Ballroom dancing growing as a club

With a fun, lively atmosphere, team socials and exciting competitions, the Princeton Ballroom Dance Club puts the "club" back into club sports. Unlike most club sports that only nominally require no experience, club ballroom actually expects none. There are no cuts and there is no reward for doing well beyond your own satisfaction. Competitors dance because they love what they do.

This atmosphere has caused the club's popularity to skyrocket recently. The team took 17 couples to its last competition, whereas last year it could only hope to field a handful at a time. Many team members simply decide not to leave. The club has a number of graduate students and alumni who used to compete as undergraduates and continue to help out.

The opportunity for novice participation, however, is what has most contributed to the club's rise.

"This year, our newcomers competed in standard dance after only two weeks — two sessions — of practice," sophomore Rachel Johnson said.

Newcomers are initially paired with a partner based on height, but after that their choice of partner, as well as the division in which they compete, is up to them. The Princeton team has dancers in every division ranging from newcomer to open, the highest nonprofessional division. Advancement is usually based on scores at previous tournaments, but particularly ambitious dancers can place themselves as well.

Dances are divided into two broad categories — American and International. While many clubs choose to focus on the American style, PBDC almost ignores it altogether. "International dances are much more consistent, more structured," Johnson explained. "We don't like to do American."

The International style is further divided into two subcategories — Standard and Latin. The Standard dances, namely the Waltz, the Tango, the Quickstep, the Foxtrot and the Viennese Waltz, are much more formal with partners always staying together, never coming out of frame. The Latin dances are more free flowing. In either case, for the first four levels of competition — newcomer, bronze, silver and gold — dancers must stick to a very specific routine or syllabus determined before the competition. Once competitors have reached the more advanced open level, however, they are free to improvise and creatively explore different techniques.

The team competes every month or so at a variety of tournaments. A number are more formal competitions sanctioned by the United States of America Ballroom Dancing Association — the governing body of the sport. Others, though, are just for the love of dance. The club organizes trips each year to social dances at Rutgers and Penn and even performs at local dance clubs and retirement homes.

"We'll dance in any place that has a large wooden floor," Johnson said.

In addition to the away competitions the team attends, the club hosts several social balls at Princeton during the year. The Swing Night and the Fall Ball are raucous showcases of the team's skill. The atmosphere is intense with Princeton dancers as well as townies cheering loudly for their favorite pairs.

These expositions put the team's deep stock of talent on display for the community. Alumnus Dave Escoffery '95 and sophomore team captain Milana Zaurova lead the Princeton team in Latin dance, competing at the gold level. Complementing them are junior treasurer Patricia Li and recent graduate school alumnus Alexey Makarov dancing in the silver standard division.

The star of the team, though, is postdoctoral research associate Fumin Zhang who in addition to coaching the team practices for beginners, competes in the open division for both Standard and Latin dance.

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The team is also fortunate to have the contributions of Escoffery's wife, Joelle '95, and Rutgers junior Ilya Korsonsky, who pitch in to coach the team formation practices held once a week in addition to the advanced and beginner classes.

Though the club is expanding, it could always use more dancers. The team looks to take as many people to Yale on Dec. 2 as it can and is more than open to newcomers joining now — they're looking to spread the gospel of ballroom dance.