About Us

General Information We are the KU Dancesport team, an organization of KU students who love competitive ballroom dancing. We help our members improve their dancing skill and support their participation in DanceSport competitions. Despite our competitive aspirations, we encourage ANYONE in the KU community to join us as long as you have an interest in ballroom! There are NO try outs. As long as you have an interest, you will not be turned away! Instruction We offer professionally taught lessons each week, plus supervised practice time, and amateur lessons from the veterans on our team. Most members also practice privately with their partners. We learn and compete in both International and American styles, though our lessons focus on international style Standard and Latin dances. Partnerships You don't need a partner to join, or to take any of our lessons/workshops. One of the advantages of being on a team is meeting lots of dancers who also need partners. Some people will partner up immediately, but most team members dance with several different partners during their first year of competing. We would never force you to dance with anyone; partnering decisions are completely up to you. If you need advice, the more experienced team members will be happy to talk things over with you. Competitions Team members are encouraged to participate in at least one competition each semester, and most choose to attend even more. The competitions are scattered though out the Midwest, hence they typically require fun overnight road trips. There are 19 competitive ballroom dances, 10 in the International style and 9 in the Amercan style. They are further subdivided into Standard and Latin (International) and Smooth and Rhythm (American). Standard International Waltz International Tango International Viennese Waltz International Foxtrot International Quickstep Latin International Cha Cha International Samba International Rumba International Paso Doble International Jive Smooth American Waltz American Tango American Foxtrot American Viennese Waltz Rhythm American Cha Cha American Rumba American Swing American Bolero American Mambo Couples compete against others with similar training experience. In order to do this, events are usually divided up into different levels as listed below in order of level of achievement: Newcomer/pre-bronze Bronze Silver Gold Prechamp Champ Newcomer through gold are considered to be "syllabus" levels where permitted figures are restricted to those specified in certain official syllabi (usually those sanctioned by the ISTD). Prechamp and Champ levels are considered to be "Open" levels and do not have any syllabus restrictions. Interested? For information about joining the team, click here. Click here for a listing of how our members had placed in recent competitions.