Team members performing at the Alumni Association Homecoming Tailgate last Saturday!
Hi team,
It’s the last week before we all get to enjoy a well-deserved break! Come and dance with us this week to relieve your midterms stress and help push through to the long weekend 🙂
Some things for new members:
- Comp info session/DTS intro session/shoe vending! Have all your competition questions answered, learn about how to use our practice space and buy dance shoes from our local dance store VE Dance, all in one convenient evening! Please note, attending the DTS intro session is mandatory if you want to use team practice space at DTS for the rest of the semester. If you have a conflict and are unable to attend, please contact your wonderful Practice Space Coordinator Grace (gkraimer) to arrange a make up opportunity (in case you were wondering, this is our final mandatory event of the semester – from now on, everything is optional!)
Time: Tuesday 10.15pm-midnight
Location: Dance Theatre Studio, 713 North University Avenue (near Panera). If you attend the shortened newcomer lesson before this we’ll walk you over from the CCRB 🙂
You can expect a pair of shoes to cost about $70-85, and VE Dance accept credit/debit cards and cash. You don’t need to buy shoes in order to attend newcomer lesson, but if you’re interested in competing this semester you will need shoes in order to compete. If you can’t make this vending session you can stop by the VE Dance shop in Ypsilanti to buy your shoes, here’s a map! If you need a ride to VE Dance, try posting in the team Facebook group as people from our team regularly drive out there and are happy to take extra passengers!
- Lessons this week: Because of shoe vending/Illinois compatition this weekend/fall break, newcomer lessons are running on an irregular schedule this week. Please check the schedule below and/or the team calendar before showing up at the CCRB! Note that we’ll have our first partner search of the semester on Thursday night! Don’t worry if you can’t make it on Thursday, we’ll have several more partner searches throughout the semester 🙂
- More about lessons: As the weather changes the CCRB will turn on the heat, which means the mirror room can get very warm during lesson. Dancing is an energetic activity, which means you’ll probably sweat a little during lessons and practice! This is totally fine, but since dancing also involves close body contact with other people, please take a look at the following hygiene tips from our coaches:
- take a shower on the day of the lesson
- bring a spare clean shirt and change before the lesson
- wear deodorant and/or body spray
- make your breath smell fresh with gum or mints
- Join our Facebook group! It’s the hub of our community where we post event reminders and announcements during the week, as well as lost and found items, partner searches and much, much more! 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’re having trouble joining the group or 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 WOLV TV’s report about our beginner class on 9/26!
Some things for everyone:
- Ballroom buddies! Our team is so large and complicated, it can be confusing when you first join. With this in mind, we’ve developed a ballroom buddy scheme: if you are a new member of our team, you can sign up to be paired with a returning team member that has volunteered to help you feel welcome and answer any questions about competitions/looking for a partner/anything and everything ballroom related. Your buddy is not responsible for teaching you dance moves or meeting with you all day every day (unless you both want to), but rather serves as a point person and guide to the team. Sign up for both newcomers and returning team members can be found here and the deadline to sign up is this Tuesday (10/8) at 11.59pm! Please note that you won’t necessarily be paired with the person in the same row as you on the spreadsheet, just sign up in any order and we’ll send you your matches later this week. Questions about ballroom buddies? Ask your Recruitment Chair Can (ccarlak)!
Join this fabulous squad by ordering your team apparel!
- Apparel: Rep the MBDT! Apparel is now available for purchase on our website until October 20th. Check out this semester’s offerings here and contact Grace (gkraimer) with any questions. If you’re interested in being part of a ballroom tie–dye event (date TBA once apparel is distributed), buy one of our white Michigan Ballroom V-Necks, unisex shirts or tanks!
- Indiana registration due this week! The deadline to sign up for the Indiana competition is this week (Friday October 11th!). If you’re a newcomer, this is a great opportunity to try out what competing is like before Nationals in November. More details about this competition will follow soon in an email from your lovely Away Comp Chair Natalie, but here’s a quick rundown of the important info:
- Vending help needed: VE Dance will be vending at DTS on Tuesday night starting at 10.15pm, so this is a great opportunity to pick up some new shoes or heel caps. Returning members, please come by DTS at 10pm to help Vincent and Daisy unload their van and set up for vending 🙂
And now the schedule…
Monday 10/7
9.30-11.30pm: Open Practice at DTS. Please note that Studio A will be closed tonight for a make up Pre-C lesson, so if you want to practice standard try the CCRB or IMSB instead.
Tuesday 10/8
9-10pm: Newcomer Review Lesson (part 1)! Review some of this week’s new moves with A-team in this short lesson. We’ll walk you over to DTS afterwards for the vending/info session!
10-10.15pm: Returning members please help Vincent and Daisy unload their van and set up for vending at DTS
10.15pm-midnight: Newcomer competition and practice space info session/shoe vending! Location: Dance Theatre Studio, 713 North University Avenue (near Panera)
10.15-11pm: Open Practice in CCRB 3275 (DTS is closed for vending, come and practice here instead)
Wednesday 10/9
9.30-11.30pm: Open Practice at DTS. Please note that Studio A will be closed tonight for a make up Pre-C lesson, so if you want to practice standard try the CCRB or IMSB instead.
Thursday 10/10
8pm-midnight: Illinois rounds and open practice in the League Ballroom! Come and practice your standard, we only have the ballroom a couple more times this semester. We’ll run one set of rounds at 9pm and a second set at 10.30pm, and the rest of the time will be open practice.
9-11pm: Newcomer review lesson (part 2) and partner search!!! In this session we’ll review the second half of Saturday’s lesson and then have our first partner search of the semester 🙂
No DTS, come to the League instead!
Friday 10/11
Registration, Rooms & Rides and payment deadline for the Indiana University competition!
Saturday 10/12
No Newcomer lesson due to Fall Break!
Sunday 10/13
Your ballroom team membership comes with a FREE membership to the ballroom club! Just ask the desk at the club for your membership card. The Ballroom Dance Club meets once a week on Sundays and provides a relaxed, social environment to learn ballroom for the wider Ann Arbor community. It’s a great opportunity to attend an additional lesson (if the two this week weren’t enough) and get some help from upper-level team members at Open Dance. Club is in the Vandenberg Room in the League this week.
| 5-6pm: | Advanced American Waltz |
| 6-7pm: | Beginner International Rumba <- Newcomers come to this one to learn a new dance! |
| 7-9pm: | Open Dance |
For more information including this week’s schedule, check out the club website here.
Looking further ahead:
- Corn maze: Get excited for our next social, a team trip to a spooOOooky corn maze on Friday October 18th! Sign up will be available next week, but make sure you save the date! This event will start at 6pm.
- Save the date for the Ohio Star Ball aka OSB aka NATIONALS!!! OSB is the most fun competition of the year and we’d hate for you to miss it, so save the date for November 23rd-24th! Lots more info coming later…
Have a great week,
Lizzie