Dancing Days
Students flock to the MIT Open Ballroom Dance Competition
By Catherine Nichols

"Yes, it's totally goofy. Sometimes, yes, people are over the top," says Johnna Powell, a graduate student in electrical engineering. "There's so much beauty in it, it goes beyond whatever fluff there is." Powell is talking about ballroom dancing at MIT, a phenomenon that began with the founding of a student club 30 years ago. Fifteen years ago, a group within the club began its own competitive ballroom dance team, which now has nearly 80 members from among the MIT community. One of the team's most important events is the MIT Open Ballroom Dance Competition. For the past nine years, the annual event has drawn teams from colleges around the region, making it one of the oldest and largest in American collegiate ballroom dance.

In April, some 560 dancers flocked to MIT to join the competition. The women resembled tropical birds, decked out in brightly colored outfits, glitter makeup, and long false eyelashes. Some wore tops no bigger than napkins. Their partners typically wore only black, but their shirts were cut down to their navels or were open at the back. The entire display was sexy, graceful, outrageous--characteristics not typically associated with the Institute. So why did this sport take root in MIT's culture?

Powell, who decided to come to MIT after seeing its competitive dance team, offers one explanation: "It's the only place at MIT where there's a disproportionate number of females to males... Maybe you started just to meet people and learn a few dance steps and feel more confident, but then you get sucked up into this competitive mood."

Ballroom dance might have changed MIT, but MIT has changed ballroom dance, too. As an undergraduate, Eric Nielsen '00 wrote the registration software program for the competition's website. It was so efficient that collegiate ballroom competitions around the region now use it.

Perhaps less predictably, MIT students also excel at dancing. Nielsen says that he's noticed that MIT students fare well at the beginner levels of competition, tend to do less well at intermediate stages, and win again at advanced levels. This year, MIT students won the competition overall. Beginners are judged on their posture and simple technical mastery of the steps, and there, Nielsen thinks MIT has an edge. He explains: "We have coaches who know how to explain dancing in terms that make sense to people who are studying physics and engineering." At intermediate levels, ballroom dancers are judged on their showmanship and flair. Nielsen admits that "showmanship comes hard to a lot of MIT people." Advanced dancers are the stubborn, hardworking ones who learn to correct their weaknesses--a classic MIT characteristic, Nielsen says.

Whether it's about glitter and barely-there costumes, or forces operating on bodies in motion, or athleticism, competition, and the joy of winning, ballroom dancing is clearly entrenched in MIT's culture. At the MIT competition, during the first heat of the Intermediate Latin, the dancers in the gym had big cha-cha smiles, but their eyes showed as much focus and determination as any athlete's. Students wrapped in team jackets watched from the bleachers, catcalling and yelling encouragement to their teammates.