The Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company

The Intercollegiate Dance Party as part of the annual Claremont Dance Festival.

This year the Intercollegiate Dance Party will be held in Platt Campus Center at Harvey Mudd College (map), from 10:30pm - 1am with a Blues after party until 3am.

• Dancing (of course)
• Silly yet strangely entertaining Games
• Legendary Competitions
• Crazy Performances
• Rhythmic Mischief and Mayhem

They say that each year the legend grows. There are still stories of the first intercollegiate dance party - dancers in skin-tight gold costumes, where children left the room and parents that covered their eyes. They say that some of the games from that year are still banned in public places, and that some dancers still dream about the events that night.

Each year it grows, and the afterparties go down emblazoned in the memories of the crazed party goers, dancing until the sun rises and their bodies can no longer take the heat.

The Intercollegiate Dance Party. Be There.

All classes should meet at Edmunds Ballroom (170 East Sixth Street, Claremont CA 91711) at Pomona at least 5 minutes prior to the listed start time (prices).

Classes run simultaneously - only one class may be taken per session.

10:30-11:45
Intermediate/Advanced Lindy-hop (Beginning Aerials/Lifts)
Beginning West Coast
Beginning Paso Doble

12-1
Lunch

1:15-2:30
Beginning Blues
Intermediate International Cha Cha
Beginning Viennese Waltz

2:45-4:00
Intermediate/Advanced Salsa
Intermediate International Standard Theory
Ladies' Latin Styling Class

4:15-5:30
Intermediate/Advanced Blues
Beginning/Intermediate Polka

The Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company is proud to present its second dance festival of the year! After our successful Claremont Dance Festival in the fall we were overwhelmed by requests to do something similar this spring.

The event will take place April 3rd and 4th with classes during the day and events at night.

Friday night will be a SALSA NIGHT, featuring a lesson from 8-9 and dancing from 9-12, including some salsa in the rueda (circle dancing) style which will be taught earlier that day.

Saturday night will be the annual SWING JAM, featuring a LIVE BAND and a lesson at 8, dancing 9-12.

The weekend will have a bigger focus on the classes and parties and less on performances by the company. For those, come to our spring Concert May 1st-3rd!

The tentative class schedule (SUBJECT TO CHANGE):

April 3rd:

April 4:

Note: All events will be held at Platt Center (HMC) unless noted otherwise.

Classes: $2 each
Parties: FREE!

Bring money to the parties for the raffle where you can win CCBDC concert tickets, Motley coupons, and a dance shoe bag! CCBDC concert tickets will also be on sale!

You asked for it, so we're giving it to you - more of your favorite kind of fun, now in the Spring! The Claremont Spring Dance Festival!
Suggested donation for classes is $2, suggested donation for Parties/Dances is $5, and for a weekend pass the suggested donation is $15!
All classes are 45 minutes long, and will be taking place at Platt on the Harvey Mudd Campus.
April 3rd:

1:15pm
Social Ballroom Dance
Paul Roach
 
 

2:15pm
Salsa Cubana (Rueda)
Jessica Stephens, Aaron Gable, Karen Heinselman
 
 

3:15pm
Salsa Shines (Styling)
David Carrington, Suzie Ackerman
Solo Grooving
Paul Roach

4:15pm
Leads and Needs (Leading and Following)
Elin Ramsey
 
 

Starting at 8pm with an hour-long lesson (beginning, intermediate, and advanced), the night will conclude with an all out Salsa Fest! (Social Dancing 9pm-12am) Bring your dance shoes and come heat it up!

April 4th

10am
West Coast Swing
Evan Pardo, Lauren Wann
 
 

11am
Polka
Nikki Morin, Jake Nagel, Emily Seaman, Zach Johnson
Argentine Tango
Kaye

1:30pm
Bustin' Blues
Elisa Chavez, Aaron Brown
 
 

2:30pm
Dips and Tricks
Emily Seaman, Zach Johnson, Nikki Morin, Jake Nagel
 
 

3:30pm
Cool Cha
Chris Fiorello, Natalia Klishina
 
 

4:30pm
Dancin' Disco
Bre'anca Sanders, Albert Moldano
 
 

Starting with a series of lessons at 8pm, the night will conclude with Swing Jam! (social dancing 9pm-12am) Bring your funk and energy and come swing out!

