UBC Dance Club – A Piece of History

• March 24, 2010
• Clara Shih
• no comments

Last weekend was the 48^th Annual UBC Gala Ball.  Being organized entirely by student volunteers of the UBC Dance Club, the Gala Ball always has a very fun, exciting and youthful atmosphere about it… and this year was definitely no exception!   Congratulations to all the executives of the Club and the volunteers of the Gala committee for putting on such a great event.

This year, as you can see from the photo to the left, the executives brought back the purple UBC Dance Club jackets!  Yay!  Although slightly different in style, they definitely brought back memories for me, being on the executive board that introduced the original purple jackets, back in 1996.  [Yes, I know that I am dating myself.  Ugh!]  Joel and I still have our old jackets, tucked away in the back of our closets.  They are heavily worn, as we sported them at each of the local competitions we went to in the early days, as well as at the Intercollegiate Festival in Florida when we used to be on the Formation Team.     

There is so much history surrounding the UBC Dance Club.  Many of our local teachers, judges, competitors and dancers started out at the Club.  For Joel and me, the Club will always hold a special place in our hearts, as it is where we met, started dating, fell in love with dance and with each other.  It’s wonderful to have come full circle, after travelling and competing all over the world, back to teaching and inspiring young, new dancers at the Club where it all began.       

What makes the UBC Gala Ball unique is definitely the amount of new dancers competing for the very first time.  In fact, there were semi-finals for both Standard and Latin, which is usually unheard of in any of the other competitions throughout the year!  As far as I remember, there was not even a full final in the Newcomer division at the latest Snowball Classic.  In addition, the Pre-Bronze, Bronze and Silver events at Gala were also fully packed, having Quarter Finals for almost all of the Adult events.  It was great to see so many competitors entered, and so many of them being young adults!

One of the most exciting parts of the evening for me is watching the syllabus level dancers receive their awards.  After being a veteran competitor for so long, the medals and trophies don’t mean very much anymore.  But for the Newbies competing for the first time, there is nothing more exhilarating than receiving your first trophy ever!  I love to watch the dancers’ reactions when they hear their numbers being called.  Congratulations to those of you who made it through all the many rounds and received your first medal ever! 

Whether you won a medal or not, just getting out there and participating in the event deserves recognition.  Hopefully the competition experience will fuel your desire to dance and keep it going for many years to come.  That way, the UBC Dance Club will become a part of your personal history as it is mine…  and trust me: it is a great piece of history to be a part of!

If you want more information about what events are coming up in and around Vancouver, subscribe to eNews updates.