Balling Out within the Room: A Weekend Ballroom Competition

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It is not any secret that I’m on Carleton’s Ballroom and Latin Dance Team. If I needed to advocate you to attempt any membership at Carleton, it could be ballroom (and I’m saying that because the commodore of our Sailing Club). But you is perhaps questioning, what do you even do? How does competing even work?

Getting Ready

People that select to compete spend all time period prepping for competitors: working towards strategies, studying new strikes, and having enjoyable.

People pose in dance studio mirror
Posing on the finish of gown rehearsal apply two days earlier than competitors.

An necessary a part of the “official” ballroom uniform is our hair, costumes and (elective) make-up.

Person gels a friend's hair
It’s all the time simpler to have a pal make it easier to gel your hair down!

Ballroom hair presents a novel problem as a result of it’s not supposed to maneuver, even after dancing all day.

Selfie
Eric (’29) prematurely eliminated the gel from his hair, so everybody else continues to be gelled up 🙁
Mirror selfie, fixing hair
Fussing over my hair within the mirror as a result of I danced that morning, whereas my pal (who wasn’t dancing till the afternoon) takes a selfie in a e-book retailer

Getting to the Venue

U Dance Fest is a two-day collegiate ballroom occasion, hosted by the University of Minnesota. It’s within the Twin Cities, so we’ve got to drive there! We normally use campus autos for this.

Group stands around
Union Depot is the venue for U Dance Fest! It can be an energetic prepare station

Dancing

The level of a dance competitors is that you just dance. I solely do two types, latin and commonplace, however there’s additionally rhythm and clean. Plus, we’ve got some elements which might be purely for enjoyable, like staff match. For staff match, every staff chooses a pair for every fashion and sends them out to “compete.”

Flexing on the dance floor
My latin dance companion and I after staff match! (We held roses in our mouths the entire dance)

Watching People Dance

No one dancer can dancer each single stage, so there’s a number of time spent watching different dancers and cheering on teammates. This is all the time one of the vital enjoyable elements of competitors.

Dancers on a dance floor
Some skilled dancers competing!!

Eat (and Snack)

Dancing takes quite a bit of vitality, so it’s necessary to remain fueled up!

Selfie at lunch
BonApp sandwich lunch from Carleton!
Selfie at dinner
Our conventional Noodles&Co dinner!

More Dancing

After dinner we return to Union Depot for much more dancing!!!!! It’s sort of a packed schedule, however soooo a lot enjoyable.

Group selfie
Afternoon U Dance Fest selfie!

Sleep

For two-day competitions, we spend the night time within the cities. This time we have been in a resort proper throughout from the dance venue which was very handy!

Bathroom selfie
I’m very drained after a full day of dancing. We additionally normally sleep in our gelled hair, in order that we don’t must do it once more. (sure it stays in tact all night time)

Repeat

As a two-day competitors, there’s a second day!!!! This is normally once we take probably the most footage, however are additionally all fairly drained.

two people laughing
Laughing at one thing very humorous…

Return to Campus

All good issues should finish. Ultimately, we’re college students and never skilled ballroom dancers, so we’ve got to return on Sunday for lessons on Monday.

Person holds duffle bag
Me unhappy about having to go away

And now I’ve a life-long love for dance. I do know that after I graduate I’ll proceed to bop, and hopefully see my fellow staff members at different dance competitions!


Ronnie (they/she/he) is a senior Biology main from Oak Park, IL. Outside of running a blog, she can be an Admissions tour information and a Student Ambassador for Alumni Relations. You can normally discover them in Cowling Gymnasium with the Ballroom Dance Team, working towards for the following competitors or chatting with teammates. They even have very sturdy opinions about meals on campus (particularly LDC eggs and Burton fried tofu). She can be the commodore of Carleton’s crusing membership and a DJ for KRLX, the scholar run radio station.


This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its authentic location you possibly can go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.carleton.edu/admissions/blog/balling-out-in-the-room-a-weekend-ballroom-competition/
and if you wish to take away this text from our website please contact us