Cyclone Ballroom has two objectives it wants to get across to the students at Iowa State: to offer lessons to less experienced dancers and to compete at a national level.

“Our goal is to spread ballroom as an activity, something fun to do, exciting, etc., but also allow members to take their interest for dance to the level of collegiate competition,” said Alex Hay, club advisory seat and junior in mechanical engineering.

The club is part of the Sports Club Council, meaning funds are given to Cyclone Ballroom by the Government of the Student Body.

“We are partially funded through GSB, and we are also funded by dues,” said Michael Forrester, club president and senior in chemical engineering. “For a competition team member, [dues] are $75. We have lessons and we charge $35 a semester or $5 a lesson.”

Within Cyclone Ballroom, there are two “teams.” The club provides lessons to dancers looking to have fun, along with a competition team that competes against dancers from the nation’s colleges.

“We travel to Minneapolis; Champaign-Urbana, Ill.; Columbus, Ohio; and South Bend, Ind.,” Hay said. “Columbus, which is where nationals are held, was just [a week] ago.”

Forrester also commented on the club’s performance at nationals over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

“It was a very good competition,” Forrester said. “It’s nationals for both us and for the professional ballroom dancers … Several of our club members made callbacks, and a few members made it to the semifinals at the national level.”

Competition team coordinator Ryan Damman also participated in the weekend’s performance in Columbus, Ohio.

“We see amazing dancers perform on Friday and Saturday night,” said Damman, senior in marketing. “We competed as a team against 44 other schools here across the nation.”

Damman said everyone on the competition team made a callback. Overall, he said the competition went very well, and all the dancers seemed pleased.

Cyclone Ballroom is made up of mostly engineers. While not all members are engineers, Hay said the club is not to be mistaken for only allowing engineers.

“When I first started, it provided a healthy distraction from classes, a nice change of pace,” Hay said. “Our president is a chemical engineer, as well as our treasurer. We also have [computer science] and [aerospace engineering] majors. Of course not all are engineers, but it is something to note.”