The Claremont Dance Festival is the premiere collegiate dancesport festival in the USA, offering four days of fun events, demonstrations, and extremely accessible dance lessons for all kinds of dancers, from newcomers to professionals. For more information on each event, click on the title.  Click here to register for this exciting event put on by the 6-time national collegiate formation champion Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company (and one of the premiere amateur dancesport companies in the world). 

This year the Claremont Dance Festival will take place from December 4th-7th.  There will be a check-in/information table at the Joseph B Platt Campus Center during the entire festival.  A campus map of Harvey Mudd College is available at http://www.hmc.edu/campusmap/ .

Unless otherwise noted: The lessons during the festival will meet in the Fireside Lounge at the Smith Campus Center at Pomona College.  A map of Pomona College is located at http://www.pomona.edu/tours/campusmap/.

Note: The schedule is still flexible.

Second Note:  Students of Harvey Mudd College can attend one of the two events on Friday and Saturday Evening for FREE.  If they would like to attend both, they will only need to pay for one.

Thursday 12/4:

Claremont Dance Festival kick-off night at Hip Kitty! RSVP ahead of time to festival@claremontballroom.org and recieve a free swing lesson! Cover charge for the event is $5.  Hip Kitty is located on First Street in the Claremont Village.  Live swing band performing at 8, lesson at 7.

Friday 12/5:

Saturday 12/6:

Sunday 12/7:

Cha Cha

Waltz

The Claremont Dance Festival, the biggest ballroom dance event of the semester, is starting this weekend. The event begins with an afternoon of dance classes on Friday, November 30th, and continues until the awards brunch on Sunday morning. Both the campus and tour teams have been preparing for this busy, dance-packed weekend all semester long, and, as the festival draws near, the excitement for this long awaited event only grows.

This is the first time that the CCBDC has endeavored to put on a large event in the Fall, and the idea has been greeted with much enthusiasm. All members of the team -- from the dancers who began ballroom just three short months ago, to the four-year ballroom veterans -- have been involved in the production of this a large and ambitious event. Students who are studying abroad and won’t be able to participate in the Spring concert are particularly excited to have a chance to take part in a large ballroom event this year.

All day Friday and Saturday, the Claremont Dance Festival will be offering a variety of ballroom and social dance lessons. The lessons range from beginning to advanced, in order to cater not only to students taking ballroom classes, but to those who have never danced ballroom as well. Styles being taught vary from International Standard and Latin to Salsa, Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, and even Argentine Tango. A schedule of classes is available at http://claremontballroom.org/festival.

The highlight of the weekend will most certainly be the evening events, which will allow dancers with all levels of experience to get onto the dance floor and show everyone just how much they’ve learned. On Friday, Dancing with the Claremont Stars kicks off the night’s formal Black and White Ball. After the competition ends, Paul Roach will be teaching a waltz lesson, which will be followed by hours of open dancing. As if that weren’t enough, the events continue Saturday night with an Intercollegiate Dance Party. The night will be filled with many fun informal competitions, with highlights such as the CCBDC’s first ever same-sex rumba contest!

In addition to preparing the festival’s events, campus and tour teams have been practicing all semester long to learn and perfect routines that will be performed – many for the first time! – this weekend. The formation routines will be showcased both nights, and are comprised of a very diverse lineup of dances, demonstrating how broadly talented our Claremont dancers really are. There will be a lively rock jive, a sultry tango, a bubbly samba, a captivating paso doble, and an innovative and entertaining foxtrot-cha-cha battle, as well as several solo performances. The Harry Potter Standard medley, which won the CCBDC a 6th national championship title only two weeks ago, will be working its magic once again. The companies 80’s medley, which will compete regionally next semester, will also be premiered.

