For the first time in Trojan history our horse has set its hooves in the ball room at the 8th Annual Stanford Cardinal Classic Ballroom Dance Competition.
With colleges from all over the west coast Skyline was finally able to compete in the event held by Stanford University on April 7 2007. Due to certain circumstances and difficulties only one couple from the ballroom dance class, Jesse Sloan and Sterling Sheley. The pair competed in the Amateur Newcomer in American Rumba and scored 7th places as well as an 8th place in the Amateur Newcomer Swing competition.
The Ballroom Dance program at skyline has been taught by Eric Moberg for the past 8 years. already having previous experiences in the competition including a win with his partner for the Stanford Cardinal Classic Swing category and got 2nd place in the Foxtrot in 2000, Moberg brought ccsf to the cardinal classic in 2001 scoring a 4th place. When asked how he felt about going to the Cardinal Classic Moberg was “thrilled to finally enter a team from Skyline”.
Moberg danced in competitions even before his teaching career. His favorite dance in the competition “has always been the Lindy Hop” which is a jazz influenced street/swing dance. Although there are students who have a life’s worth of background experience there were some troubles teaching the students. “The hardest part of teaching the class is the varying range of abilities among the students.” I once had a 15 year-old student who had studied ballet since age 3 and she could dance anything I taught after seeing just one time. Other students take all semester to learn the basic technique and patterns.”
Held on April 7 the Cardinal Classic featured schools nation wide and had paired or single dancing. As it was skyline’s first time competing in the competition the students were also not as trained or professional as the advance dancers so they competed in the armature competitions. Even though this was a great success
Moberg plans to take the dancers to the International Grand Ball in august and hopes to host an event at Skyline.
