second in American Cha Cha/Rumba, second in International Cha Cha/Rumba, and sixth in International Samba.
“What was also different [about the BU competition] was it was nice to have people from BU come out and see us….to have our friends come and see the final product with the hair and make-up and everything,” Lee said.
“For me personally, BU was different because my parents were there, so I very specifically wanted to do well for them,…to show off for them, to show them how well we dance, but more to show them how happy this makes me, how important it is to me” Sondergard said.
