Allison Montroy
amontroy@mustangdaily.net
Colin Keane and Marie Grap walk through the arch of white, green and gold balloons, arms outstretched, faces frozen in a smile as they glide past the judges. They take their places among the other dancers. Standing just a foot apart, the couple poses, eyes locked, bodies reaching, waiting for the signal. Three trumpet blasts mark the start of the song and Grap’s blue and white polka-dotted dress twirls into Keane’s arms with confident flair as their feet become a blur on the linoleum floor.
The sixth annual Cal Poly DanceSport team’s Mustang Ball amateur silver cha-cha semifinals have begun.
Keane, an English junior, and Grap, a computer science junior, have been dancing together on Cal Poly’s DanceSport team for two years.
The duo was one of more than 50 couples who competed in Saturday’s ballroom dancing event. Dancers from all over California, ranging from amateur newcomer to advanced, competed in one-and-a-half minute sessions of the waltz, tango, foxtrot, cha-cha, rumba, swing, mambo, samba, salsa and quickstep dance forms.
“We get a pretty good reception at this,” DanceSport team president and business administration senior Amy Leung, who has been on the team for three years, said. “And what’s really great is to see that these competitors in a few years will be at such a higher level of dancing.”
Leung compared the scoring system of the Mustang Ball to a track and field competition. If a couple placed in semifinals for a certain dance style, they went on to dance in the finals round. The top eight highest-ranked couples from every finals round were awarded ribbons at each division’s award ceremony.
Keane and Grap were awarded fourth place in the amateur silver division tango and third place in the foxtrot.
DanceSport coach of eight years Christopher Ellwood said attendance was up 40 percent from last year’s competition, and all of the events ran smoothly. Cal Poly’s DanceSport team currently has about 20 members.
“A lot of kids on campus think it’s too serious or not fun, but it is fun,” Grap said. “It’s doing something with your time that builds character and develops confidence, and it’s not something a lot of students do, which makes it special.”
Grap said she loves dancing and called it a “good escape from school work.”
But competing in almost 10 different dance styles, especially with a partner, is no simple escape.
“It’s a skill,” Grap said. “You learn to listen with your body and understand the way your partner turns and frames their body. Every dance is lead and follow. There’s no set routine at this level of dancing. You have to follow the music.”
For Keane, it’s all about practice.
“It’s not something that comes naturally,” Keane said. “It is a language, and your partner learns to speak it with you.”
Graduate student Anne Nakano said after four years of dancing, she thinks communication between partners is key.
“You have to have (communication),” Nakano said. “It’s interesting, because we have to show (the judges) that we’re doing this because we love it, and the way you communicate with your partner shows that.”
Nakano said training for the competition is not unlike training for other athletic teams, save for one key difference: most athletic teams don’t compete in floor-length gowns and tuxedo vests.
The dancers’ fancy getups are part of the characters they embody in each dance.
“Each dance has got a lot of character, especially tango,” Nakano said. “It’s sassy and intense, and it’s fun to put on that face.”
Keane said the diversity of the dance styles makes them fun.
“The elegance of waltz, the vibrancy of swing, the flirtiness of the foxtrot; we really enjoy that.”
Ellwood said students do not need to know how to dance in order to join the ballroom dance team and said about 95 percent of students on the team started with no ballroom experience.
In fact, the team holds lessons on campus Thursdays at 7 p.m. for anyone interested in learning.
Ellwood, who started ballroom dance as a student at Cal Poly, said the best part of competitive ballroom dance is sharing the sport with others.
“I love the sport,” Ellwood said, “I love dancing, and I love showing people that joy.”