Check out this Holiday Video from MIT’s Division of Student Life, featuring Tim the Beaver and our a few of our very own dancers.

MITBDT is excited to announce that 2014 WDSF World Professional Standard Champions Mirko Gozzoli & Edita Daniute will be performing for our 2015 MIT Open Showcase on Saturday, April 25th, 2015!

Watch for show & lecture details on our competition website.

Happy New Year, dancers!

Our upcoming socials for the Spring Semester are below. Keep on the lookout for more details, and we look forward to seeing you there!

Feb 21: Sala de Puerto Rico
Mar 21: Morss Hall, Walker Memorial
May 9: Morss Hall, Walker Memorial

In the fall competitive season, MITBDT maintained their strong presence in finals across almost all styles and levels. After opening up the year with Harvard Beginners, MITBDT members journeyed to Brown, Tufts, and Columbia Universities to dance off against other collegiate teams.

Results for Tufts and Columbia competitions are viewable through o2cm, and our results at Brown were published by the Tech. Below is a highlight of some of our many victors during our fall season, and we look forward to dancing again in the spring.

Continuing their streak at Harvard Beginners, the rookies won the Christina Cryan Newcomer Team Match for the eleventh year in the row at Brown University. Furthermore, Matthew L. Cavuto ’17 with Rachael Schwartz (Wellesley ’18) and Alex Padron with partners Amber T. Guo ’18 and Zuyi Wang (Wellesley ’18) consistently placed at the forefront of all newcomer styles.

Second year dancers Corey Cleveland ’17 and Clio Flikkema (Wellesley ’17) have steadily powered through all four styles, grabbing finalist positions in almost all of their events at all three competitions at the Silver level. Vitaly Abdrashitov G and Amy Ishiguro ’16, placing highly in finals in Silver Standard and Smooth events, have advanced to the Gold level.

At the Gold level, Brian Solomon & Jessica Bernier placed in Latin finals at Brown and Tufts and semifinals at Columbia. Ross Finman G with Ji Shiyan and Dilip Thekkoodan SM ’14 with Amy Fan ’15 consistently placed as finalists in Standard. Thekkoodan and Fan also placed first in Smooth events at both Brown and Columbia, propelling them to Prechamp Smooth.

Finally, Ben Moss PhD ’14 with Esther Rheinbay and Giorgio Gaglia with Lihua Bai ’09 represented the team in Champ Standard and Prechamp Standard events, respectively, at all three competitions and placed highly at all three.

We’ve added a new page to our website celebrating our active team members who have reached Open dancer status. Check it out!

MITBDT started off the competition season strong at Harvard Beginners a couple weekends ago. MIT’s The Tech featured an article highlighting the team’s wins.

Article copied below. For a full list of results, visit o2cm. Photos can be seen on our facebook album.

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MIT Ballroom Dance Team started off the ballroom competitive season at the Harvard Beginners Competition this past weekend, taking at least half of all placements in the finals in all events in which we competed.

The team’s newly minted rookies, only having trained for one month, swept in all the newcomer events. Josh Sherrer (’18) and Carolyn Rogan (Wellesley ’18) won first in newcomer swing and rumba and placed in both foxtrot and waltz finals; Alex Padron (’18) and Amber Guo (’18) won first in newcomer foxtrot and waltz and placed in both swing and rumba finals. Matthew Cavuto (’17) and Rachel Schwartz (Wellesley ’18) also placed in three of four newcomer finals.

The yearlings – members who have trained for one year – also placed in all their events. Dan Chen (’17) and Hao Zhang (G) placed in all bronze events with their respective partners. Chen and Brittany Bautista (’17) placed second in bronze latin, while he and Casey Crownhart (’17) placed first in both bronze standard and smooth. Zhang and Peggy Zhu (Wellesley ’17) placed third in bronze latin, while he and Vira Semenova (G) placed fifth in bronze standard. Corey Cleveland (’17) and Clio Flikkema (Wellesley ’17) placed across all silver events.

Although the competition focuses on beginner competitors, some veterans danced as well. Jorge Valdez (G) and Laura Perovich (G) placed in both silver rhythm and latin trips. Vitaly Abdrashitov (G) placed in both silver latin, with Arlene Hijara, and silver standard, with Amy Ishiguro (’16).

At the end of the long competition, the teams participated in a rookie-vet team match. Dressed up ridiculous costumes, a rookie teamed up with a veteran dancer and performed a quick foxtrot, hustle, polka, salsa, or swing. MIT and Northeastern tied for first.

MITBDT is excited to bring Bill Davies to campus for two workshops this semester.

Workshop I: Judges’ Perspective
October 25, 2014
3:30PM – 4:30PM
Location TBD

Workshop II: Artistic Mentality
November 15, 2014
Time TBD
Lobby 13

Ticket Pricing
1 Workshop
Students: $7
General: $10

2 Workshops
Students: $12
General: $17