In a conference room on the second floor of Memorial Union North, students and Columbia community members gather to dance. The Ballroom Dance Club offers the opportunity for brand new ballroom dancers and seasoned shimmiers alike to come together and practice. Tunes ranging from Frank Sinatra’s “Come Fly with Me” to Alec Benjamin’s “Shadow of Mine” radiate from a speaker at the front of the room while pairs rotate around the room, practicing their steps.
Both Monday and Wednesday lessons will now be open to anyone starting in late November, regardless of member status or financial contribution to the club. The lessons are split into one hour of beginner skills and one hour of intermediate skills, with Mondays focusing on American Smooth dancing and Wednesdays focusing on American Rhythm dancing. Club members who intend on participating in ballroom competitions also attend practices on Saturday for extra dance time.
There is a wide range of ages and experience levels, but no one is excluded. Some beginners are paired with more seasoned dancers, guiding them through the basics.
“Most of the people that are in ballroom, they’d never danced before,” sophomore and club president Kira Bennett said.
Treasurer Amelia Schneider had no ballroom dancing experience before joining the board.
“I was like, ‘My grandma does ballroom dancing,’” Schneider said. “‘I should do that and she’ll be proud of me.’”
Additionally, Schneider wanted to help Bennett revive the club, which dissolved during the pandemic. Bennett became the president as a freshman and rebuilt it.
“I refer to it as ‘founding’ because when I was given the president position, there was no past leadership, there was no surviving documents,” Bennett said. “I was basically handed the title and told, ‘Figure it out.’”
Bennett oversees an executive board, which pays two instructors. Jason Shearin, one instructor, founded the Ballroom Academy of Columbia. The second, Larinda McRaven, has ballroom danced for 32 years. She teaches dance classes in Jefferson City but comes to MU on Monday nights.
“She’s amazing,” Bennett said. “She’s internationally recognized. We are so extremely lucky to have her.”
In addition to the instructor-led lessons, the club hosts social nights on Saturdays, as well as balls. The club hosted a Valentine’s Day Ball in February 2022 and will host a Halloween Costume Ball on Saturday, Oct. 29. Outside of MU, the Ballroom Dance Club competes nationally. The team traveled to Purdue University on Saturday for a ballroom dancing competition. Members danced in the newcomer category, for dancers with less than a year of experience, Bennett said.
“You have anywhere from two couples to 20 on the same floor, and you just have judges walking around the floor,” Bennett said. “They only look at you for five seconds before they decide if they want you to go onto the next heat. It’s a little intense.”
“We had a couple make it to the quarterfinals three different times, which might not seem like much to a non-ballroom person, but for a first competition is very impressive,” Schneider said. “We learned a lot about how competitions go and where we need to improve, and can’t wait to attend our next competition in March where we will definitely make a bigger impact.”
Edited by Egan Ward | eward@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Grace Locke and Jacob Richey | jrichey@themaneater.com
Julie Bennett • Oct 27, 2022 at 6:27 pm
We were privileged to attend the Purdue competition and see our daughter Kira & her friends dance, as well as those with more experience. There’s so much concentration it’s amazing to watch! We’re so proud of Kira for taking on this club & bringing it back to life!