The Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company

Now in her final semester at Pomona, Super Senior Kimberly Loo has had plenty of time to soak up the goodness of ballroom dance. As a seasoned member of the tour team, Kim was hard pressed to come up a single answer when I asked her what her favorite CCBDC memory was: "I don’t think I can answer that . . . All I know is that there were plenty of good times. Plenty. Of course, I love love LOVE performing. I am this strange combination of uber-shy introvert and crazy attention-seeker, so performing dance is AWESOME. It provides the opportunity to entertain people without having to give speeches or use words."

What started as a last minute class pick developed into central passion for this very busy student. Kim remembers, "My sponsor group got the very last class registration spot freshman year. I was standing in line commiserating with them when I found out that half of them were taking ballroom dance. It sounded really fun! I was going to be taking ballet and hip hop dance, and I figured I might as well sign up for another dance class. You know, try something different." A win-win for all, ballroom turned out to be a perfect activity for Kim. We get the benefit of her stellar performance and personality, and she gets to socialize and take much-needed breaks from her ambitious academic endeavors. After her initial semester of ballroom, Kim became part of campus team in the spring of her first year, followed by a quick jump to tour team sophomore year. From that point on, Kim was a dedicated ballroom dancer, applying her typical ethos of 110% dedication as part of the CCBDC family.

It seems almost impossible that Kim does all that she does inside and outside the ballroom—Kim is a impressive triple major in English, Dance and Anthropology, writing her anthropology thesis about ballroom, and her English thesis about prophecy and cursing in Oedipus Tyrannus. In addition to schoolwork, Kim manages the Safe Escort Service, interns at Soulstice Marketing, and TAs at Sycamore Elementary. Not surprisingly, Kim has plans for her life after Pomona, aiming to spend time in Hong Kong or Japan teaching English and, of course, doing ballroom dance.

Kim takes an equally abundant approach to her work inside the ballroom, training extensively to secure another prize-winning performance in the upcoming Nationals competition, serving as the Historian for CCBDC, and even making time to drop into technique classes to help out. There’s no end to the dancing in sight. As I ask about her dance horizons post-Pomona, Kim replies, "I will always be a social dancer . . . There is always more to learn. I think it would be fun to work in the dance industry in some capacity, perhaps in marketing and public relations." To this, I can only smile and think of all the people who will be lucky enough to encounter Kim as she dances through life. If, upon knowing Kim, you sense something super-human in her extraordinary existence, suffice to know it is indeed something special—Kim has ascended from the level of humanity into the magical realm of dancer extraordinaire.