Elegant lines of the Waltz, precision in a Cha Cha enticed Kim Herrig to intensify interest in new hobby – ballroom dancing
Duluth’s Kim Herrig has taken to ballroom dancing with the energy of a ‘ballroom blitz.”
The 36-year-old acknowledges that she has always enjoyed dancing. As well, she admits that, “watching ‘Dancing With the Stars’ introduced me to the idea of ballroom dancing. The elegant lines of a Waltz and the precision in a Cha Cha were intriguing.”
A chance discussion with a friend, Debbie, who used to ballroom dance competitively, connected Kim with the Superior Ballroom Dance Studio in Duluth. Declares Kim, “I decided I would try it, if – for nothing else – a great workout. I got hooked and fell in love with my new hobby by the second lesson.” The studio, operated by Andrea Kuzel and Darren France, features a floating dance floor – and 40′ of wall mirrors. Dance lessons include both individual and partner ballroom dances.
She hit the dance floor in January – and even breaking her foot playing wallyball could not keep her away from the studio. “I had to take a brief hiatus from actual dancing,” Kim explains, “but – while I was on crutches, I was working on learning my choreography for a performance I had agreed to do in May – for the First Annual Anniversary Gala held in Duluth’s Greysolon Ballroom.”
Continuing her story, Kim, a 1996 graduate of Mountain Lake Public High School who received her undergraduate degree from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin and her grad school degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, shares that, “Everyone – including my instructor and dance partner – thought I was crazy! If you could have seen me trying to spin and take steps for a Rumba on my crutches, I probably would have won the prize for ‘America’s Funniest Videos!’ Long story short, the day I got my cast off – and my foot was put in a walking boot – I was out on the dance floor.”
She rehearsed through several double lessons to make up for lost time (all the while doing everything she could think of to decrease the foot’s swelling). Fortunately, Kim was able to fit her foot into her dance heel just one week prior to the performance – and could wall . . . err . . . limp in her heels a couple of days before the studio’s gala show.
And, as far as an exercise workout, Kim, who is an occupational therapist, attests that, “I get the same level of exercise as I do when I go to the gym – but with better results! At the gym, I can fall into the same old routine pretty easily. With dancing, you are doing something new every time, so you muscles are constantly getting challenged in a different way at every lesson.”
When it comes to partner dancing, Kim has a “love/hate relationship. I love having a partner with which to dance. It is someone you get to know on a whole different level. It is a lot of fun. But . . . I hate it because, as the woman, you have to follow . . . and that is not very easy for me. To completely trust your partner to move you across a dance floor, and feel the subtle leads for various steps and turns, is harder than you would think!”
Kim notes her top two favorite dances are the Tango and the Cha Cha; but highlights the Swing as the most difficult dance to do. “Which is odd,” she inserts, “because it hast just three simple steps, but, my timing almost always gets thrown off. It is SO frustrating!”
Early in July, she was one of a cadre of dancers from the dance studio to compete in the Twin Cities Open Ballroom Dance Competition championships held in the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis, a contest which is part of the The National Dance Council of America circuit. Explains Kim, “It was a place in which beginners – like me – as well as national pros, can compete. At the competition, there were people from all over the country, including Florida, Texas, Washington, D. C. and so on.
“There are several levels at any competition – Newcomer, Bronze and Silver. Dancers are categorized by their level, age and type of dance (whether smooth or rhythm). The main smooth dances are Waltz, Tango and Foxtrot. Main rhythm dances are Cha Cha, Rumba and Swing.”
When competing in a smooth dances, competitors are costumed as would be correct for a “white tie affair” with full gowns for the women and bow tie and tail coats, or shorter tuxedos, vests and other creative outfits for the men. As Kim explains, “Women in the smooth dances wear longer flowing gowns to depict the gentle and elegant movements for what Waltzes and Foxtrots are known.”
Meanwhile, in rhythm competitions, the women are often dressed in short-skirted latin outfits, while the men are outfitted in tight-fitting shirts and pants, with the goal of emphasizing the dancers’ leg action and body movements. “In dancing the rhythm dances,” continues Kim, “the dress features a shorter skirt that freely twirls to help show off all of the dancer’s spins.
“And, of course, in all dances – the more sparkles your dress has – the better!”
The gowns and Latin outfits can run several thousand dollars for women, so most females, including Kim, rent their dresses.
In competition ballroom dancing, dancers are judged by diverse criteria such as poise, the hold or frame, posture, musicality and expression, timing, body alignment and shape, floor craft, foot and leg action, and presentation.
Kim competed at the Bronze level in rhythm with her instructor and dance partner, Ayoub Dib. She placed third in the majority of her individual dances and fourth overall in the combined round, competing in all three of the main rhythm dances. Kim’s “fan club” attending the competition included her parents, Rick and Jan Herrig of Mountain Lake, along with her sister, Kristin Pfeiffer, also of Mountain Lake and her nieces, Ashlyn Pfeiffer and Heidi Pfeiffer.
With that first experience in competition not yet quite a month behind her, Kim, who has been a Duluth resident for 10 years, is already in training for the next ballroom dance competition – the Snow Ball – slated for January 2015.
