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It Takes a Team to Tango

By Maria Heath

"Looking good, 245!" "Great smiles, 232!" "Yeeeaaah 259!"

Ballroom dance events may not draw crowds as big or as rowdy as the University of Minnesota Gophers Football team, but we appreciate our teammates just as much, if not more, as any sports team when we hit the floor at an event like MichComp or Dance Fest. If you're not dancing in a heat, you're in the front row of bleachers hollering strategically-timed complements as your teammates waltz past, aiming to get an extra-genuine smile out of them, or to draw the judges' attention to their well-practiced technique. Even when you're dancing in the same heat as your teammates, there's a certain boost of confidence and enjoyment that comes from seeing them on the floor with you, and knowing that every callback they make is a win for the team.

Ballroom dancing is a very cooperative sport, in that it requires perfect coordination with at least one other member of the team. Even competitive dancing is less often about beating an opponent, and more often about out-performing your own personal best, which means sharing the floor so that everyone has room for their crossover breaks and open fans. We gain a very intimate understanding of "teamwork" from being part of a ballroom team, learning valuable skills, like how to read our partners' body movement and to match it, how to read our partners' mood and know what to do to elicit a genuine smile, and how to share our skills with teammates at a wide variety of proficiency levels. When we take what we've learned onto the floor at a competition, it comes through in the sincere enjoyment we experience in both dancing and in watching others dance. We support our teammates, and despite it being a competitive sport, we do so without recourse to negative taunting of other competing teams. Go to a ballroom competition and you'll hear nothing but good-natured cheering, especially when a couple does something particularly impressive, regardless of their team affiliations.

Furthermore, although we do try to show as much support for each other as possible, we don't do it haphazardly or superficially. When you know you've just danced a not-so-solid heat, an upper-level teammate may give you some quick advice on how to improve your frame. And there's nothing more satisfying than being able to put that advice into practice for the next dance, earning yourself a "much better!" compliment from the team. We're constantly on the lookout for ways we can help to improve each other, but always tempered with the knowledge that we ourselves are not perfect either. That is true ballroom teamwork. When we build each other up in a positive way, we build ourselves up as well, and consequently, develop a talented and loyal team of people who truly enjoy spending time together. And come competition time, we all end up looking good!

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