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December 7, 2007 > News > Student pairs place at national ballroom dance competition

Student pairs place at national ballroom dance competition

By Cindy Dinh | For the Thresher

Taking a leap of faith and some stylistic spins, the Rice Social Dance Society sent two couples to their first national level dance competition in Columbus, Ohio, and came home victorious. The USA Dance National Collegiate DanceSport Championships held Nov. 17-18 marked the first time Rice students competed in ballroom dancing on a national level since the 1990’s.

Will Rice College junior Robbie Fraleigh, Hanszen College sophomore Emilia Stepinski, Hanszen junior Zhe Loy and Sid Richardson College sophomore Laura Liem competed against 90-150 other couples from over 40 different colleges from across the United States.

Fraleigh and Stepinski garnered first place medals in the pre-bronze level for quickstep, waltz and tango. Loy and Liem finished second in quickstep and third in tango.

Stepinski said the coveted prize is honor and glory for the dancers themselves as well as for the school. This is the first year Rice has had a ballroom competition dance team.

“Ballroom competition is a dance sport, so like any other competition we’re trying to be the best,” Fraleigh said.

Both couples entered the International Standard category, which includes waltz, tango, foxtrot, and quickstep, as well as the Latin category: rumba, cha cha, samba and jive.

Relatively new to the competition scene, these couples have been dancing for one to two years through instruction from the Rice Social Dance Society. Three of the four competitors began dancing last semester.

“I don’t think they expected to make it to the final round,” Pamelyn Shefman, Associate Director for the Student Center and faculty dance sponsor, said. “I’m very ecstatic for them. These competitions provide an opportunity for the students to showcase how strong the program is here at Rice.”

Two months prior to the competition, the couples trained under former professional dancer Philip Stevens, who also owns a local studio, The Dance Place. Besides teaching the beginner dance classes for RSDS, the couples trained weekly with Stevens and practiced individually for three to 10 hours a week.

However, Stepinski said the atmosphere of ballroom dancing is not always strict and formal. “Everyone on the sidelines is cheering your number and yelling for you,” Stepinski said. “When we were in the finals, people we didn’t even know were cheering for us.”

Compared to the $50-$90 per-lesson cost from local dance studios, learning at the university level is the easiest and cheapest way to learn how to dance, Stepinski said. For a RSDS membership price of $10 per semester, students can take six different social dance classes including ballroom, swing and tango, and classes at the University of Houston, which collaborates with RSDS on several dancing events.

Fraleigh said RSDS were also trying to expand the team and get more people involved so that they could offer professional-quality dance classes for as little as $100 a semester.

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