The Claremont Dance Festival is a unique Intercollegiate and community program. The company hopes to put its motto, "it’s not just about dance," into practice by building camaraderie around the infectious and carefree spirit of dance. The CCBDC hopes to foster a tight-knit Intercollegiate ballroom community, and has invited colleges from all around the region to the festival. There will be members from Caltech, UCSB, and UCSD attending. Visiting instructors include Can Aksoy, multiple National Collegiate Champion, who will be teaching Argentine tango, and Champion West Coast Swing dancer Matt Sugihara (with our own Lauren Wann) will be teaching his smooth moves, as well.

As registration continues to roll in, the ballroom buzzes with the collective excitement of the 80-student dance company. The admission price is low: admission for all events of the weekend is just $15 dollars for students, and $3 per separate event. Registration is taken online or at the door. Sales are hot, but, as this weekend will show, CCBDC is just heating up.

Company Dancers prepare to dance with the StarsThe second annual Dancing With the Claremont Stars competition, one of the highlights of the first Annual Claremont Dance Festival, is right around the corner.

Following the overwhelming success of last year’s Dancing with the Claremont Stars, the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company (CCBDC) has been planning this year’s event since early September. "We knew last year that it would be a fun program, yet had no idea it would grow so quickly and with such community support," says Kelly Hewitt, the coordinator of last year’s event and current President of the CCBDC. "Dancing With the Claremont Stars has proven to be a unique event at the Claremont Colleges as few programs bring together students, staff, faculty and administrators from all the Claremont Colleges to work, learn, and have fun together," added Kelly, going on to say, "Dancing with the Claremont Stars really celebrates the community that is the Claremont Colleges."

The charge of putting together this event has been picked up this year by two of the CCBDC’s newest members, Jessica Hurley and Ilona Zbirun, who are doing a great job dealing with all the twists and turns. "It has been a lot of work to organize and coordinate the schedules of 16 stars and all their coaches," said Jessica. "Not to mention finding available practice spaces for them on the 5Cs," added Ilona.

"I don’t think either of us really had any idea when we signed up for this of just how popular the competition had become in its single year," added Jessica. "With such positive word-of-mouth from last year’s participants, CCBDC was overwhelmed with interest in the event, and ended up having to turn potential Stars away simply because we didn’t have enough coaches for all of the applicants," continued Ilona.

The Stars have chosen to participate in one of two dance styles, the Waltz or the Cha-Cha, and were grouped with coaches who have, over the past several weeks, given them instruction in the style of their choice. The night of the event, each Star will dance with one of their coaches, competing against the other Stars for coveted intercollegiate bragging rights. The Stars elegantly waltzing their way across the ballroom floor will be Claremont McKenna’s Andrea Morseburg and Sharylle Tan; Harvey Mudd’s Rachel Levy, Debra Mashek, and Francis Edward Su; and Scripps’ Janet Doty and Gilbert Rodriguez. The Stars dancing the Cha-Cha—a fun and lively Latin dance—will be Claremont McKenna’s Jennier Ward-Batts; Harvey Mudd’s Bob Schaffer; Pitzer’s Lydia Plasencia; Pomona’s Tabea Bruckelt and Pardis Mahdavi; and Scripps’ Debra Wood, LaKisha Tillman, and Chris Towse.

The Stars and their coaches have been working diligently in anticipation of the competition, so be sure to turn out to support your favorites. You can trust that it will, without a doubt, be quite a show.

Dancing With the Claremont Stars is scheduled for this Friday, November 30th, at 7 PM in Pomona College’s Edmunds Ballroom as part of our Formal Black and White Ball evening event. Be sure to go to the event page to register and to check out the other amazing offerings at this year’s Claremont Dance Festival, two days of dance classes, ranging from beginning to advanced, so everyone can dance like a star!

The intercollegiate night is an event for dancers from different schools to interact. It will feature performances from several colleges in the region, as well as general dancing and fun competition events.

If your team is interested in performing at intercollegiate night, please contact our organizers at festival@claremontballroom.org.

The first hour of the ball will feature Dancing with the Claremont Stars, followed by a waltz lesson and general dancing. Several demonstrations including the Harry Potter medley and several debuts of new choreography will be interspersed.