People wearing dazzling dresses and stylish suits fill the MU ballroom, ready to kick off the night with dancing and great conversation.

Friday Nov. 18, the OSU Ballroom Dance Club threw a winter formal dance open to students as well as other members of the Corvallis community. The theme of the dance was “My Favorite Things,” inspired by the all-time classic film that is known and loved by many, The Sound of Music.

Up on the stage was William Cox and Lindsey Michaud, preparing the playlist for the dance.

Cox has been part of the ballroom dance scene since he was a freshman at OSU in 1996. He remembers clearly the first time he heard of ballroom dancing was from a friend at McNary Hall who was taking a ballroom dance class here at OSU.

“I know how to dance and he was like come prove it. So we went down to the women’s building in room 116 on a Wednesday and completely embarrassed myself trying to do these things that I was completely faking and I got called out on it,” said Cox.  “Show me how to do your fancy dance then”.

Still, years later, Cox continues to ballroom dance. Although not apart of the club anymore, he still participates in the dances whenever he can.

“I try to do my best to be here and help them out and support them,” said Cox.

Michaud, the DJ for the Ballroom Dance Club, has been ballroom dancing for the last three years, since the first week of her freshman year at OSU.

“I wasn’t very good at dancing before but I love music and the structure of ballroom made it easier to dance and express myself and it also branched off into other dances like swing and west coast swing, which have a lot more creativity involved,” explains Michaud.

The ballroom dance club is one of the many social dances here at OSU that encourage people to express themselves through dance, have fun, and meet great people.

“I brought my best friend so that we weren’t alone and just had fun and talked to people. Everyone was super friendly and wanted to teach us how to dance and it was great,” said Michaud.

While ballroom dancing is of course the main appeal, getting dressed up for the even creates additional excitement.

Michaud added:  “It’s basically an excuse to wear fancy clothes.”

Davis Weymann, currently a student in the chemical engineering masters program, has been ballroom dancing for seven years.

“It was freshman year for me, [I was] new to OSU. I did a tiny bit of dancing in high school and it was sort of fun. I was a pretty shy person and I wanted to meet people I wanted to do something fun and I saw that there were PAC classes offered for all sort of social dances,” says Weymann.

Weymann like many others encourages everyone to have a fun night out on the town dancing to the tango, the foxtrot and even a little bit of salsa.

“Just show up. Everyone is like, ‘Do I need a partner?’ ‘Do I need experience?’ ‘I’m really new to this. But that’s the point of our lessons. Show up, if you can’t dance it, you can stumble your way through it. If you can’t do that, then watch.” said Weymann.