Joining the Team | Sign Up | Dance Camp

Dance camp is the biggest beginner dance event hosted by the team each year, usually held during the first week of the Fall semester (after Labor Day). It is the best way for people who are interested in joining the team to learn about competitive ballroom, meet team members and coaches, and most importantly have some fun before the school year picks up!

What exactly is Dance Camp?

Dance Camp is essentially a ballroom crash-course aimed at complete beginners. To have a good grasp on this concept, memorize the following governing equation:

Dance camp = beginners + (2 evenings + 1 afternoon)* inifinite funness

For the first two evenings, you will learn some basic steps from team’s professional coaches. The classes are free! It is such a treat because the team has some of the best coaches in the New England region.

To attend these classes, no partner is necessary; no experience is necessary and no registration is necessary.

Note: You aren’t making any commitment to the team by coming. Just show up in comfortable shoes, skirts or stretchy pants, and be ready to have fun!

After the free classes, there will be performances from current team members of varying levels. Team members will dress up the way they would for a competition. Ladies, this might be of particular interest to you: for competitions, girls will put on beautiful dresses with rhinestones, wear fancy hairdos and glamorous makeups. Hm… in retrospect, being surrounded by “girls in beautiful dresses” should be of particular interest to guys too…

To cool down the second night, there will usually be an ice-cream social. In addition to getting free ice-cream, this is a great opportunity to get to know current team members and ask any questions you might have about the team.

The third day of Dance Camp includes a third and final beginner dance class, and to finish a week’s worth of dancing there is a Team Match where you get the opportunity to showcase what you have just learned.

What is the Team Match?

The Team Match is the last, but probably the most fun part of Dance Camp. The aim for the Team Match is to give beginners a taste of what a ballroom competition is like, and for fun, all participants are divided into two teams based on birth month. While we hope you will already have attended the first two nights’ classes and have some idea of the basic steps for the team match, you are still welcome to come even if you did not end up attending them.

All the participating newbies will be paired up with one of the current team members (vets) for a 45 min private instruction session. During that time, you will be taught everything you need to know to compete in the team match. Your vet will be your competitive partner throughout the team match! It is just like Dancing With the Stars!!!

Like a real ballroom competition, there will be rounds for each dance. For each round, each team will send a predetermined x number of couples to compete. The “judges,” also known as senior team members, will mark down the couples they deem to be the best for each round. Scores are kept based on the number of couples get marked. The team with the most of number of couples marked will be the winning team.

Note: This is meant to be a friendly team match, so please don’t feel intimidated! It sounds intense, but it really is not! Remember, you will be competing  with the vet you are assigned to. In addition, half of the people there are newbies just like you! What is there to lose? Come and dance your heart out!

We hope to see you at the Dance Camp this Fall!!!