Written and photographed by Erin Speed, News Writer
In between attending classes, going to sports games and eating in the cafeteria, it sometimes may feel like there’s not that much to do on campus. However, if you are willing to explore some of the upper rooms of Latimer, you’ll be surprised by the action going on upstairs.
The Dance Club is a surprisingly active campus hotspot, taking place in the Latimer aerobics room every Friday night at 7pm.
Elena and Ryan Beaty run the club. Each weekend, they teach their members all sorts of dances, such as ballroom, East Coast swing, Virginia Reel and more. Here, anyone can waltz into the aerobics room, grab a partner and have easy and personal dance lessons with friends.
Bryan College used to have a dance club for years before COVID-19 effectively stopped time and temporarily shut down the school. By the time the world gradually returned to normal, the club’s leaders had graduated, leaving an empty space in the school where dancing used to be.
When Elena and Ryan heard of the club’s legacy, they decided to work together to revive it, and in early 2022, dancing and music returned to the halls of Latimer. While the aerobics room is easily filled to the brim with laughing and twirling students, the club could always use more members.
“A lot of people say they don’t want to come to the dance club because they say they’re scared or that they have two left feet…,” Elena says, a sympathetic engineering major and senior. “And I think that holds people back from what could be a lot of fun. I think formal dances, like Homecoming […], are fun, but they create a lot of anxiety around dancing. And I think if you can get past that initial fear of [not knowing what you’re doing], dance can be a lot of fun!”
