Ryan Chartrand
Click here to view an audio slideshow from the 2008 Cal Poly Mustang Ball.
This was no college house party, but things got hot and heavy on the dance floor nonetheless, as long legs and little red dresses went flying across the floor at the second annual Mustang Ball.
Saturday’s ballroom dance competition seemed to prove that dancing with rules is just as sexy, if not more so, than the informal versions of the activity found in downtown bars and college apartments.
Indeed, by the time the American Rhythm and Latin dances – including the Rumba, Cha-Cha, Samba, and Mambo – had come around, the sweeping ballroom gowns had been turned in for tight, strappy little numbers.
With more than 750 separate dance entries, this year’s Mustang Ball proved even more successful than the first, with dancers from near and far coming to compete in the Central Coast’s biggest ballroom competition.
The Mustang Ball was started last year by Christopher Ellwood, a 2003 computer science graduate who started ballroom dancing as a student with the Ballroom Dancing Club. Previously, there had been no ballroom competitions of this magnitude on the Central Coast, and local dancers had to travel more than 200 miles to compete.
Now graduated and working locally, Ellwood still advises the club and continues to organize the competition. Tired but smiling toward the end of the evening, Ellwood said this year’s competition, though a little unorganized, had gone well.
“I feel good about it, everyone’s out there having fun,” he said, as he looked out on the floor where legs and hips were swinging with perfectly timed precision.
Ellwood himself stole the dance floor, placing first in the gold category for American Waltz, Tango and Foxtrot with Jolie Devoto; first in gold American Cha-Cha, Rumba, East Coast Swing and Bolero with Ashley Moraes; fourth in advanced American Smooth Three-Dance and the Viennese Waltz with Selena Pribyl of UC San Diego; and in the advanced category, first in the Hustle, third in West Coast Swing, fourth in Salsa and Nightclub Two-Step, and fifth in Merengue.
Also dancing for Cal Poly, Sean Stravropoulus and Ashley Moraes went on to steal first in advanced nightclub Two-Step, third in Salsa and Merengue and fourth in the Hustle.
Stravropoulus, an aerospace engineering junior, started dancing in sixth grade, “basically because my mom made me do it,” he said with a laugh. “But then I really started to enjoy it.”
He enjoyed it so much that by high school, he was teaching ballroom lessons. Now, he helps out at Cal Poly’s ballroom dancing lessons every Thursday.
“I like ballroom because it’s a good workout, you get to meet people, and it’s something not a lot of people know how to do,” Stravropoulus said. “I’m planning on keeping with it. Hopefully wherever I end up getting a job, there will be a ballroom in the area.”
His dance partner, Moraes, said she started ballroom because of the social aspect.
“Dancing with a partner versus dancing with yourself presents a whole different social area,” she said. Then, pausing to laugh, she added, “Well, actually, I just got into it because of the costumes.”
Back in the competition, Mikael Peterson and Hallie Scott took seventh in silver Rumba, while Peterson also took third in silver Foxtrot, international Waltz, and international quickstep dancing with Laura Slania.
Scott also took sixth in bronze international Waltz and seventh in the silver category, dancing with Christopher Shireman.
Horacio Heredia and Cindy Henning of Cal Poly danced to get eighth and fourth in the final rounds of advanced Salsa and Merengue, respectively.
Meanwhile, Eddie Lopez and Eily Murphy proved that dancing as a boyfriend-girlfriend couple has its advantages out on the floor. The couple took first in bronze American Waltz, second in American Tango, third in Cha-Cha and fifth in Rumba. In the silver category they placed third in Cha-Cha, fourth in American Waltz and Tango, fifth in Rumba, East Coast Swing and Bolero, and eighth in international Samba. They also tried out nightclub Two-Step as newcomers and placed third.
“We felt good about our Rumba, our Cha-Cha and our Tango,” Lopez said. “Especially considering that, being an architectural engineer, I don’t have lot of time to practice.”
“Ballroom’s good because you stay in shape and it’s a social activity,” he continued. “You get to share the experience with other people.”
As his girlfriend and dance partner, Murphy added that “compared to getting out there on the floor at a club, this is a lot more structured, a lot more organized, but there’s still a lot of room for improvising. Of course, it’s fun to be dancing with your boyfriend, too. You don’t have to dance with someone like that, but it does make certain dances easier.”
“Yeah, you can trust each other more on certain moves, (and) you can feel more comfortable about getting closer,” Lopez said.
Cal Poly’s ballroom newcomers proved they could hardly be considered strangers to the dance floor anymore either, with many of them placing in the final rounds.
Architecture freshman Alex Vincent and Annalea Thelander took second as newcomers in American Waltz, Tango and Cha-Cha, and fourth in Rumba, while Kevin Martinez and Nikki Webster took fifth in the final round of nightclub Two-Step.
Kevin Blakeney and Letitia Chagolla of Cal Poly won first in the newcomer category for American Tango and Cha-Cha, and second in rumba. They also scored sixth in the final round of Cha-Cha, dancing one level up in bronze.
Blakeney danced again, this time with partner Jessica Merrill, and took first in newcomer American Waltz and second in East Coast Swing.
Chad Clawitter and Jennifer Alford took second in the final round of newcomer Lindy Hop and sixth in the silver Cha-Cha category.
Saturday’s competition wound down with a spectacular five-dance Latin showcase by professional dancers Leonidus and Aliona Proskurov. The couple concluded the night by demonstrating exactly what makes ballroom dancing what it is: sexy, fast, flirtatious and elegant all at once.