Strictly Ballroom

He is wearing the same blue sweater that your grandfather likes to wear, and she has her brown curly hair nicely done like your grandmother. The old couple is looking at each other as they dance, and smiling like teenagers in love. Dance shoes click on the wooden floor to the sound of Italian music playing in the background.

On the other side of the room, two undergraduate students work on their steps together, trying to master the same dance as the older couple — the Argentine tango.

Just then, a woman calls out for everyone to stop; she is the instructor of the class, and she is going to show them some new steps. The men go to the right side of the room and the women to the left. She demonstrates a new part of the dance with one of the women in the class, and the students follow her moves in order to pick up the technique.

"Back, side, cross, together!" she calls out, and they all move in unison.

After they have mastered the basic pattern, they pair up again to practice what they just learned.

In the same room, undergraduate and graduate students, middle-aged people and senior citizens are learning together. They are in a class sponsored by the Princeton Ballroom Dance Club.

Some of the students have been dancing for years and want to refresh their skills; some just began recently and want to learn something new. This beginner's class allows them to do just that, in a fun environment with many different age groups.

Unlike most other arts activities on campus, prospective members need no experience to join PBDC.

According to Jeanne Woon '01, president of PBDC, many people come to the club saying, "I have no rhythm, I have two left feet." The club welcomes these self-proclaimed klutzes, and transforms them.

"Everybody by the end of the semester can dance all the dances that we teach them in class," Woon said.

Undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and members of the community can all take part in PBDC. Woon said many people become involved because they want to learn a popular dance, such as swing, or because they want to learn to dance in time for their weddings. Others are simply interested in trying something they have never done before.

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PBDC offers beginner's classes on Sunday and Monday nights, when American social dances such as swing, mambo, hustle and merrengue are usually taught.

These classes are a good way for people with an interest in dancing to acquire basic skills from experienced instructors — some from the University and some brought in from the outside. Here, people learn dances they can show off at social functions. The class environment is fun and not intimidating.

Jan Ben, a participant from Atlantic Highlands, N.J., said he was looking for dance classes such as these and he found out about PBDC on the Internet. He started out in a beginner's class and is now taking the advanced Latin class. He said that the classes have been a wonderful opportunity, and that it was easy to get involved in PBDC.

In addition to classes, PBDC also competes in intercollegiate level ballroom dancing, and has been doing so since January 1999. Not everyone in the club participates in these competitions, but many people become involved at some point during their membership.

There are different levels of competition to make the contests friendly to experts and beginners alike. In fact, after members of the club have been dancing for more than a year, they are no longer allowed to compete as beginners.

Emi Terasawa '00, a former PBDC member, also said she became involved in the club easily. Terasawa started classes as a junior and at the end of the year she began competing — "I was hooked," she said. This year, Terasawa is teaching the intermediate class.

Christina Brown '01, vice-president and treasurer of PBDC, said the club holds special team classes to prepare for competitions. These classes are designed to teach couples the ins and outs of competing — namely how to refine their technique and build a routine.

PBDC competes in International style, which has two classifications — Latin and Standard. The Latin dances are the rumba, cha-cha, jive, samba and paso doble, and the standard dances are the waltz, quickstep, tango, foxtrot and Viennese waltz.

The competitors dance to songs chosen by DJs who work for the competitions. Each song has a distinct tempo, depending on which dance will be performed. Sometimes DJs set songs like Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" to different beats to use them for several types of dances, Woon said.

The couples dance in heats, and the judges call back the dancers who they think are the most talented. By the final heat, in which the winners are chosen, the initial pool of couples has been narrowed down to only six.

A published syllabus details the specific steps for the dances on which the couples are judged. The judges look for footwork, rhythm, posture and interaction between partners. There are three syllabus levels — bronze, silver and gold — in addition to an open dance.

PBDC has taken part in many competitions during the past several years, including those at Brown, Harvard, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, MIT and NYU.

Michael Buchanan GS — the club's secretary, historian and DJ — offered some information on the background of PBDC.

The club was founded by Neil Clover, a professional ballroom dancer, in 1983. Clover wanted to encourage social and competitive ballroom dancing in the University and the nearby community. He is remembered each year at the club's Spring Ball, which is named the Clover Ball in his honor. There is also a plaque with Clover's picture hanging in the Dillon gym dance studio.

PBDC also has a Fall Ball. This year, it will be held Nov. 18 in Dillon Gym.

In addition to the Balls, PBDC also hosts a Swing Night each semester, which usually attracts several hundred people from Princeton, New York and Philadelphia.

Those who attend the dance can arrive early for swing-dancing instruction, and can then spend the rest of the night trying out their new skills with a live band hired by PBDC. Swing Night allows PBDC to connect with the community by teaching non-members a fun, popular dance and giving them a taste of the activity PBDC members love so much.

Brown said PBDC is enjoyable because dance partners are physically interacting, and because dancing is a social activity as well as a skill. And a valuable one too, whether you're a grandmother in a blue sweater or a teenager in love.