HI! Hope you’re surviving the heat and having a good summer!
USA Dance Pittsburgh is one of 115 chapters of a national nonprofit organization, USA Dance Inc. Its mission is to promote ballroom dancing as a lifetime recreational activity and a sport. Chapters promote and sponsor amateur ballroom dancing for social dancers, competitors, and the general public – helping beginners get started and talented dancers to become DanceSport Athlete competitors. Although we pay instructors, DJs and rental fees through attendance fees at every dance, and National rebates $5.00 for new and renewing local memberships, we must raise funds to support outreach programs like our Special Needs Adaptive Program, the Woodland Hills Dickson Preparatory Steam Academy Dance Program, and the collegiate programs. We’ve been chosen to host the USA Dance National Ballroom DanceSport Championships again this year from March 28-30, 2025. Our role is to recruit amateur and professional/amateur (pro/am) couples to compete, volunteers to support the competition and spectators to watch incredible dancing. I hope you’ll consider participating in our activities.
In the past, we have focused on providing high quality monthly social dances. We appreciate the talent of Chris Roth, the Rumba instructor at the Coraopolis VFW in April; Jon and Stratton DeWitt, Waltz teachers at the Wightman Community Center in May; Chris Drum, Hustle instructor at the Palisades in June; and Aaron May and Anne Wildenhain , Bachata teachers at the VFW in July, and the great music of Mark Boucher at the VFW, Jon and Stratton at Wightman, and Chris Drum at the Palisades. Thank you!
We’ve begun discussing new approaches to our dances including a new format for our October dinner dance, a potential new outreach program in Sto-Rox and a youth summer camp in 2025. We need volunteers and new board members to help with these activities and with Nationals. So hopefully, you’ll say yes, when we ask you to help!
Our dances:
August 17 – Mikayla Schultz, Arthur Murry South Hills, will teach West Coast Swing and Bobby D. will be the DJ at the Palisades in McKeesport.
September 21 -Matias Jonsson and Irina Varovoi will teach Cha Cha at Wightman School, Squirrel Hill at 7:00 pm. Christine Zona will teach a pre-competition workshop for first-time competitors and others at 6:15 pm.
October 19 – Oktoberfest Buffet Dance at the Palisades and a final tribute to John Siefken, long-time USA Dance Pittsburgh board member and DJ.
Carnegie Classic –October 11-13 at the Jared L. Cohon University Center, Carnegie Mellon University.
Friday Night – Social Dance; Saturday – Competitions for amateur collegiate, adult, senior and junior couples; Sunday -Dance Camp with national champions
There are new qualifying rules to participate in the National Championships, particularly in the Collegiate Challenge Competition. The Carnegie Classic is a USA Dance sanctioned qualifying competition for the Collegiate Challenge Competition organized by the CMU Ballroom Dance Club. Participation by seniors and youth in this, the Ohio State University DanceSport Challenge in Columbus on September 27/28, and the Rochester, NY DanceSport Festival on October 19-20 will earn points to dance at the National Championships in Pittsburgh in March 2025. Visit https://carnegieclassic.org for local details; the USA Dance National Collegiate Dance Council website for the new collegiate rules, https://usadancencdc.org, the new rule book at https://usadancenationals.org or American Dancer articles on the new rules at https://americandancer.org.
Hope to see you soon!
Jane Downing, President, USA Dance Pittsburgh