Dancing with the Stars is a popular and entertaining television show but it is even more entertaining when seen live at SUU. Tuesday, April 2 was the Annual Ballroom performance of Dancing with the Stars featuring well-known members of SUU’s student body.
Hannah Ashcroft, a sophomore communication major from Peoria Ariz. said of the event: “I really liked that they had people dancing who were well known on campus like Mr. SUU [Andrew Clemons] and the student body president [D’Mia Lamar] as well as people who were just friends with the people in charge. It was fun seeing different people with very different dancing backgrounds up there.”
The night’s performance features numbers from 8 couples with star participants from all over campus, most notably the final winner retiring dance professor, Kay Andersen, and the University Journal’s own editor-in-chief Cassidy Harmon.
The show began with a group Lindy Hop performance to the Disney classic “I want to Be Like You” from the Jungle Book. This Disney theme carried through to most of the numbers as the majority of the chosen songs were covers from Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast, Up, and Pirates of the Carribean.
“I thought the song choices were super fun!” said Ashcroft. “I personally can connect with a performance better if I’m familiar with the material in some way, so the Disney music and popular songs really brought me in. I had never done or seen anything with the ballroom company before so this was a really good introduction to the program.”
After each of the couples had performed and were given feedback by the esteemed panel of judges made up of SUU Ballroom alumni, the three finalists were announced to be Mikey Stevens of the Sigma Chi fraternity, Maddison McBride from the SUU Flippin’ Birds and Kay Andersen.
The audience was then given the chance to vote for the final winner returning with a significant lead for Andersen. “It was a special way to say goodbye and thank you for many many years of dancing at SUU,” said Andersen.
Andersen is retiring this year after dancing and teaching at SUU for the past 22 years and after having been a frequent judge for Dancing with the Stars for many of the past years. He ended his SUU career with a bang by taking home the gold.
For a chance to see more dancing in action the Ballroom company will be performing their spring showcase Simply Ballroom on April 19 and 20, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. in the Heritage Center Theater. Admissions for students is $7 and $10 for the general public.
Story by: Alexis J. Taylor
accent@suunews.net
Photo by: Chris Dimond
