President: Ryuu Joy (he/him): 971-940-8483
Manager: Miranda Cravetz (she/they): [email protected]
Dancesport is a sport in which two dancers (a “lead” and a “follow”) participate in a synchronized dance routine for competition. Oregon State Universities Ballroom dance teams aim to treat dance as an artform rather than merely a social synchronized activity.
OSU’s Dancesport team has its roots back in 2014. Practitioners of Dancesport say that, as opposed to a social dance setting, the choreographed nature of dancesport allows its dancers to experiment with more complicated moves that are simply not possible during a social dance.
Many of the members of the Dancesport team are also members of the Ballroom Dance Club (the oldest club at OSU). The Ballroom dance club holds free and open social events and dances every Wednesday, with a lesson from 7-8 p.m. and social dance from 8-10 p.m.
“Dancesport is an augmentation of that [Ballroom social dance]. Dancesport exists if you want to go further than that. It takes social dancing to another level,” said Ryuu Joy, President of OSU Dancesport.
OSU Dancesport encourages people to come check them out, and to encourage them. The team sent two groups of dancers to New York to compete the weekend after week ten.
According to Ryuu, Ballroom dance has a stigma. Anyone can pick it up, and many professionals start dancing in college.
