It is 7:30 on a Wednesday morning in Edmunds Ballroom at the Smith Campus Center, and twelve students–seven women and five men–stand in a straight line so that each faces the back of the next in line. The women mostly wear a t-shirt, a skirt, and thin, high-heeled shoes, while the boys are clad in t-shirts, tight pants and black leather shoes with a raised heel, so as to resemble the foot of a satyr.

The students stand at attention, waiting for the music to start. As their instructor turns his boombox on at last, they begin to walk forward in unison. Within seconds of the students’ first movements, the music is cut and the instructor finds a fault. He explains what was wrong, and the dancers line up. Again, it takes just a few steps before the instructor finds something wrong. This scene repeats itself eleven more times before the instructor at last feels confident that all is well for even half-a-minute.

Tomorrow, November 15, the group will fly to Columbus, OH to compete in the US Collegiate National Championships at the Ohio Star Ball. These dancers are on the Claremont Colleges’ Ballroom Dance Company’s competition team, an elite group of seven couples forming a 5-C club team, and when they compete Saturday, November 17, it will be the first time the 5-C team has done so at this prestigious event.

In the past, the Claremont team did not have the depth or the experience to compete at the national level. For the most part, students danced only in classes, not in competitions. However, company director Wes Acker, when he took the job in 1998, established an actual competition team, and he feels confident now that his dancers can compete with the best of the best.

DanceSport is the official name of this kind of ballroom dancing, and it is the name used at the Olympics, at which it is an exhibition event. (The International DanceSport Federation (IDSF), with headquarters in Lousanne, Switzerland and comprised of 77 nations, has long petitioned the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to give DanceSport official medal status. However, the current agenda of the IOC involves cutting back on the number of athletes and competitions at the Games. As a result, DanceSport, like the other 13 sports under consideration, failed in its attempt last December at promotion for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.)

Many in the American DanceSport community believe that, if the sport receives Olympic medal competition status, the NCAA might agree to govern the sport at the collegiate level. Currently, DanceSport falls under the authority of the U.S. Amateur Ballroom Dance Association (USABDA).

The Claremont Colleges host two prominent competitions, as well, each featuring 500-600 performers. The upcoming Pacific DanceSport Festival (November 30-December 2) is held in buildings throughout the 5-C’s, as is the Claremont Classic DanceSport Competition (April 20), which is one of the country’s most prestigious competitions. (In addition to their two competitions, the 5-C team offers a 90 minute weekend exhibition every Spring semester at Big Bridges Auditorium.)

The Claremont team plans to compete this year–as a whole–at the Ohio Star Ball, the Pacific DanceSport Festival, the San Francisco Open, and the Claremont Classic DanceSport Competition. In addition, individual couples often compete on their own at other dance festivals and the team is planning a tour of Alaska at the end of the school year. Describing the competition atmosphere, Acker said: "In ballroom competitions, people get loud. People don’t always know that, but they do. You’re supposed to yell for the people you like, yell for their numbers."

Claremont’s team competes locally with USC, UC San Diego, Cal Tech, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, Chapman, and others. Acker believes his team is one of the best in Southern California, though it is not quite at the level of Brigham Young, which has won the national championship 17 straight times.

The 5-C dance program is made up of 250 dancers, most of whom take beginning, intermediate, and advanced level classes in social dance, international standard, and international Latin. Included in the program is the Claremont Colleges’ Ballroom Dance Company, which places 60 dancers between four levels–campus team (the lowest level of the four), backup tour team, tour team, competition team (the highest level; also, an elite level of the tour team)–through a series of tryouts held each semester. Nearly all of the fourteen competition team members came to college with little-to-no dance knowledge and, by way of taking the various classes offered, worked themselves up to the top team.

Practices are held for the competition team at 7-9 in the morning Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with some extra rehearsals added in the weeks leading up to a major competition. The campus team meets Monday and Wednesday at 10 pm for one hour, while the dance classes (which earn credit towards physical education requirements) are scattered throughout the week. Classes cost $50, and a pair of shoes costing approximately $70 are required as well.

