Tokyo Tech News
Tokyo Tech News
The Tokyo Tech Ballroom Dance Club achieved second place in the group category for the first time in 39 years at the 115th East Japan Collegiate DanceSport Championships. The competition, held at Dokkyo University in Soka City, Saitama Prefecture on October 8, saw participants from a total of 24 universities.
Of the 12 Tokyo Tech pairs, 8 advanced to the semi-finals and 4 to the finals.
I am very pleased of our second place finish in these championships. This is one position better than at the previous competition earlier this year. We have formed important relationships and taught each other to dance at the student club facilities, and I am very impressed by how we united to achieve this result together.
We only have a few more dances left this academic year, so I hope we can finish strong and wrap up 2017 without any regrets.
DanceSport is competitive ballroom dancing where couples are evaluated by a panel of judges. The collegiate championships have three categories — International Style Standard and Latin, and formation dance. International Standard includes waltz, tango, foxtrot, and quickstep, while International Latin consists of samba, cha-cha, rumba, and paso doble. Formation dance is a choreographed team dance consisting of a medley of between two and four International Style dances, and involving four to eight couples.
The Tokyo Tech Ballroom Dance Club is an official student club of the Institute, currently consisting of 28 Tokyo Tech students, 16 Shirayuri University students, and 9 Sugino Fashion College students.
Masaki Watanabe, 4th year, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Hiroka Sato, Shirayuri University
2nd in waltz and 10th in tango
Yutaro Saito, 4th year, Bioscience
Akari Ooki, Sugino Fashion College
3rd in tango and 4th in foxtrot
Michiaki Ubukata, 4th year, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Nazuna Saito, Atomi University
4th in quickstep
Ryoga Takeda, 3rd year, Chemical Engineering
Nagisa Koizumi, Shirayuri University
11th in quickstep
Kohei Tazoe, 4th year, Information Science
Miyako Mizuno, Shirayuri University
4th in cha-cha and 6th in rumba
Yoshiki Kurisaki, 4th year, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Saki Koshimizu, Tsuda College
11th in cha-cha
Katsuya Uehara, 3rd year, Bioscience
Takako Matsuda, Shirayuri University
13th in cha-cha and 7th in paso doble
Takuto Oozu, 4th year, Physics
Mayu Kimura, Sugino Fashion College
11th in paso doble
Group photo
(Photo courtesy of Misa Momokawa)
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