Beneath the high, brightly lit ceiling, a long row of people watched the expansive dance floor. Three couples stood, poised and ready to dance. As 3OH!3’s ‘My First Kiss’ began playing, the dancers moved closer to each other.

The partners came together and pulled away effortlessly, gliding around each other swiftly and smoothly. Their steps pounded against the hardwood floor in pace with the song’s beat. Each pair struck a different pose at the last moment of the song and received applause.

The dance was part of the Ballroom and Swing Social Dance, presented by the Syracuse University Ballroom Dance Organization and the SU Swing Dance Club on Saturday night. The organization’s first social dance took place at the South Campus Skybarn, a casual gathering for students to experience the simple joys of dancing.

Besides the opening choreographed performance by the Ballroom Dance Organization, the entire night featured a casual open dance floor with music ranging from classical waltz to Lady Gaga.

After the dancers bowed and left,everyone made their way to the floor. While several moved with as much grace as the previous performance, some took slower, smaller steps with less grace, laughing.

Maura Ivanick, a Syracuse resident who dances as a hobby, said she liked that the dancers had varying levels of experience and danced in distinct ways.

‘You look out here and there’s six or seven couples,’ she said, ‘and they’re all doing a different style. It’s wonderful.’

Holly Stone, a sophomore bioengineering major and vice president of the Ballroom Dancing Organization, organized most of the event. She felt the organization spread its name farther than the SU campus and attracted a wide variety of people.

‘There are many different facets of the social dance community,’ she said. ‘This event was an attempt to bring them all together.’

People who attended included members of the Syracuse Ballroom Dance Society. Although older, they still stepped nimbly with their partners. Many community members taking ballroom classes also came to pick up tips from their partners.

The Swing Dance Club coordinated the event with the Ballroom Dance Organization. Leanna Mulvihill, the club’s president and columnist for The Daily Orange, said coordinating the event with the Ballroom Dance Organization was easy due to overlapping membership. Though swing is more social and ballroom is more competitive, both clubs share the goal of wanting more exposure.

‘We’re pretty flexible with our membership,’ said Mulvihill, a senior environmental research and engineering major. ‘We’d like to keep it loose and open and informal. So we hope more people come, for sure.’

The turnout was lower than expected because many students were away for Easter weekend, but the organizers were still proud of the event. Plenty of dancers still grooved on the dance floor as the night went on.

Rachel Wakefield, president of the Ballroom Dance Organization, hopes to continue social dances to make the organization’s presence more known. Before her senior club members graduate, she aims to have a monthly social dance to spread awareness and raise funds for the organization.

‘We are ambitious,’ said Wakefield, a sophomore English and textual studies major. ‘But we really want to do more in the community, so that’s our real goal.’

meantonu@syr.edu

Published on April 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Max: meantonu@syr.edu