Celebrating 40 Years of Ballroom Dancing at MIT

To an un-choreographed eye, MIT may not seem like a place with a thriving ballroom dance community. In reality, the Institute’s Ballroom Dance Team is perennially top-ranked, and the non-competitive Ballroom Dance Club celebrates its 40-year anniversary on August 9.

“I’m sure some people are surprised that MIT’s has good ballroom dancers,” says Allison Chang PhD ’12. “It can be a rigid place to be, but ballroom dance fits that image better than any other kind of dance. There are techniques and rules about movement. A big reason MIT students excel at it is because it gives you structure.”

In fact, a few MIT alums have gone on to notable success in ballroom dance. The club’s first president, Jeff Alexander ’74, SM ’76, PhD ’78 and his wife, Janelle, have won high-level dance competitions in the U.S. and England, and Daniel Radler ’79 and his partner, Suzanne Hamby, were a top-ranked amateur team and, as professionals, were ranked third in the U.S.

Related: A History of Ballroom Dancing at MIT

“When I first arrived at MIT in 2005, I was surprised to find out MIT even had a ballroom dance club,” says Media Lab visiting scholar and club vice president Attila Forruchi. “But it’s been a great way to meet people across campus. Our monthly social dances feature alumni who are in town for a visit and community dancers from greater Boston.”

MIT’s ballroom dancing origins date back to 1974 as a joint effort between students from MIT and Wellesley College, who met informally a few times per week. Membership grew throughout the 1980s and, as more members became interested in dancing competitively, the offshoot MIT Ballroom Dance Team was created in 1991.

“All of our events are open to general public,” Chang says. “We want to share ballroom dancing with everyone, and make it feasible to take high-quality classes for a low cost.”

Today, the MIT club is cross-generation club that holds instructional workshops up two three times per week and Saturday-evening social dances once per month. The club primary membership is MIT community members but is open to all.

“It became my primary extra-curricular activity when I was at MIT,” Chang says. “It was an important part of my life and created a nice balance with my academic work I was doing.”

The classes are taught by professional instructors located in Greater Boston and club members have varying levels of experience. The August 9 anniversary celebration is open to all—current students, alumni, and non-dancers curious about the art form.

“It’s very addictive,” Forruchi says. “Everyone starts without a formal dance background—almost everyone is a beginner of some sort. I used to played soccer in semi-professional leagues, and I was looking for something healthy but no contact. Ballroom dancing was perfect.”

The MIT Ballroom Dance Club’s 40^th Anniversary Celebration Social Dance take place Saturday, August 9, from 7:30 p.m.-midnight in La Sala de Puerto Rico in the Stratton Student Center. RSVP in advance for a reduced price and, for more information, visit the event’s Facebook page.