Colin Moore

Professor Garcia
ENGL 134
2/10/2023
Dance Steps

Dancing has always been a large part of Alex Prodinov’s life, but only in the past year

has the commitment really increased. Growing up in a Greek Christian Orthodox church in San

Luis Obispo meant she danced all the time. Common dances like the Syrtos were always fun.

Dances were always part of social events, which made them more fun for Alex. For example she

said they would all dance “on Easter, [and] you dance all together during the Greek Festival… I

always loved it” (Prodanov). Church also introduced her to an official dance team at Cal Poly.

When she was in 9th grade she joined a Cal Poly dance team that she learned about through her

church. Wanting to continue Greek dancing she kept doing it through that team until the team

stopped. During this time, Alex also was on the swim team. Her commitment to the swim team

was only due to her friends on the swim team. They were her main motivators, she wasn’t that

interested in swimming itself. However she enjoyed dancing so much that she never missed a

single practice all of high school, despite not having any close friends on the team. For the most

part the team was all college students, so while her friends were her connection to the swim

team, dancing was her connection to the dance team. COVID pulled the dance team apart during

Alex’s senior year of high school, so she took a break from it and realized she was bored with it

when the group reformed. This break however, made her realize all of that. It made her realize

how important dancing is to her, how much she enjoys it, and how much she has been wanting to

commit to something.

During that break, she started college at Cal Poly. Having chosen to be an electrical

engineer, she knew that was going to have to put in a lot of effort if she wanted to pass all of her

classes. We’ve all been through the start of college now, and I’m sure we can all relate to

focusing on just school when starting college as everyone talks about how much harder and more
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serious these classes are. Alex tried out a couple engineering clubs with her resume in mind. Not

knowing people in these clubs and not having much interest in them she didn’t stick with them

for very long.

Alex had swam for a total of 12 years. Clearly she had some sort of commitment to that

team, definitely friends and a routine to keep her there for over half of her life. The problem with

the swim team is it wasn’t the act of swimming that kept her there. She claimed herself that she

wasn’t very good, though I think it is safe to assume she isn’t cutting herself enough slack, and

she wanted goals that she could complete and see improvement in herself.

So she joined Ballroom.

Ballroom is similar to Alex’s church group in that it is an organized dance group, but

otherwise it’s completely different. At church the dance moves are traditional Greek Eastern

Orthodox dances. Whereas the Ballroom dances are organized by different styles. Smooth and

standard dances include the waltz, tango, and foxtrot. Latin and rhythm style dances would be

the cha-cha and rumba. Then the nightclub dances are more informal, some of the dances being

the salsa and west coast swing (Prodanov). When I heard of all of these dances I mistakenly

assumed that each one of these dances are the same routines danced over and over again. I

thought that would make the judging easier. I made this assumption as I had heard of specific

dance moves, but what I didn’t know is that when you pair up with a partner, you make your

own routine. The partnering works by assigning one person the role of “lead”, and the other

“follow”. As implied, the lead leads, and the follow follows. It used to be that leads were always

men and women always followed, but thankfully the sport realized that flaw and now anyone can

choose either role.

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As Alex realized she always liked dancing way more than swimming, she devoted herself

to Ballroom. When learning about Ballroom, what particularly grabbed her attention is that

membership dues cost $50. She said that most people would be put off by the cost, “[b]ut for me

the $50 like, sold me” (Prodanov). She reasoned that the cost proves people’s commitment. It

would mean that the members care about dancing as much as she does, and it made her more

excited to join. It means that people are actually there to improve themselves as well as have fun.

I found this impressive as I know I would have hesitated when I heard that I had to pay to join. In

Alex’s case, she even signed up for lessons outside of the normal Ballroom hours. This means

she practices dancing for roughly 10 hours a week total.

The club itself is organized so that every practice they focus on one of the different

styles. Learning the specific steps and routines each partner pair needs to know for the

competition takes up most of the time with a weekly social as well. Open practices on Sunday

are optional as well, but Alex makes sure to go to every single one. Continuing what she did in

high school with the Greek dance team, she doesn’t miss a single practice except for one unlucky

time when she got COVID right after the start of winter quarter. Visibly frustrated, she exclaims

that if it weren’t for getting sick she would have a perfect attendance record. I notice that when

you include dancing in high school that means she has had a perfect record for years.

The next big part of the club is of course, the competitions. Alex has only been to one so

far, excitedly telling me about the logistics and her experience. When I mentioned her first

competition she exclaimed, “oh my gosh, [it was] so much fun” (Prodanov). It starts at 8 am, and

goes all the way until 9 pm and it is broken up into three main sections. First the smooth and

standard dances are performed. These ones are the waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, foxtrot, and

quickstep. According to Britannica, the waltz is a popular ballroom dance “characterized by a

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step, slide, and step in ¾ time” (Britannica). These dances have been part of ballroom dances for

a long time, the waltz being invented in the 1800s. It was seen as shocking to polite society at the

time, but has been kept alive the two hundred years since, and is still danced all over the world.

The second section of the competition are the latin and rhythm dances. The cha-cha, rumba, and

samba make up some of these dances. Alex says that these dances accentuate hip movement, and

they tend to be more flirtatious as the Cal Poly Ballroom website describes. The last section is

the nightclub style. As Alex puts it, “for nightclub like everything goes out the window”

(Prodanov). The dances don’t have the same dress code as the others, partners can be switched,

and the dances are a little more free form. Here, you can dance the West Coast swing, Alex’s

favorite dance. The West Coast swing was created in San Diego, CA in 1938 and is danced to

current pop songs, as Cal Poly’s ballroom website states.

