How to start a Competitive Ballroom Team

[Flyingkamakiri]

My Friends and I are going to try and start up a competitive ballroom team on the west coast in San Jose. Does anyone have any helpful advice on instructors, practice locations, practice curriculums, supplies, etc.?

[latingal]

What type of team are you trying to start up? College team? Formation team?

[latingal]

And welcome to DF Flyingkamakiri!

[emkey]

I was gonna ask the same thing, you can try making both :-)
if its a college team your main hurdle will be getting funding and clothes for everyone (we still don't have competition dresses and shirts).

I would suggest you guys practice your syllabi steps together with a coach so you're all in the same starting ground/ style/ and well you know what I mean. Take time to get like your Jive basic backstep chasse correct and well looking the same and right things like that.

Get a lot of music and i mean A LOT. I'm the designated DJ for our team and I was lucky that our coach lent me her CDs.

Watch a lot of competition videos and learn from them.

get a sound editing program to help make your group showdances.

find sponsors very important!

[middy]

If you're at a college it should make things a lot easier. My school provides funding for student organizations. You submit a budget to the student council/government and they look it over and approve some. So, check the policy at your school to see what kind of funding is available. At the U. of Virginia we're considered a club sport rather than a hobby organization, and that helps us secure more funding for traveling to competitions and such. We get money for competition fees and gas, and also hotel fees sometimes.

See if there are any faculty members that are interested in ballroom and might want to be an advisor. They might be more familiar with various resources.

Is there a USA Dance chapter in your area? They could be potentially helpful for resources as well - competitive members might have old costumes and shoes that they would be willing to donate. We also get donations from other students of our main instructor. The chapter might even be willing to give you money to start up.

Start a relationship with a dance supply store - see if you can arrange a discount in exchange for promoting them in some way. We get 10% off of shoes from the local store and they get a lot of business from club members. Some websites might also have a deal similar to that.

Places to practice depend mostly on your campus/area and what space policies they have. Common ones on campus - multipurpose rooms in gyms/fitness centers (probably the best), random lobbies of classroom buildings, maybe classrooms if you can move the desks/chairs out of the way, a dance studio if you're lucky enough to have one, basketball courts (indoor obviously). Our student union building has a ballroom that we sneak into sometimes when it's not reserved. Sometimes people practice in racquetball courts in gyms as well, as long as they have a decent floor. Any smooth and hard floor will suffice if you don't have access to a nice wood one.

Advertise!!! If you want to get members (and $$ from dues), you have to let the campus know you exist! Though be sure to be super well organized first so you don't turn anyone off of it ;) Better to build gradually with dedicated members than have a lot of people show up and not stick around because you don't have a great idea of what you're doing yet.

Designate/elect good leaders with very specific duties so that things actually get done. President/Captain, Treasurer, Secretary, at least.

If you're not a collegiate team, some of this still applies and I hope it helps. Best of luck!

[emkey]

I agree with the promotion! do some photoshoot once you get at least a few clothes (or improvise) it'll help with promotion (we just did one this week which is why I have an avatar)

[skwiggy]

USA Dance offers resources to help. http: / / usadance.org/youth-and-college-dance/college-programs/starting-a-club/

[middy]

One more thing - design a nice website and keep it regularly updated! This might not be necessary at first but it helps to have one place with lots of information about your team and who to contact if you're interested in joining. If I want to see if a school has a ballroom club/team, that's what I go for first. It doesn't have to be glamorous or fancy as long as it's easy to navigate and functional.

[and123]

design a nice website and keep it regularly updated!

Yes, it's disheartening to go through an old, full-of-dead-links, non-updated website. If you make a website, please keep it current!

[Flyingkamakiri]

Thank you for your support everyone! I really appreciate the good feedback! I am working on getting the club registered under our Sports Club Teams and contacting the USA Dance Nor Cal Chapter for support and information. We are currently working on our website and according to our active president, its going to be..."Licious" so i am hoping for the best.

If all goes well i might see you at a competition someday middy. ^_^

[middy]

Haha, hopefully in the future. I'm firmly planted on the east coast for a good while. Best of luck though! Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.

[emkey]

Thank you for your support everyone! I really appreciate the good feedback! I am working on getting the club registered under our Sports Club Teams and contacting the USA Dance Nor Cal Chapter for support and information. We are currently working on our website and according to our active president, its going to be..."Licious" so i am hoping for the best.

If all goes well i might see you at a competition someday middy. ^_^

so its a college team cool! when its done contact me I'd love to be link partners Im currently fixing my schools dancesport club website as well

[Flyingkamakiri]

Sounds Awesome! I Will! Which school do you go to?


so its a college team cool! when its done contact me I'd love to be link partners Im currently fixing my schools dancesport club website as well

[emkey]

Sounds Awesome! I Will! Which school do you go to?

I'm in the Philippines so Im in Philippine University (lol) The Ateneo De Manila University (top 3 in the thesq for my county) lol but would love to have contact with universities across the globe

[TAK]

Hey, welcome to DF! I am on the Stanford team so I'm sure I will see you around, if I haven't already (:

In SJ there is already the SJSU team, as no doubt you already know, and I think they allow non-students to join. So if you are hoping to have some non-students on your team, you will be competing with them for people and you may as well be aware of that. (It could be an advantage in terms of creating a team that is really geared toward students!)

However, the Bay Area is a GREAT place to have a university team, with so much high-quality dancing and coaching going on, an active USAD chapter, and furthermore so many people who are familiar with the way university teams work. In fact, I know of a few coaches who have actually done consulting for teams in the area about team organization and class curriculum. I can PM you with the details if you are interested.

Best of luck!