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2/11/18 Week at a Glance

By Lizzie Nabney on February 11, 2019

Your beautifully colour-coordinated team board are always happy to answer your questions! Find info on each board member here, and you can contact the whole board by email at ballroom-exec@umich.edu or using this form on the website

Hello to the official Michigan Ballroom Dance Team for Winter 2019!!!

Our roster for the semester is now complete and I want to extend the warmest of welcomes to the newest members of the MBDT 🙂 I am so excited that you are joining our community and hope everyone had a fantastic Guys’ and Girls’ Night, whether it was your first time or last of many. I know I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you all better, dancing with my fellow ladies and beating the guys in the dance off (in my totally unbiased opinion at least), and celebrating the start of a great semester together!

Here’s our announcements and schedule for this week:

Some things if you’re new to the team:

• What is Week at a Glance??? I’m glad you asked! Week at a Glance (WAG for short) is our weekly newsletter containing information about all our upcoming events for the week, including lessons, practice space, socials and much more! Week at a Glance is your best source for all things MBDT, so please take the time to read through it thoroughly to ensure you don’t miss out on our events. Our lesson and practice schedule sometimes deviates from normal to accommodate special events, so please check the schedule below before turning up at the CCRB!
• Mandatory DTS intro session on Tuesday: Outside of lessons, our main team practice space is Dance Theatre Studio (aka DTS). We will be holding an intro session to show you how to use the space this Tuesday 2/12, 10-10.30pm. DTS is located at 713 North University, here’s a map to help you find your way, or if you come to the lesson beforehand someone will walk you over from the CCRB. If you can’t make the info session, please contact your lovely Practice Space Coordinator Corey (cgkflynn@umich.edu) to schedule a make up, or you will not be able to use DTS this semester. Also, please don’t show up to DTS outside the times listed in the schedule below as the studio will be full of many tiny children taking tap classes!
• Lessons this week: We’re now on our regular weekly lesson schedule in the CCRB. These are our normal times for beginner lessons:
  • Saturday 4.30-6pm (Steve and Susan teaching)
  • Tuesday 9-11pm (review of Saturday’s lesson taught by A-team)
  • Thursday 9-11pm (supervised practice, upper level team members will be available to help you and answer your questions)
• Join our Facebook group! It’s the hub of our community where we post event reminders and announcements during the week (also the many, many lost and found items people leave after lessons!). Check it out here, and just hit request access. Make sure you’ve added your Michigan email address to your Facebook account or you won’t be able to join the group, there’s instructions about how to do this here (if you aren’t a Michigan student please contact ballroom-exec@umich.edu and we’ll sort it out).
• Calendar: The team has its own Google calendar, available here, which you can use for reminders for all our events during the week and to see what competitions are coming up!
• Check out our newcomer guide! The password is in the email you just got with the link to this page. Click here to access.

Some things for everyone:

• Vending: Team alumni Vincent and Daisy, owners of Ypsilanti dance store VE Dance, will be at DTS on Tuesday, 10pm-midnight, with a variety of Latin and standard shoes plus heel caps and a selection of other items from their store. If you’re interested in competing this semester this is the perfect opportunity to get kitted out for the competition floor!
• Ballroom Valentines: It’s time for this year’s Ballroom Valentines! Ballroom Valentines is a fun, whimsical way to make a new friend on the team. Just fill out this questionnaire and your fabulous PR Chair Tara will match you with someone else on the team! Here are some ideas for things you could do with your Ballroom Valentine:
  • meet up for a coffee
  • surprise them with candy or chocolate
  • create a meme about them
  • take them to the Club Valentine’s party on Sunday (see below for more details)

Monday 2/11

6-8pm: Bronze American lesson open to A-PreC2 teams

9.30-11.30pm: Open practice at DTS

Tuesday 2/12

9-10pm: Short newcomer review lesson, CCRB 3275. This is the place to be if you missed our Saturday lesson or just want to see everything again. Experienced team members will go over the material from the lesson on Saturday and answer all your questions 🙂

10-12pm: DTS intro session and shoe vending at Dance Theatre Studio, 713 North University

Wednesday 2/13

Galentine’s Day! Celebrate the amazing ladies in your life!

9.30-11.30pm: Open practice at DTS

Thursday 2/14

9-11pm: Supervised Practice in CCRB 3275! Come and practice all the dances you’ve learned so far with the help of experienced team members, who will be available to answer all your questions! Open to newcomers and Pre-C, you can either bring a partner with you or find one at the practice.

10-12pm: Open practice at DTS

Friday 2/15

Enjoy some discounted V-Day chocolates!

Saturday 2/16

4.30-6pm: Newcomer lesson with Steve and Susan, CCRB 3275

Sunday 2/17

Your ballroom team membership comes with a complimentary membership to the ballroom club! The Ballroom Dance Club meets once a week on Sundays and provides a relaxed, social environment to learn ballroom alongside the wider Ann Arbor community. You do not need to be a student to attend.

Club are having a Valentine’s Day party this week, check out the event page here for more info.

Club is in the League Ballroom this week, you can find more details on their website here.

Looking further ahead, here’s some important dates for the rest of the semester…

March 2nd-3rd: Arnold! Our biggest competition of the winter semester is less than a month away! The Arnold Youth Dancesport Classic is on the first Saturday and Sunday of spring break, and you don’t want to miss it! The points we earn from Arnold contribute towards our score at next year’s nationals, thus making it essential for defending our title for the fifteenth consecutive year. Be sure to save the date so you can dance for the Terminator himself, who makes an appearance every year in the ballroom!!!

March 23rd: MichComp! Your amazing Home Comp Chair Anna has been hard at work preparing our team’s very own competition. Our home competition at Pioneer High School is the perfect opportunity for your friends and family to watch you dance!

March 29th: Dance Mix! It’s your favorite spectacular end of year dance show, and our formation team will be performing again this year! Last year’s show was sold out with thousands of people filling the Power Center, so don’t miss out on an evening of performances from UofM’s best dance groups.

Happy dancing,

Lizzie

Michigan Ballroom President/QE3

PC: Lizzy <3