Letter from Boston

Ballroom Dance Competition

By MASAKO YAMADA

I was talking with one of my colleagues about the salsa lessons that we've been taking, when another colleague who had overheard us chimed in, "Did you know that Victor dances in national competitions? He's practically a professional." The only thing I knew about Victor was that he's a senior graduate student in my department. He's an extremely quiet guy whom I've seen walking around the halls every once in a while. I would never have imagined him to be an avid ballroom dancer — especially in the passionate international Latin dances — but I realized how wrong I was when I went to see him compete in a local ballroom competition. I was intrigued by the idea that Victor had an after-hours life that was completely separate from his graduate school life. Part of the reason I wanted to see him in the competition was so that I could spy on this alternate identity. It reminded me of the Japanese movie "Shall We Dance?" That movie was funny because it highlighted the large gap between the salaryman lifestyle and that of the competitive ballroom dancing world. Victor and his partner went to the final round in the open (highest) level for all of their dances. They have two coaches — one choreographs, and the other teaches the moves — and their dances had a very professional edge. Their moves seemed much more dramatic than those of the other dancers. Perhaps this wasn't for the best, however, since many couples with less fancy moves beat them. This didn't matter to me, though. I couldn't take my eyes off them. The fact that the "dance hall" was just a plain old gymnasium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) didn't break the spell either. It was fascinating. The BU ballroom club did extremely well in the international Latin competition. Many couples from BU participated in the newcomer, beginner and advanced levels. BU couples took first place in both the beginner and advanced divisions. Another BU couple took second place in the advanced division. In many ways, I found the lower level competition more interesting than the open level competition. Some of the open level competitors looked like they were performing difficult, abstract art. The other dancers looked more graceful to me. One fun part of watching the competition was comparing the costumes. The women that I saw at the international Latin competition wore very tight, flashy dresses. Dresses with large pieces of fabric cut out from the stomach and back seemed popular. I saw one woman with fake, gold eyelashes and another with rhinestones glued to her face. One of the dresses had so much fringe on it that it looked like it could be used as a mop to wash a car. The men stuck to simple black shirts and tight black slacks and they looked great accompanying the colorful women. Some of the members of the MIT aikido club started peeking into the gym after their own practice session was over. It must have startled them to see these outrageously dressed people cha-cha-cha-ing around their gym. It certainly was startling to see these men in traditional uniform standing at the edge of the chaotic gym. I noticed that the international standard competition was about to begin when I started seeing women with sleek, pulled-back hair and feathery gowns appear on the sidelines. The standard dances are considered to be very classy, but there was still an element of exag geration to the costumes. One of the women had on a puffy dress with rainbow-colored feathers. I was interested in watching the feathered dancers twirl about, but I had spent more than four hours watching the international Latin competition, so I decided to call it a day. Amazingly, many of the international Latin dancers were also planning on dancing in the international standard division the same day. Some of them were even planning on attending a ball that evening, and entering the American competition the following day!! I suppose that is the kind of energy that one needs to be a competitive dancer. Unfortunately, I'm still in training to be a professional dance watcher.

Shukan ST: April 23, 1999

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