This is a picture of Alex’s dance shoes. They are tan, have heals about two inches high,

and have a sandal-like set of straps. The suede soles of the shoes were chosen to help dancers

slide while still having enough traction to perform the moves they practice so rigorously. As

Angela Demure exclaims in their blog, “the sole of a dance shoe is the “soul” of a dance shoe”

(DeMure). Those surfaces are what make them more unique compared to street shoes. The three

main types of material chosen for this job are

suede, leather, and rubber. Suede is the most

common sole material, especially for

competitive dancing as suede doesn’t hold up as

well at a club or outside (DeMure). Leather is

better for going out in, and rubber is used for

practice shoes. However the rubber dance shoes

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aren’t made to provide traction as running shoes do, which seems like it would be a hindrance

while dancing. All of these pairs of shoes can be fairly expensive as shoes tend to be, so buying

them symbolizes Alex’s further investment in dance. Alex showed me a pair of shoes that leads

wear that cost $159 dollars, but through a quick google search I found plenty of dance shoes that

cost well under $100 too.

Shoes tie closely to what the dancers wear as well. All the different dance styles require

different dancesport costumes, so everyone has to plan ahead depending on what they are

competing in. The shoes are therefore connected as well. Ideally they don’t distract from the

dancing so the judges aren’t distracted by brightly colored shoes. Alex’s pair of shoes are tan to

more closely match her skin tone, and blend in more. The added height from the heel seems to be

common for all the shoes worn in competitive dancing, as both the leads and follows wear shoes

with heels (Prodanov). This also adds to the challenge. Alex assures me that the shoes are very

hard to balance in, and I can imagine going through dance routines makes that all the more

difficult. I personally have worn heels and can confirm that high heeled shoes take focus to walk

in. I can’t imagine what they would then be like to dance in.

At the end of the interview I was curious about some of the dance moves, so Alex

showed me how to do the New Yorker, which is a simple move used when dancing the Cha-Cha.

Now this also meant I had to learn some footwork for the Cha-Cha. I knew I wasn’t going to get

it on the first try, but I was shocked at how much I stumbled over my feet. When you have to

think about doing things in the correct order, where your feet are going, when you turn, what the

other person is doing, keeping time with the music, and trying to get your upper body and lower

body to do different things at the same time, it makes sense that I was having some trouble. To

get the hang of this, clearly a lot of time has to be devoted to the sport.
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So that’s what Alex plans to do. She wants to be able to look back at today in two years

and be impressed with how much she has improved. To achieve this, she plans to continue dance

lessons over the summer, and to continue enjoying dance throughout college and beyond. I find

this inspiring as I have been struggling with motivation. Her source of motivation stems from the

desire to commit to something and enjoying ballroom, so to follow in her dance steps, I just have

to choose something I enjoy and make a plan to get better.

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Work Cited

1. DeMure, Angela. “What You Need to Know When Buying Dance Shoes.” DeMure

Dance, DeMure Dance, 22 Nov. 2022,

https://demuredance.com/blog-posts/2018/12/27/shoes-shoes-shoes. Accessed 9 Feb.

2023

2. “Waltz.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,

https://www.britannica.com/art/waltz. Accessed 9 Feb. 2023

3. “Ballroom Styles.” Cal Poly Ballroom, https://calpolyballroom.weebly.com/ballroom-

styles.html.

4. Prodanov, Alex. Dance Shoes. 2023, San Luis Obispo

5. Prodanov, Alex. Personal Interview. 2 Feb. 2023

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Final Reflection:

This project had a couple twists but, thankfully for me, nothing major. I started out having a hard

time coming up with someone to interview as a subject as I didn’t know what kind of change

people in my life were making when I thought of the question as open ended as that. So I thought

of people that I knew that I admired and asked if they would want to be interviewed. After that it

was smooth sailing as Alex seemed really enthusiastic talking about dancing so I had fun during

the interview. Then it was just a matter of time management on my part, so naturally that was

where I struggled. I really liked learning about dancing as I knew nothing about it, and during the

interview I realized I was a bit embarrassed that I didn’t already know all of that about my

friend. As a writer I was hoping to reach an audience of people who struggle with motivation, or

who are trying to find something they are passionate about/who already have something they are

passionate about. As for how this assignment taught us about the required educational outcomes,

I would say this made us find a subject and focus that we could write an effective essay on (EO1)

when starting, and to improve this maybe we could spend a little more time on how to pick

topics. I found that since I had to miss a class I had a delayed start to this assignment so I was

stressed about who I was going to interview, but it ended up working out in the end. As for how

this assignment tackles EO3, it definitely makes us have to clarify ideas so we can effectively

communicate our angle to the audience, but it doesn’t prove that writing is necessary to discover

ideas as that seems really strongly worded to me. As for obtaining and reporting information, this

assignment helped a lot with that area. Interviewing people, and then learning how to use that

information and cite it goes a long way to helping learn about that educational objective. I don’t

know how to improve that given the time constraints of the assignment. For EO5, we had to

learn from one person and teach that to other people while adding our own insights. Therefore
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we had to almost translate from one way of putting the focus into a way that we think most

people could understand, and that has the audience in mind when being made. To learn more

about this, I would say we could either go more in depth with organization of profiles, or how to

analyze interviews in-text so that it supports your goal. As for my essay, I would say the

strongest part would have to be my incorporation of quotes and paraphrases as I think they ended

up being really effective. The weakest part of my essay would be the conclusion, and if I could

change more I would add to the conclusion, cut some fluff, and improve my analysis.