PEA Ballroom Club Competes in MIT Dance Competition
Exonians sashayed their way to Massachusetts April 28 for a ballroom dance competition. Members of Phillips Exeter Academy’s Ballroom Club competed in the MIT Open Ballroom Dance Competition’s beginning Rumba division at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Exeter’s team members were the only high school students at the competition, originally meant for college-level competitors from around the New England area. Even among stiff competition from older dancers, lower Arslan Berbic and prep Grace Stinson claimed fourth as a couple, and preps Claire Hawkins and Emma Kim placed fifth out of 31 couples. In all, eight students from Exeter competed. Many students had very little experience in ballroom dancing before they arrived at Exeter, but Ballroom Club, headed by senior Leo Luo, inspired students to learn and compete at MIT’s competition.
"I was really proud of the enthusiasm that the dancers had," Luo said. "They were the ones who asked for extra practices, meeting twice per week instead of one. We always met for an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, just going over our routines. Everyone was so willing to do it, and they brought all their energy into it. They responded to all the suggestions I gave them, and you could really see the improvement as the weeks passed. That made me really proud, especially the fact that they had started from nothing. To be able to pick it up so fast was great."
The club members held up to three practices every week for over a month leading up to the competition. Their faculty adviser is Petra Laohakul, a classics teacher and an avid ballroom dancer.
Luo has been competitively ballroom dancing for many years, and he started to ballroom dance in the seventh grade.
"Going to the MIT competition was kind of like going back to my ‘roots,’ but it was different as well because I assumed an unofficial coach position," he said. "It was nice to see the progression from actual competitor to someone watching from the sidelines."
Luo was able to interest some Exonians with his ballroom dancing ability, and his performance at club night initially captured the attention of prep Emma Kim, inspiring her to start dancing.
"I wanted to try new things at Exeter, and I don’t think I would have ever had the opportunity to otherwise," Kim said. "Watching ballroom dance is extremely entertaining, and it’s fun to dance it too."
"I’d never been to a ballroom competition before, so the setup was really new to me," she said. "You compete in rounds, and if the judges like you, you get called back to dance again. Our club head is graduating this year, but we’re planning on keeping Ballroom Club alive. It’s a lot of fun, and not too hard to learn. We’re hoping to compete at MIT again next year."
Although some of the competitors have had dance experience, they had to work to translate this talent to ballroom.
"I’ve been dancing competitively since seventh grade, but ballroom competitions are much different than what I’m used to," Stinson said. "The whole experience was a little nerve-wracking at first, but after we started dancing and I figured out how exactly everything worked, it was a lot of fun."
The competition was also instrumental in motivating the students to work on their skills and keep the club going, especially since Luo is graduating this year.
"It was definitely interesting to watch other people compete at a higher level to see how much farther we could go," Stinson said. "The competitive atmosphere pushed me harder than I had in practices, and it made the whole experience more exciting. There was a bit of friendly competition between the couples on our team, but everyone was really supportive of each other too. I could see myself continuing to do ballroom in the future. Watching the advanced dancers certainly inspired me to reach for that level eventually."
Other students who competed include Luz Lim, Madeline Logan, Katherine Martel and Grace Yin.