Another Year, Another Snow Ball
An Evening as a Spectator
By Alexzandra Enger
On Sunday, January 15th, I was fortunate enough to spend my evening at Donna Edelstein’s Snow Ball ballroom dance competition, hosted at the Hilton Minneapolis. The evening was set to be something to remember; in addition to amateur formation teams, the night would feature the professional American Smooth and Rhythm competition which was expected to be quite the show. I attended last year’s Snow Ball, so my expectations for the event as a whole were high as I’d had such a wonderful time last year.
When I arrived on Sunday evening, I was pleasantly reminded of some aspects I’d found particularly pleasing about Snow Ball. The venue, for starters, was exceptional. The choice of location is often an underrated point, but an exceptional venue has massive impacts. Despite being a bit out of the way (the Hilton is down by the Minneapolis-St. Paul international airport), there wasn’t a single fault I could find with the location. For the travelers, there was a free on-demand airport shuttle (the driver will also drop you off at the nearby light rail station, which goes directly to the Mall of America and into Downtown Minneapolis, if you ask nicely) and an ample parking lot. Already, I’m sold on this hotel over the more central downtown Minneapolis hotels. As a Minneapolis native, I can promise you that parking in downtown is about as easy as registering for a competition by showing up the day of and hoping you can sweet-talk the registrar. Now, usually when attending a competition you almost always have to play a guessing game of where in this massive hotel or convention center the competition is actually at. You wander around a bit before either spotting a rack of ostentatious dresses or swallowing your pride and asking someone who looks like a staff member in which direction you should head, but that’s not the case at Snow Ball. There’s no confusion here — when you walk in the front door, bedazzled dancers and racks of gowns can immediately be seen on the balcony that crowns the lobby. It’s always said that good first impressions are crucial for a positive experience, and there’s no shortage of those here so far.
Fast forward, and the Professional competition is about to begin. At this point, I’ve joined up with several fellow dancers-turned-spectators for the night. As the pros take the floor, striding on with a gleaming confidence that every dancer strives to have for themselves, we begin deciding which costumes are our favorites, which ones are a bit...shocking, you could say, but definitely flatter their wearer and draw the judges’ eyes, and which ones we think are just really, really bad choices. Soon, though, the dresses fade away and we start watching for the sharpest hands, the best foot articulation, and the cleanest turns. The current flight leaves the floor and the remaining dancers take their place, and the cycle repeats itself. Enter the smooth dancers, some of whom we recognize from the earlier Rhythm round, and while we’re looking for different things now (razor-sharp spins aren’t exactly a hallmark of the waltz), it’s more or less the same process. It’s fun to watch and decide which couples you’d call back to the floor for later rounds, and then how we’d place the finalists and how that all compares to what the judges mark.
Between everything were the formation showcases and the pro/am scholarship dances, which were an additional highlight. It’s not often you see amateur dancers hold their own in an evening of dancing that’s dominated by the best of the best professional dancers, but that was absolutely the case here. The evening was capped off with four solo show dances, performed by the professional couples who’d danced earlier. There was a common comedic theme to all of the dances. The first was the evening’s wildcard showdance, and was a “movie montage” of sorts. Second was a Disney snake charmer routine, third was the most energetic and entertaining hoedown I’ve ever seen, and the final dance was based off the recent DC Movie, Suicide Squad.
At the end of the evening, it may have been the incredibly talented dancers who took home the trophies and scholarships, but I left with a smile on my face and more than satisfied with how I’d just spend my Sunday evening.