"We’ve had social dance here for eight or nine years at the beginning and intermediate levels," said Acker. "Now what we have is the international, which is the competition style and it goes all the way up to the international level. We’ve had that for three years."

Acker added that "the average person takes two to three semesters worth of classes before being ready to hit it hard on the team. From there on, they just keep progressing." Not surprisingly, the team is made up mostly of upperclassmen, though a few sophomores who "just developed really fast" have found their way on as well.

For those not dancing at the competition level, two dance team socials are put on at the beginning and end of every semester, and a mock competition some of the advanced dancers and school administrators acting as judges is put on to give the dancers experience. The performers that the judges like the most are called back after each round and the eliminations continue until a final group of six couples is formed.

Anjani Polit PO ’03 is one of those who learned the art of ballroom dancing entirely since coming to Pomona. She signed up for the "Beginning International Latin" class, and when she heard about the dance team tryouts, she made the team and was, in her words, "hooked." Ballroom dance is an athletic and complicated sport, she noted, and as a member of the competition team she loves "being part of the team and working hard to become good so we can go to a competition and do well."

"It’s all for fun," added Acker. "These are opportunities to give those with less dance experience taking classes here a chance to perform in a competition atmosphere."

The funding the team receives from the 5-C colleges is through the 5-C club sports organization. This only covers a tenth of what the competition team spends each year. "It’s a really small amount," said Acker. "We’re grateful for it, but it would be really nice if the schools would, as a group, just pay my salary. If we could get that cost out of the way, then we could lower the fees for the classes. Right now, the students pay for nearly everything, even when they are just taking a P.E. class that should already be included in their tuition.

"We’d like the colleges to say that our group is worth its while. We’d like them to see this as good representation for the schools and a good experience for the students who are involved."

"It would be nice if Pomona or any of the other five colleges would help financially with the dance company," said Kyle Maginnis PO ’05, a member of the campus team. "Currently, students have to foot the entire bill, a bill which can climb to hundreds of dollars for those members of the dance team, and one that not everyone can afford."

When asked about the respect that DanceSport receives from the IOC and other international and national sporting organizations, Acker replied: "Some people don’t think that we train as hard as any other athlete. I obviously disagree. I know what my heart rate is while I’m dancing, and I know all the things I go through. It’s certainly as hard as figuring skating, and definitely harder than curling. This is pretty active."

The team is in the process of trying to raise funds from local businesses, as well as some fund raising drives within the colleges. Any money raised would be appreciated, considering, for the Ohio Star Ball, $5000-$6000 was spent. Costumes for this particular competition, alone, have cost over $3000, and all dancers had to spend around $135 dollars out of their own pockets for airfare to and from Columbus.

At Nationals, the 5-C team will compete in the formation event, which inolves a Latin medley of cha cha, samba, rumba, and paso doble dances. The international standard, which is not performed by the competition team, incorporates Waltz, tango, fox trot, Viennese waltz, and quick-step. All of the dancers will be competing in individual events held throughout the weekend as well, and the four best couples from the Claremont team are entered in the Collegiate Team Match on Sunday, November 18.

"I’m really proud of our dancers," Acker commented. "We’ve had two months to work on routines that other teams have been practicing for as much as half-a-year." Despite this relatively short rehearsal period, Acker expects his team to make the formation competition finals, which should include between 3 and 6 teams. (27 colleges will be represented in Columbus, though only around 17 of those are anticipated to field teams in the formation style.)

"It’s a national competition, and we’ve never done anything this big before, so it’s a really big step and it means a lot for the team’s future," Marcus Lee PO ’03 said of the Ohio Star Ball. "It’s really exciting."

Indeed, DanceSport is exciting, both to take part in and to watch. If figuring skating, synchronized swimming, and gymnastics merit Olympic medal status, then there is no reason DanceSport should not. The athletes train just as hard as any other, and the competitions are a true test of endurance, strength, and skill.

More immediately, however, the Claremont colleges should recognize these facts, as well. There is no reason anyone who practices as much as two hours a day, twice a day, three times a week, and rises before the sun as part of all that should be paying so much money just for the right to compete. These dancers are athletes who bring respect and name recognition to their schools. It is time that the 5-C’s noticed.