UH Manoa’s ballroom team waltzes away with national title at first competition

HONOLULU (KHON2) — With no prior experience and never having competed in a collegiate-level ballroom competition, UH Manoa’s ballroom team was shocked to hear their name called on the mic for the first place award.

According to UH, most members of the team has no prior ballroom dance experience and only around 6-12 months of training with the club.

The had to compete against 29 colleges with more than 330 students, so they were not liking the odds.

The expected maybe a placement in the top eight, but when their name wasn’t called for places eight through two, they didn’t think they had won.

“And then came the announcement. ‘The top team for this year, 2024, with the highest average placement is the University of Hawaiʻi.’ We thought, ‘What?! Was this really happening?!’ We were the champions!” said co-instructor Ravi Narayan, who is also an adjunct faculty member in the Information and Computer Sciences Department.

Each student competed in approximately 15 to 20 different events in both the collegiate and adult levels at the bronze skill level in the International Standard (waltz and quickstep), American Smooth (waltz, tango and foxtrot) and American Rhythm (chacha, rumba, swing and bolero).

The team snagged first place for ‘highest team average’ after sending five couples to the final rounds of competitions in multiple categories, and consequently named National Champions.

“It was amazing, really worth it for my last year of college,” said UH Manoa student Yuewen Ding.

The team is composed of 10-students.

Besides being amazing on their feet, the students are academically proven as well.

Each dancer is pursuing a career in sciences or engineering.

UH Mānoa team members:

• Alexander Picken, Earth science
• Andrea Siochi, psychology
• Christopher Ramirez, linguistics
• Elijah Saloma, computer science
• Gregory Snyder, mechanical engineering
• Michaella Villanueva, computer science
• Michelle Leano, computer science
• Sydney Kim, computer science
• Yong-Sung Masuda, computer science
• Yuewen Ding, biology

Proof UH Manoa students can really do it all.

The club is offering beginner classes to all UH Manoa students, faculty and staff. For more information visit their Instagram page.

Classes are taught by Narayan and Synthia Sumukti who even represented Hawaii in the amateur USA Dance National DanceSport Championships.

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The team would like to thank the Department of Information and Computer Sciences for giving them a home, the UH Mānoa athletics department for the use of its facilities, and to the Student Activity and Program Fee Board, Associated Students of the University of Hawaiʻi and USA Dance, Inc. for their funding.