Harvard Ballroom Two-stepping Between Sport and Passion

Sensation, a controversial collection of contemporary British art, caused a substantial amount of controversy when it hit the Brooklyn Museum of Art last year. The exhibit, which featured animal corpses floating in formaldehyde and several canvasses adorned with elephant dung, prompted many onlookers to ask themselves, "Is this really art?"

This summer, those who watch the 2000 Olympic Games on television may see salsas and cha-chas performed by spinning couples and feel similarly compelled to ask, "Is this really sport?"

Perhaps deeming it the athletic equivalent to Sensation seems a bit harsh, but ballroom dancing occupies a unique--if precarious--position in the sports world.

On the one hand, it's very popular. The number of ballroom dancing fanatics in America has grown sharply over the past decade, following a global trend. The International Olympic Committee granted ballroom dancing trial-sport status in 1996, and along with bowling, golf, rugby and water skiing, it is one of a handful of sports in contention for addition to the regular Olympic program in 2004.

Colleges have also fallen in love with the event. Campus crash-courses in swing and salsa are well attended nationwide. Some schools, like Brigham Young University, offer ballroom dancing scholarships to particularly promising high school prospects.

However, the NCAA has yet to recognize ballroom dancing as an official sport, and has not even included it on its list of "emerging" sports--a list that includes synchronized swimming among others. Additionally, many purists among sports fans consider it odd that an event so entirely unlike baseball and basketball would flirt with any level of athletic recognition.

The event's burgeoning popularity and simultaneous anonymity within the sports world prompt an exploration of the state of ballroom dancing today. The inquiry is made especially interesting when done with an eye toward Harvard, whose athletics program is the most diverse in the nation.

"I'm very excited about the way it's caught on," says junior Gwyneth Card, the outgoing president of the Harvard Ballroom Dance Team and Club. "It's looking good for the next few years."

Ballroom Before Ballroom Was Cool

There may be doubts as to where exactly on the athletic spectrum ballroom dancing lies, but one thing is certain: whatever ballroom dancing is, Harvard is very good at it.

Ballroom Before Ballroom Was Cool

The Harvard Ballroom Dance Team and Harvard-Radcliffe Ballroom Dance Club were founded ten years ago by two couples, Quan Vu and Jennifer Gonzalez and Chris Brengel and Beth Mitchell, who sought to find a creative outlet for their love of dance.

Within three years, the team quickly established itself as one of the premier dancesport teams in the country, posting major victories over Yale and Catholic University.

By 1994, the team had taken its show overseas and attended the International Intercontinental Dancesport Festival in England, defeating not only the top American teams, but British powerhouses Oxford and Imperial College as well.

The team boasted an undefeated record the next year, and Alex and Jennifer Fung '97 won the first of two National 10-dance Championships.

But it was the 1996-97 season that defined Harvard Ballroom in many ways. By this time, the recent resurgence of swing had taken its hold on the country. Bands like the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Squirrel Nut Zipper, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies led the rise of the oldtime blend of jazz and blues.

Suddenly, everyone wanted to dance.

Harvard's team and club membership increased along with many others in the country. The combined effect of the swing boom and subsequent Latin craze caused the popularity of dancing with a partner to skyrocket. It not only became clear that Harvard would be competitive for years to come, but that there would continue to be a high level of competition. Prior to the sudden jolt in popularity, other schools had seen their dance programs shrink over the previous five years.

Presently, the circuit is alive and well.

"We compete against a lot of local schools," Card says. "Yale, MIT, Northeastern--at every one of them, the room is packed and the atmosphere is very intense."

The team recently wrapped up its season at home by hosting the Harvard Invitational, one of two major competitions that take place at Harvard each year. The team also hosts a Beginner's Comp in the fall, in which many of the novices make their competitive debuts.

One interesting aspect of the team is its official status, or lack thereof, in the Harvard community. It cannot be a varsity sport since the NCAA does not recognize the event, but unlike the Crimson Dance Team, it is not a recognized club sport, either.

In addition to its 41 varsity sports, Harvard offers funding, guidance, and the ability to officially use the Harvard name to 33 club activities. The list includes the dance team, juggling, cheerleading, tai-chi and figure skating.

So why hasn't ballroom dancing ascended to the next level of recognition?

"It's been considered," Card says of the filing for club status. "And we might make it happen in the next few years. But there are advantages to not being a club sport. We maintain our independence, and we get a lot more control over what we do."

