By Theresa Langschultz
They were positioned at the center of the room, dressed in sleek black outfits and moving to a melodious salsa beat. As the two moved across the floor two dozen enraptured onlookers studied their moves and poise.
The scene was not a professional competition, but a typical night at Northeastern’s Ballroom Dance Team dance camp as two upperclassmen dancers gave a demonstration to their new recruits.
The team, founded in the late 1980s by the brother of journalism faculty advisor Susan Conover, offers students a chance to meet people, learn to dance and train for ballroom competitions at bi-weekly lessons taught by upperclassmen team members.
For many students, including President Meg Gibber, the ballroom dance team is their first opportunity to learn formal dancing.
“I had never danced before and saw they were giving free swing lessons my freshman year, so I came every night of the camp and have been here ever since,” said Gibber, a senior political science major.
The team gives members the “strongly encouraged, but not mandatory” option of training and participating in intense intercollegiate competitions.
“You’re there for like 10 hours – you wake up at 5 a.m. – all to dance for six minutes,” said Vice President Christian Ratliff, a middler English major. “And that’s if you get called back, because your [first] routine is usually only 90 seconds long.”
While the competitions can last an entire day, they give the dancers the chance to watch and meet skilled dancers from schools throughout the Northeast.
“It’s definitely worth it. You meet a lot of new people from different schools because of competitions. It’s definitely a close-knit community,” said Lindsey Gray, a middler political science major.
Problems arose for the team in recent years, due to decreased funding from the University. The Monday and Thursday lessons were originally taught by a hired dancer, but are now taught by upperclassmen on the team, Gibbler said.
The team’s costs are offset by a $25 NU student membership fee, which covers the use of costumes, discounts on dance shoes and practice space.
Interested non-Northeastern community members pay a $40 membership fee.
Freshman psychology major Natalie Zawojek summed up the zeal of the many interested newcomers.
“I’ve always wanted to learn how to ballroom dance,” Zawojek said. “When I heard that Northeastern does it, I was right there.”
Other students cited recent mainstream movies, along with ABC’s hit summer program “Dancing with the Stars,” as reasons to join the club. Freshman political science major Bianca Litano said she decided to get involved for these reasons.
“I always wanted to do it,” she said. “I saw competitions on TV.”
Still, Gibber predicts due to increased public interest in ballroom dancing, as well as the first-ever ballroom tutorials held at freshman orientation sessions this summer, more people will be interested.
“A lot of movies came out, like Richard Gere’s Shall We Dance?” Gibber said. “It’s pretty nice because it’s a lot of free publicity for us. This is a nice way for people to get started if they’re interested.”
