Even at the collegiate level, DanceSport is one of the most expensive sports for competitors.
Dancers need large, open, and wood-floored spaces to practice safely, and securing such spaces is a difficult and expensive endeavor. The lack of suitable on-campus space forces our dancers to pay $5-10 for each hour of practice at outside studios, as well as substantial transportation costs.
To attain the level of skill necessary to compete regionally and nationally, it is necessary to take private and group lessons with professional coaches. Our team brings Bay Area professionals to the UC Berkeley campus to teach these lessons, which cost $65-$85 per hour. While our team subsidizes the lessons as much as possible, most dancers still have to pay a substantial sum each semester to improve their technique. Furthermore, the lack of suitable space for holding the lessons means that there are not enough lessons for all our team members to get the training they need. This forces many intermediate and advanced dancers to travel to outside studios to seek lessons. These lessons are not only more expensive than those held on-campus, but also necessitate additional transportation expenditures.
Ballroom attire and footwear are also expensive. To compete, beginning-followers must wear good-quality off-the-rack dresses, while beginning-leaders wear nice slacks, collared shirts, vests, and ties.
At higher competitive levels, dancers wear custom-made costumes. For ladies, there are Latin and Standard dresses; for men, there are Latin outfits and Tuxedos. Ladies’ ballroom costumes cost between $150 and $800; men’s cost between $200 and $1,200.
Dancers also pay upwards of $150 for their shoes each year. Each dancer needs at least two pairs, one for Standard and one for Latin, and the shoes typically last only a year with an intensive practice and competition schedule.
Finally, transportation costs for our team increased dramatically over the years. This has to do both with the size of the team, and the excitement of getting involved to more prestigious (but also farther away) competitions. Having successfully recruited over 120 rookies this year, our team now requires a bus to travel to and from each competition, costing the team up to $1,000 a day’s use.
Since UC Berkeley does not usually cover more than two percent of our total costs, your contributions are essential to making ballroom dancing accessible to students on a budget. We cordially invite you to help us in our mission to provide the best ballroom instruction to the campus community and to proudly represent UC Berkeley at competitions around the country.
As we are a student-run, non-profit group, donations help to keep us afloat!
To make a donation via PayPal, please click on the button below.
If you would prefer to send a donation to our Ballroom Dancers via postal mail, we can accept both checks and money orders.
Please make checks and money orders payable to Berkeley Ballroom Foundation at the following mailing address:
Berkeley Ballroom Foundation
PO Box 7775 #77677
San Francisco, CA 94120-7775
Thank you for your support! We would be nothing without you.
