On Tuesday and Thursday nights, UTD’s oldest building is filled with a glimmer of life as dozens of students dance to salsa, bachata and country music
Stop Pretending You Can’t Dance is a social dancing club which focuses on partner dancing across different styles of dance such as salsa and West Coast swing. The partner format is special in more ways than one, and outside of dancing, the growth extends to friendship, said club president and junior data science major Emily Butz.
“This is a format that I really love because it allows you to meet so many new people,” Butz said. “We rotate partners the whole night so you are able to meet a lot of people and also learn a dance which I think is really fun.”
Known for their partner movements, the club’s focus has often been on salsa and West Coast swing while touching upon East Coast swing, country and zouk in past semesters. Butz hopes SPYCD can expand into other forms of Latin dance such as merengue or cumbia because it introduces club members to something new and culturally expands their horizons. While many might find the partner set up and introduction into new dance forms intimidating, Butz said it was this experience specifically that allowed her to grow as a dancer.
“Starting as a beginner myself, I definitely gained so much confidence because I was constantly in situations where I was with people who were at a higher level than me,” Butz said. “I had to learn to be okay with that, and it makes for a great opportunity to grow.”
The club’s broad range of music and dance style across cultures caters to its diverse membership. Choreography lead intern and data science and statistics masters student Xi Tang Lin said that dancing to varied music has ignited curiosity and exploration of other groups he wasn’t familiar with before.
“Dancing has exposed me to these different cultures and they made me curious,” Lin said. “I started learning a bit of Spanish because I want to learn what the songs are actually saying and learn more about the cultures.”
Lin said that years of experience don’t matter in dancing when it comes to emotions. Feelings of external judgement and self-doubt can make dancing harder. Lin said that even experienced dancers have to deal with this, but he has found that patience is the best way to succeed.
“Be patient with people, because when you mess something up you think that everyone is looking or trying to rush you along, but that’s not necessarily true,” Lin said. “We have all gone through something for the first time and we know how hard it is.”
Hannah Nguyen, SPYCD vice-president and biology sophomore, said that her own experience with the club has always been one of rapid and exciting growth. Nguyen said that during her third SPYCD dance lesson, she had to deal with a sudden increase in the dances she was being shown. She said it was nerve-wracking and intimidating, but soon enough those feelings changed to ones of pride and growth as she accomplished what at first felt impossible.
“It was [initially] a bit [like being] thrown in the deep-end, but I could see how my progress was improving and just seeing the effort I put in equated into being able to physically [and] mentally perform at a higher level, so it was nice to see hard-work actually paying off,” Nguyen.
Each meeting is dynamic and ever changing as officers bring in new music and dance styles. Attendees also vary constantly with the ebb and flow of new and returning members. The one constant in each meeting is the structure of the session.
“I think it’s comforting to know that we are in a circle and we are going to rotate the same way every time,” Butz said. “So, it’s very structured, people know exactly what to expect when they come in. The moves are going to be different, the people you meet are going to be different but the structures are going to be the same.”
Nguyen said that most dance clubs present learning as linear with a professional teaching the beginners. Nguyen said that SPYCD shows that the opposite can be just as effective since their club allows beginners to teach the professionals because they have to learn to trust their body in the process of teaching the art.
Lin said that the process of choreographing for each meeting was just as unpredictable.
“We need to remember that there is not necessarily one right answer,” Lin said. “When it comes to art there are a bunch of perspectives and different ideas. What you think is best right now might not be best in the future or even in 5 minutes. When you see a movie for the second time, when you read a book for the second time you pick up different elements and you want to choose which ones you want to emphasize when you are choreographing.”
Nguyen said that dancing is as much mental as it is physical as thoughts often get in the way of free-flowing movement. Once those thoughts are abandoned, then true expression can be conveyed.
Nguyen also said that she sought out the club because she wanted something that would give her as much enjoyment as color guard did in high school. Lin, who was introduced briefly to
dance back home in Toronto, made it a permanent fixture in his life once he went to a few of the club’s meetings. Butz said that since she moved to Texas all the way from Illinois, she had felt far from friends and family. She wanted a club that simply met often, and SPYCD ended up being much more than that.
“I had never done dance before I came to this place, but by joining, I found a love for dance,” Butz said. “I was able to meet so many wonderful people and I think that’s what also keeps me in it, I love learning dance and I love meeting people.”
SPYCD doesn’t ask its members to bring anything to sessions since all they expect is people show up with open minds ready to learn new things while accepting the inevitable obstacles and failures.
“I think that sometimes people see themselves fail once, and they think that’s how they will be forever,” Butz said. “It’s really important to try a couple of times, as there [are] so many people that I meet that do a really bad job the first time and then they get so much better, and it’s really because they have to let go and enjoy it instead of always trying to do it perfectly.”
SPYCD meets regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the first floor of the Founders Building from 7:00-8:00 p.m. The first two meetings are free, with further meetings coming at a cost of $30 per semester. Those interested in joining can join the club’s Instagram and join the discord group linked in the Linktree, or simply just show up to any of their meetings.
“I would say most people walk in pretty nervous, I mean including us when we first started as well,” Butz said. “But I think that’s the wonderful thing about it, people come in so nervous and they enter this community where they practice being vulnerable with people in a safe way and they gain so much confidence.”
