Ballroom Dance Club at UMF Takes a Spin

Maegan Hewey Contributing Writer

    Tapping, twirling, leaping, swinging, all the moves that come with the Ballroom Dance Club. As this club has just joined the UMF family at the start of the fall 2018 semester, they are moving like no other.    

   Julia Allen, a Junior creative writing and theatre major, is the instructor for the Ballroom Dance Club. “I started learning ballroom through a friend about a year and a half ago,” said Allen. “But a lot of what I know is from lessons in my hometown, and being self taught.”

   Dancing tends to bring out the confidence in people, and this club aims to do just that as Allen says encouragement is one of her main priorities.

   “I have found in my experience that ballroom has encouraged people to interact more on a social level and become more self-assured,” Allen said. “I just love watching our members grow and become more comfortable with dancing.”

   Since this is a new club on campus, their focus might change with the coming years, but as right now, they people to learn dance and have fun. “Eventually I would like to see us use the skills that we have learned at a social dance, and perhaps at competitions in the future,” said Allen.

   Ballroom dance is not one kind of dance, there are many different styles. “Some of the recent dances we’ve worked on are tango, cha cha, and foxtrot,” said Allen. “But our favorite so far is swing!” Swing is a type of dance that is bouncy, fast past and up beat. Once dancers learn the moves, they can apply them to just about any song.

   If learning to dance is something that sounds intriguing, students can swing their way into it from 7 p.m, to 8 p.m. in Roberts Learning Center 005 on Monday’s. If Monday’s do not work, the club also offers sessions on Friday’s from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., with a fee of $5 for non-student members.