This is my amazing partner Jeffrey Morris and I dancing the Tango at a competition in Pennsylvania. We were at this funny ballroom that looked like Prom 1974. The man who took this photo is a professional photographer, but no, we weren't posing for him! He actually took this candid shot while we were competing and being judged... Cool, huh?

Jeffrey is a beautiful, fantastic friend and partner, and we have a wonderful time dancing together. I'm so grateful that he has come into my life.

Strictly Ballroom

Ballroom dancing is my latest craze. At the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year I had just returned from 9 incredible months abroad where I had danced my socks off nightly. Actually, I had just returned from 3 months in JUNEAU, which is SOOOO boring for a club dancer! Before that, I was abroad. :) Anyway, I arrived in MA and immediately began looking for dance opportunities. I got in contact with Bill at SalsaWeb and was asked to teach la rueda (a form of Cuban-style salsa) to a group of Puerto Rican youth, and started to go out salsa dancing at some of the nearby venues. However, I never taught a class for Bill because I quickly got swept away by auditions for the University of Massachusetts Competition Ballroom Dance Team. I found out that part of the competition is in rumba, samba, chachacha, tango, mambo...sheesh, I was hooked. So, I auditioned and made it on the team.

Right around this time I was regularly going to Friday night latin dances at the Northampton Country Club. One night, the dance teacher who put on the dances asked if I might want to dance with a certain guy named Jeff Morris. Technically, she asked me to ask him to dance, which I promptly did. We definitely enjoyed dancing together...he later fed me sushi, sang a song from "Don Quixote" on the ride home, and we went out the following evening. He auditioned for the dance team, became my partner, and the rest is history. :)

So, here are some helpful links I've compiled for the avid ballroom/ club dancer... There are some cool sites that can help a traveler locate cool places to dance anywhere in the world!

Cool links:

University of Massachusetts Ballroom Dance
My Alma Mater! (I dance for the UMass team, and love it to pieces.) This is a great site for anyone in the Western Massachusetts area who is interested in dancing competitively.

SalsaWeb
Want to get the latest on competitions, shows and workshops? Want to find out where to dance the hottest salsa anywhere in the world, and get the instructional videos that can get you dancing with the best? Check out this resource! (This is where I found links to salsa in Northampton back in the fall.)

International Collegiate Ballroom Dance Competition Information
This contains a listing of all collegiate ballroom dance competition dates and locations as well as links to college ballroom dance homepages. Also contains a list of dancewear online distributors and other useful links.

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