Dancing with the students; N.Y.U. team one of the best

Volume Number 1 Issue Number 9 / November 24 -30, 2006

Dancing with the students; N.Y.U. team one of the best

By Lawrence Lerner

On most weekday nights, the ballroom and Latin dance studio known as Dance Chelsea is a blur of whirling bodies, as individuals and couples working on their own dances move across the expansive wooden floor, stepping and swirling in their own private universe while managing to keep head-on collisions to a minimum.

Monday night was no exception. Private and group lessons co-mingled happily in most of the space, while back in the far corner, Dance Chelsea owner Jennifer McCalla stood in front of a group of 15 students, who eyed her every move as she talked them through the mechanics of an upright lunge posture, the details of which sounded daunting.

“So, as you push your foot back, you push your body away from the floor, and push your hip up as you reach your foot down to create an oppositional stretch,” she said. “Then you’re going to add to that the torque as you twist around your spine with hands on hips and your ribcage going forward. You have to create opposition to make this work.”

The students, who adjusted each body part incrementally and focused intently to hold the proper pose, are part of New York University’s ballroom and Latin dance team, which McCalla, a former amateur and professional champion, has been coaching for eight years along with her husband and dance partner, Stanley McCalla. The N.Y.U. dancers migrate to Chelsea two nights a week for lessons with the McCallas, who are dedicated to developing collegiate talent in a sport that has begun to catch on in America.

“This is the first time in the U.S. that so many young people are involved in dance,” said Jennifer McCalla as she stood off to the side of the room, keeping an eye on her pupils as they practiced their steps on Monday. “It’s part of the culture in Europe and in Russia, but in the U.S., it’s definitely not been cool to ballroom dance and touch each other.”

She and others attribute the growing popularity of competitive ballroom and Latin dancing in this country in part to ABC’s prime-time reality show “Dancing With the Stars,” which began airing in June 2005. The show pairs celebrities with professional dancers, pitting couples against one another in formal competition before a panel of seasoned judges.

But it is also the result of college teams like N.Y.U.’s, which predate the show, according to McCalla.

“When Stanley and I were at the world championships at age 25, we’d been dancing for only five years, while our international competitors had been at it for 15,” she said. “But junior dancing — 16 and under — is growing, and the 18-and-over segment is growing even faster because of all of the college ballroom teams. Now, you don’t have to wait until age 23 to get serious.”

If anyone knows the dance world, it is McCalla, whose Fred Astaire Dance Studio was located near N.Y.U.’s main Washington Square campus before relocating to 127 W. 25th St. in 2001 and undergoing a name change more in line with its new environs.

She and her husband were U.S. Amateur International-Style champions from 1983 to 1987 and represented the U.S. at four world dance championships. They turned pro in 1987 and, two years later, won the first People’s Choice Award for international dancing at the Ohio Star Ball, which airs on PBS and is the largest televised ballroom dancing championship in North America.

From 1990 to 1997, they toured the world with the American Theater Ballroom Company, directed by Pierre Dulaine, and were also the Fred Astaire National Professional American-Style Champions in 1996 and 1997, retiring shortly thereafter to teach privately and work with college ballroom and Latin dance teams, beginning with N.Y.U.’s in 1998. (Stanley began coaching the Columbia University team five years ago as well.) The couple also runs three-day workshops for college teams throughout the country, while judging competitions twice a month.

“What a reward it is to work with college students, and my N.Y.U. kids. These guys aren’t encumbered by life yet. They have no homes, families or mortgages, so they can give a lot to the ballroom scene,” said McCalla. “And dance, like any art form, needs long-term work. Knowing we have a long-term foundation with these kids — we can work with them for four to six years, which means we can really develop them as dancers.”

On Sunday, the N.Y.U. team had just returned from Ohio, where the group competed against 140 couples in the National Collegiate Dancesport Championships, managing to reach the finals and semifinals of many divisions, which range from beginner to championship level.

And among schools in the northeast, the N.Y.U. team remains atop the heap.

“We’re known as, if not the best, then one of the best in the region,” said Jamie Schiffer, the N.Y.U. team captain. “People know us as a force and look up to us. In fact, a few weeks ago, someone at Cornell told me that we’re models for them, which feels really good.”

That is all the more remarkable, given that team N.Y.U. is 30 members strong, while many of their competitors have upwards of 70 people. And many of the N.Y.U. students enter the team with little or no experience.

“We work with many levels of kids and have the privilege of helping them develop,” said McCalla.

For the most dedicated dancers, the team can be a significant time commitment.

The McCallas offer two lessons a week at Chelsea Dance, while the team holds an additional two-hour weekly practice at N.Y.U., where experienced team members mentor newcomers. Then there are the competitions — four or five per semester — sometimes requiring car travel to colleges throughout the Northeast. On top of all of this, many team members take up the McCallas up on their offer for unlimited practice at the studio, and many end up taking discounted private lessons with their coaches as well.

But attendance is ultimately optional, and given the students’ busy academic schedules, such built-in flexibility is welcomed by members.

“We’re a really easygoing, stress-free, relaxed team. We welcome people when they come, and when they have to leave, we don’t say a word,” said Schiffer. “That’s one of the reasons it’s good to be on this team.”

N.Y.U. graduate student David Hammon, who has been with the group for three years, is happy to be a part of this fast-growing sport.

“At first I thought it would just be a nice way to meet new people. But after a while, I really enjoyed it more,” he said after Monday’s group lesson at Dance Chelsea. “It’s kind of like learning to play an instrument. At the beginning, nobody’s very good, but if you put in some time and effort, you can learn how to do some things that really look great, even if you’ve only been doing it for six months.

“And sometimes, while I’m, say, waiting for the subway, I find myself taking small steps and creating patterns on the platform,” he said. “The neat thing is, no one knows I’m practicing but me.”