About Us

We are a group of people very enthusiastic about dance! You'll see that while dance is a common thread among us all, we come from a range of backgrounds, including undergraduates, graduates, professors, working professionals, engineers, physicists, literature majors, etc. We believe that anyone can learn to dance; in fact, most of our top dancers didn't begin to dance until attending college! BBDT strives to provide our members with the best instruction because we believe that your level of dance is improved with correct technique. Our coaches are some of the best in the country and have earned countless awards in national and international competitions. There are many levels of dancers on the team, beginning with people who have never taken a dance class to experienced dancers who have competed for years. As a team, we seek to raise awareness of danceport on campus and in the community, and also participate in numerous competitions around the Midwest. Whatever your current level of dance, we hope that you will consider joining BBDT and the Madison dance community!

Council Members

BBDT is run by 8 council members elected each semester

Captain Anna Nadon

This is Anna's fifth semester on BBDT, she joined Team in the fall of 2009 when she stumbled across our website on the day of Kickoff and fell in love with ballroom dancing, BBDT, and the community; if she hadn't, she wouldn't be our Captain today. She ran for council because she wants to help BBDT grow and become more familiar on campus and, in the process spread her love of, or addiction to, ballroom our new members. Her favorite Standard dance is tango followed closely by quickstep, her favorite Latin dance is tied between rumba and samba, and her favorite fun dance is blues. Her favorite competition memory from last semester when she competed with three different leads at Star of the North in Minnesota and swept Bronze International Latin. One random fact about Anna is that she once won a ribbon at the county fair for a batch of Top Hat Sundae cookies - despite being a disaster in the kitchen.

Vice Captain: Alex Van Orsow

This is Alex's second semester on BBDT; he joined Team in the spring of 2011 after he discovered BBDT accidentally while wandering around the Memorial Union on the night we were having a semester kickoff dance: while he had never danced before, he wanted to learn and figured that now was the time. Alex ran for council because he wanted to get more involved in an organization full of people he liked, who love the same thing he does: ballroom dance. His favorite Standard dance is waltz, his favorite Latin dance is cha cha, and his favorite fun dance is hustle. His favorite memory from last semester was attempting to learn how to Greek dance from another team member at our end of the semester banquet, no one really succeeded but everyone had a blast. And one random fact about Alex is that he loves sailing and raising horses.

Secretary Colleen Borchard

This is Colleen's third semester on BBDT; she joined Team in the fall of 2010 to continue her ballroom education because she was impressed by all of the numerous resources we provide and our commitment to improvement, but also because everyone on Team was so friendly and made her feel welcome the first day she showed up, and now those same people are some of her closest friends. She ran for council because she's crazy about dance, you could say addicted, and Team and she wanted to help make it better for everyone else too. Colleen's favorite Standard dance is probably quickstep, her favorite Latin dance is rumba, and her favorite fun dance would be any type of swing or blues. Her favorite competition memory was from the Michigan Competition 2011 when she watched Valentin Chmerkovskiy and Daria Chesnokova dance together and was inspired to dance even more. One completely random fact about Colleen is that she once died on-stage in a theatre production.

Treasurer Brandon Frederick

This is Brandon's third semester on BBDT; he joined Team in the summer of 2010 after realizing that he wanted to dance more and learn faster. He started dancing with UWMBDA, and once he discovered how much fun ballroom dancing was he was hooked: he joined BBDT because our instructors are invested in Team year round, instead of just at one lesson. Brandon ran for council because he wanted to be more involved with Team, and help us become bigger and better throughout the semester. His favorite Standard dance is quickstep, his favorite Latin dance is cha cha, and his favorite fun dance is hustle. Brandon's favorite competition memory from this last semester, other than realizing just how addictive and fun competing is, was at Star of the North in February when he decided to start the morning by dancing jive with Holly. And one random fact about Brandon is that he has been a soldier in the Wisconsin National Guard since 2008 and has never been deployed oversees.

Competition Coordinator Chelsea-Leigh Flucus

This is Chelsea-Leigh's second semester on BBDT, she joined Team in the spring of 2011 and she's loved every minute of it. She was first attracted to Team by the energy that everyone had and the joy dancing seemed to bring them and then she stuck around for the fun of it. Chelsea-Leigh ran for council because she wants to help everyone else see BBDT as the fun and inclusive student org that she knows and loves, she'd love to see more people become hooked on ballroom. Her favorite Standard dance is quickstep, her favorite Latin dance is samba, and her favorite fun dance is either the running man or the cabbage patch. Her favorite Team memory is when she danced the waltz routine without stepping on her lead's feet for the first time, which is also her proudest BBDT moment thus far. Two random facts about Chelsea-Leigh are that she speaks Swedish and is ambidextrous.

Events Coordinator Noah Fang

This is Noah's third semester on BBDT; he joined Team in the fall of 2010. Noah joined BBDT after being drawn in by our free lessons at the Night at the Overture where he got to know some awesome BBDT dancers, and once he was hooked, he just had to join Team. He decided to run for council because he has had such a great experience dancing with us, and wanted to share that with new dancers by becoming our Events Coordinator and hosting fun events. His favorite Standard dance is tango, his favorite Latin dance is jive, and his favorite fun dance is salsa because it was the first dance he ever learned. Noah's favorite competition memory is from his first competition, the 2010 Purdue Classic, where he got to compete against a friend from high school who ended up going to a different university - he also liked that he did pretty well, and hopes to win something there this year. And one random fact about Noah is that he is a mean cook, especially when it comes to making fried rice with his family's secret recipe.

PR Coordinator Alex George

This is Alex's third semester on BBDT; she joined Team in the fall of 2010. Alex joined BBDT because she has always wanted to learn ballroom dancing but never knew how or where to get involved. When she first encountered BBDT, she was impressed by our friendly, fun, and helpful members, and she knew that she had found her opportunity. She decided to run for council because BBDT is the best thing with which she has been involved, and she wanted to use her Communication Arts knowledge and skills to help make Team even better. Her favorite Standard dance is waltz, her favorite Latin dances are samba and jive, and her favorite fun dance is hustle. Her favorite competition memory was when she got to the Newcomer waltz Semi Finals (top 12 in the nation) at the National Collegiate Challenge during the Ohio Star Ball. One random fact about Alex is that she loves old weaponry and owns seven swords, mostly katanas, two of which are battle ready.

Home Competition Coordinator BJ Achim

This is BJ's fourth semester on BBDT; he joined Team in the spring of 2010 and has loved every minute of it. BJ joined BBDT to continue his dance education after picking up swing dancing while abroad in China, and he looks forward to every dance opportunity available. This is BJ's second summer on council, and he decided to run for home competition coordinator because he wants our first annual competition to be the best possible. His favorite Standard dance is the Viennese Waltz, and his favorite Latin dance is Cha Cha. His favorite competition memory is from the 2010 Purdue Classic when he placed third in rumba and fourth in cha cha. One random fact about BJ is that he loves snowboarding and wakeboarding.