The Past Few Years with the BYU Ballroom Dance Company

Inevitably when the end is coming I suppose people start looking at the beginning. For the past few years I have been heavily involved with ballroom. More so than I ever thought. I take that back. After my mission I remember walking through the northwest entrance of the RB. I had a pair of latin shoes and I was going to a dance class or to practice. I don't remember which. At that moment the thought passed through my mind that I ballroom was going to become a really big part of my life. Just a passing thought I suppose, but in hindsight I can see the fulfillment of that single passing thought. That hasn't been the first time that has happened to me...I had never really imagined myself as a dancer, and still can't really. No matter how hard I tried, I never looked as good as I thought I did, most of you know who would watch yourself dance on video thinking, "Really? I look like that? I look horrible!!" Still, I know I have improved tremendously over the past years with ballroom and I don't think I need to be as embarrassed anymore.
So I have performed in front of hundreds, maybe thousands of people of the past 4 years and have gained great experiences and fond memories that will last me a lifetime. Though I have been involved with ballroom a number of years, things really didn't start to hit me with what I was doing until I made the Back-Up Touring Team. Just a brief summary of my entire ballroom experience:
Before my mission, my sister wanted to take a class with me. She, being close to graduating or something similar, chose beginning latin 185 to take together in the summer. That was the only time since I was going to be leaving on my mission soon after that term. (Incidentally when my call came, I had to wait 4 months before I reported to the MTC, figures) Being a good older sister, she bought me a pair of latin shoes to help me dance better. We competed in the Nevada star ball that year, but I really don't ever remember practicing. Maybe she does. We got cut pretty quickly. Yeah, that was short lived.
I got back from my mission on the 25th of December 2003. Yup, Christmas day baby! The following winter semester I was, for whatever reason, determined to not take any dance class. I had completed my time in dance and it was time to move on.
So the year is 2004 and it is summer again. My best friend growing up decided he wanted to take summer classes. What's more is that he wanted to take a class together with me. Of all the classes he chose, beginning latin 185 would be the class he wanted to take together. After about 2 weeks of fighting this idea, I VERY reluctantly signed up for the summer term class. It was sometime during the first week of this summer term that I had the experience with walking down the RB that I mentioned before. Within the first week of being in the class I decided that it was something that I really enjoyed doing, consequently I signed up for 2 more dance classes. With the intent of trying out for the ballroom team.
Fall finally came around and I tried out for the team and made it!! As amazing as that sounds, when put into perspective, I was 1 out of about 23 or males that made it that semester. So nothing too special. So I was on Brent Keck's team for the following 2 semesters in which I experienced a sensation I had never had up to that point in my life. I was performing in a church building what we would call one of Brent's "Tango Dobles". There were 3 couples during that dance who did a "solo" part together. I was part of those 3 couples. I was dipping my partner when all of a sudden I hear a loud explosion. BOOM!!! Came the sound from my bottom back side and my face froze in horror. I wish I was on stage a part from the audience, because I'm sure then, nobody might have noticed the big flapping fabric located on my butt region. The noise the explosion made was so loud that the girl I was dipping (who had her head back for the dip) immediately raised her head and stared at me as though I had passed gas or worse. For the rest of the dance I remained in the front and hesitant to do anything to expose myself any more than I already had. Besides that horrifying and traumatizing experience, the experience I had was great and I quit team that year for another opportunity I had in teaching junior high science. I left that winter semester having advanced to the 1 o' clock team.
After teaching a full year of junior high science, I came back to BYU and walked to the dance office. I wanted to be on the dance team again and I was wondering how to go about doing so. I ran into Curt Holman who told me that I didn't have to try out for team, they would just put me on one. Sweet!! So I started off the semester, grateful that I didn't have to try out on Brady Stevenson's team. I was only there 1 week when I was asked if I could move up to the 1 o' clock team. Of course I could!! So I danced that entire semester on the advanced back up team with Marci Edgington being the director, and I was grateful to be there.
I hadn't given it much thought to being moved up. I had hoped to maybe the following fall to be on back-up. So I was very surprised and excited to recieve a phone call at the end of that fall semester to be placed on Curt Holman's back-up tour team. Little did I know what I was getting into. It was a whole new ball game being on the back-up tour team, we actually did full shows and were expected to perform, not just dance. I don't think I relaxed that entire semester. We went to Nauvoo that year, an experience both fun and memorable. By the end of the Nauvoo shows (we performed EVERY night for 2 weeks) I finally felt comfortable with performing and enjoyed it a lot.
I didn't dance again for the summer, and I wasn't planning on it. I did, however, receive a surprising email that changed my commitment to ballroom for the next couple of years. I was working and asked my boss if I could quickly check my e-mail. I did so and found out that I had made the BYU Ballroom Touring Team!!! I was blown away. I had known the guys who danced on that team. They were good dancers and there was no way that I was even close to being that good. But I humbly took the challenge and was determined to do my best to try and at least not look bad and make the team look bad. My hope was to at least blend in. I don't know how I really did, but I felt that after the first year I didn't stick out. There were many experiences that helped me to learn and grow over the next year on the team. I learned that the touring team takes a lot more time, commitment, and money than I had initially given them credit for. They danced a lot more shows and practiced harder than I ever would have imagined. We toured China that year which is a place I had only imagined going to. It is so far away that it had never even crossed my mind to go there, and with a ballroom team at that. There were some great performances, places, and experiences that I enjoyed while in China.


Then next year on the tour team would prove to be my final year on the team. It wasn't an easy year due to being ill on mid-semester tour and trying to cram in all my classes with what seemed like an unusually busy semester. Still, there were some great experiences that came and went with each performance. During World of Dance that year I started talking to Shani, the director of the Ballet Company. While being on the Ballroom team I would later help out the Ballet Company with Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. I don't think Lee was too happy with that. I was trying to figure out whether or not I should stay on the team for the following semester. After a lot of prayer, fasting, and temple attendance, I decided that Heavenly Father wanted me to stay on. It was that assurance coupled with the help of friends that helped me stay on the team during the winter semester. Being 26 and still an undergrad, I didn't feel like I was where I necessarily wanted to be at this point of my life. Still, the decision to stay on team was for the best, I knew it, and I didn't regret it. My last tour was through all the church history sites and a few historic American sites. It was a good tour to end on.
Now it is all over and I can move on with other things in life. When I think about it, I wonder if quitting now is really the best thing I can do for myself. I am dancing ballroom better now than I ever had. I believe that I am improving at an fast rate and could be as good as a lot of dancers at BYU if I hang in there. You might say that I am in my prime even though I am 26:) However, although ballroom is fun and I would highly recommend the experience to all...the atmosphere and environment created by it, isn't something I necessarily want to be around constantly for the rest of my life. Although I can see myself enjoying concerts and Dancesport all the same:) Like Henry David Thoreau, after being at Walden Pond for 2 years, decided that it was time to move on. He learned what he needed to and there were many other experiences that awaited him in his life. I'm excited to see what the future will bring and hope that I will have it in me to some how catch up with to all the goals I had set for myself a few years ago before I got into ballroom. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities and blessing I received from being on the ballroom team. Also, I am grateful for all the friendships and people I met while being on the team. All of you are amazing! Thanks for everything!