History of the Club
The URI Ballroom Dance Club was formed in 1995 by Kristen Coleman. It started out with a membership of about twenty people meeting once a week for an hour. Ever since, the club has been growing by leaps and bounds by expanding its class offerings, becoming more involved with the local dance community, and attending more collegiate competitions. The Ballroom Dancing Club is continually growing, so browse through our site, see what we're all about, and stop in to join us and give it a try!
2005
The URI Ballroom Dancing Club in partnership with the Johnson & Wales Ballroom and Latin Club hosted its first competition,
the Rhode Island DanceSport Invitational.
We received a lot of help from other local dance groups, including students and alumni from
Salve Regina University, Rhode Island College, the Rhode Island Chapter of USA Dance. The competition was held in the Johnson & Wales
Harborside Recreation & Athletics Center in Providence.
2001 - 2002
Our competition team attended many of the collegiate competitions including the YCN Ohio Star Ball. Several members of the competition team also attended the Intercontinental DanceSport Festival again, held in Daytona Beach, Florida. At the end of the spring semester our formation team put on a twenty-minute performance for the URI Foundation at Rhodes On-The-Pawtuxet. The performance consisted of a medley of dances featuring different groups of performers in each dance and some solo performances. The actual dances covered almost the entire ballroom repetoire from cha-cha to waltz to mambo and even some hip-hop for the finale.
2000 - 2001
Continuing to build our competition team, we had couples competing at virtually every collegiate competition in the Northeast this year. Some of our major accomplishments were competing at the YCN Ohio Star Ball, winning the top school award at the RPI competition, and attending the Intercontinental DanceSport Festival in Osmington Bay, England . Our formation team performed a combination of Samba and Paso Doble at our Spring dance.
1999 - 2000
This year saw a huge explosion in growth. We started out on a good note by having over one hundred students sign-up for the club. We raised our number of classes to two beginner classes, an intermediate class, and a formation team that met once a week. We also taught a number of classes in outside programs at the Multicultural Center for diversity week and in several dorms. We had several couples competing in the Harvard Beginner's competition, the USABDA Northeast Regionals, the Brown competition, and the Yale competition where Mike Obara and Angela Ripa placed 3rd in the foxtrot finals. Our Formation team, consisting of four couples, learned a routine to 'Mambo #5' which we performed in the Intercontinental DanceSport Festival in Daytona Beach, Florida . The members of the formation team also competed as couples in regular competition and won a number of prizes. In the spring semester a competition team was started that met twice a week and culminated in a competition in Arpril at MIT. We participated in our first Team Match where we placed 6th, and also individual couples placed in the semi-finals and finals. Our Formation team also learned a second routine, a jive to 'Jailhouse Rock' to perform at our second spring dance.
1998 - 1999
This past year we created an intermediate for our more advanced dancers and a formation class that we dedicated to a formation team where we learned a Tango to "Phantom of the Opera", under the direction of Tracy Killion.
1997 - 1998
In the spring semester of 1998, a team of dedicated students spent an extra hour after class to practice a formation dance that we would perform in a showcase and competition. Tracy Killion, our instructor, created a choreographed foxtrot to the music of "One Singular Sensation." The dance involved costumes with top hats and canes and was a huge success. Everyone had a great time dancing and we performed at several dances and showcases including the Northeast Amateur DanceSport Festival where we took first place in the Cabaret event. We also had a second formation dance with the students as background dancers for our instructors, Tracy Killion and Tom Slattery, in a Cha-Cha / Hustle performance to Will Smith's "Men in Black."
Our trophy from the Northeast Amateur DanceSport Festival, 1st Prize for the Cabaret