Strictly Ballroom

The ballroom team competes within the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association, and the structure of the event is more complex than many would be inclined to think.

Strictly Ballroom

Competition consists of ten types of dance in two categories. The first is Standard, which includes the waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, foxtrot and quickstep. The second kind, which NBC has given most of its recent ballroom airtime to, is Latin. Among the Latin dances are the cha-cha, rumba, samba, paso doble, and jive.

The list of dance changes slightly depending on which style of dance is being employed at the time: American or international.

"International tends to emphasize the nitty-gritty of the technique," Card says. "American can often be what you might call 'stripteasier.'"

The steps the competitors use vary according to the syllabi for their individual level of difficulty. Steps within international latin rumba, for example, range from the simple shoulder-to-shoulder maneuver on the bronze level to syncopated Cuban breaks on the gold.

Above the gold level is "open" competition, in which a checklist of required steps takes a backseat to individual choreography and style.

"You work your way up the syllabus," Card explains. "You pick based on your previous successes with the moves on your level. Eventually, you get to the open, or championship, level, where consistent contact isn't required. The key there is to remain within the character of the dance."

Expressing the true character of the dance is difficult in the ninety seconds that competitors are afforded in the early rounds. Anywhere between ten to twenty couples are on the dance floor at a given point in time, making catching the eyes of the judges even more difficult.

"It's a very intense atmosphere," says Card. "At the Harvard tournament, we had something like twenty couples on the floor at Lowell Lecture Hall, everyone else screaming and cheering all around, other couples warming up backstage and in the hall. It is a lot of fun to watch, and even more fun to be involved in."

If ballroom is one of the more loosely defined entities in Harvard's athletic universe, it is also one of the more closely-knit. The team lacks an official Harvard-affiliated adult. Most of the adult training, therefore, is done via private instruction, some of which is subsidized by the team. The local coaches who give these lessons also fulfill Harvard's judging requirement at the tournaments.

The bulk of the teaching, however, happens internally.

"The older members teach the new ones," Card says. "The rookie dancers on the team will get individual attention once a week."

Another thing that separates Harvard Ballroom from other athletic bodies is the way in which the program makes ballroom its mission, rather than merely its business. The team and club became a single entity a year ago, and have made offering free dance classes a major part of its function.

"Our philosophy is that everybody wants to dance," Card says. "We've got dances every week at Loker and lessons at the MAC for anybody who wants to get involved. No partner or experience necessary."

The organization also immerses its members--and those who are merely curious--in the ballroom world by inviting some of the bigger names in the event to strut their stuff for the Harvard ballroom faithful.

Within the past year, guest dancers included Blackpool Youth Latin Champions Eugene Katsevman & Maria Manusova, and International DanceSport Championship finalists Allan and Donna Shingler from England.

"Watching them was incredible," Heather Rigby, next year's ballroom president recalls. "It's great that we get to watch people like that perform."

But Is It Sport?

What lies ahead for ballroom dancing at Harvard? Could an event that calls Lowell Lecture Hall its home arena, that owes a part of its popularity to the re-release of "Dirty Dancing," that is occasionally described as "stripteasy," someday find itself on the same plain of athletic recognition as football or soccer?

But Is It Sport?

Next year's ballroom president, Heather Rigby, thinks it should.

"Oh yes, it should happen someday," she says. "Ballroom dancing is definitely a sport. I think it's like figure skating in a lot of ways. Sure, there's an artistic aspect, and it might not look as tiring as a lot of the other sports do, but it requires hard work. You need to have a lot of stamina and skill to be able to do it well."

Card believes that the NCAA could recognize ballroom dancing within the next decade, if it has the opportunity to follow the International Olympic Committee's lead.

"The Olympics are going to be key there," she says. "Once they get the ball rolling, it will be easier to make a compelling case to the NCAA to make it an official sport. But that will definitely be the next big thing for ballroom in America."

Only time will tell if ballroom itself will be the next big thing in American sport.

The differences between "dancesport" and conventional sports are difficult to bridge, and will turn off many an average Cowboy-watching, beer guzzling armchair athlete. But Olympic recognition within the next decade seems possible, and if the event's popularity can survive the inevitable end of the swing and Latin pop crazes, there may be a future for ballroom in the NCAA.

Right alongside squash and synchronized swimming.