Professional Dance Instructor to Prepare Students for December 2 Winter Ball
By: Anna Bowers
“Secretly, everyone wants to know how to swing dance,” believes April Harris, Director of Student Activities at Southern Virginia University. Harris and her team refuse to leave students unprepared for the upcoming Winter Ball, which will take place this Saturday, December 2, and features the VMI Commanders jazz band.
Harris has ensured that any student who wishes to learn how to dance to big band music can do so by bringing in Bonny Branch, a professional ballroom dance instructor based out of Roanoke, VA.
Branch will be teaching free swing dance classes to students, faculty, and staff this Tuesday and Thursday from 7pm to 9pm in the Kimball Student Center’s dance studio. Branch will also be at the Ball on Saturday from 9pm to 10pm to help teach those who cannot come to either of the previous lessons.
No prior experience or dance partner is required to attend the dance lessons. “It’s even better if they don’t have a partner,” states Harris, explaining that novice dancers will learn from mistakes quicker by not staying with the same dance partner. Ladies are encouraged to not wear high heels at the dance lessons.
Although the Commanders jazz band has preformed at Southern Virginia many times, the school has never offered dance lessons to coincide with a performance. “I noticed that a lot of our students don’t know how to dance to instrumental big band music,” Harris explains. “We thought it’d be really fun to hire a dance instructor. It’s an opportunity to have the band, have the instructor, [and help] students have a better experience.”
According to the VMI’s website, The VMI Commanders are “styled after Glenn Miller’s Band from the 1940s swing era.” They have been playing for over 90 years and are featured at events all over the state of Virginia. The Commanders have even performed at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Paris, France, and the Ecole Polytechnique.
“Learning to swing dance is fun obviously, but we’re also a liberal arts college,” Harris concludes. “It’s part of rounding out the whole experience of trying new things, broadening your horizons, stretching yourself to learn something you haven’t had a chance to learn before, or maybe you wouldn’t take the time to learn unless the opportunity was presented to you.”
