Group performs well during an intense eleven hour competition
By Sean Paul Fitzgerald
Contributing Writer
Recently, the Clark University Ballroom Dance Team attended its first team competition of the semester at the College of the Holy Cross. A relatively small and lax competition, the Holy Cross Ballroom Competition was expected to be a nice segue back into the season. The team is happy to announce that the competition completely surpassed their expectations.
As a result of Holy Cross’ proximity and the extra couple of hours of sleep the team was able to get because of it, everyone seemed to be relatively comfortable with the upcoming eleven hour competition. The dancers from Clark were able to focus on their performances and more importantly have fun. The fun and excitement continued as the day progressed and as the team began to regain their dance-legs from the long winter break.
Michelle Latino led by Kevin Carriere and Liz Harwood led by Ross Glover, all kicked the day off to a great start with outstanding performances in the first rounds of Bronze Standard Dances. The team’s newcomers and more experienced dancers followed the trend and it all paid off during the award distributions. At the end of the day, the Ballroom Team had did a spectacular job in representing Clark University with 84 ribbons total; twenty of them being 1st place ribbons from this small team of twenty.
Clark’s Dance Team was running low on energy at the competition’s end, as were their competitors. However, the tired expressions were not to say that the team was not happy with the results. Perhaps even more laudable than the ribbons themselves was the fact that the team displayed such a monumental improvement. Not only had the newcomers adapted to the ballroom environment more rapidly than ever, but the team as a whole clearly improved as well; a positive sign that this young club is going in the right direction.
The competition did more than warm up Clark’s dancers from the cold winter break; it lifted their spirits and brought the team closer together. Holy Cross was a great beginning to the second semester for the team and they hope to keep the positive feelings alive and they certainly continued the trend at their next competition at MIT. The longer and more formal MIT competition was held from March 17th-18th.
