Havin' a ball(room)
Ballroom dancers stay in rhythm in tune-up for national competition
Ballroom dancers Leo McArdle and Shawn Gardner will compete next month in national dance contests.
Jaime Valdez / Times Newspapers
Leo McArdle and Shawn Gardner are partners who try not to step on each other’s toes.
It’s very important that they don’t make any wrong moves.
McArdle and Gardner are ballroom dance partners on their way next month to national competition in Louisville, Ky.
During the past six months, the two have worked together and quickly begun to excel in the dance.
They earned first place in the bronze and silver categories of the Northwest regional ballroom dancing competition July 1 in Seattle. They also received a fourth-place honor in the competition's novice category.
Now they’re headed to Louisville’s Galt House Hotel Aug. 3 to 5 for the USA Dance 2007 National DanceSport Championships.
McArdle and Gardner have been working for months to prepare for the competition. They share in the same goal, but they come from different dancing backgrounds.
McArdle, 38, made his first attempt at dancing last September because his wife-to-be wanted to dance the waltz at their wedding.
After a taste of the ballroom dancing, McArdle was hooked.
But he wasn’t sure if he could physically handle the sport. He was afraid that he was not young enough to begin dancing, and that he was to big to be graceful enough.
McArdle finally decided to take the leap after watching the Dancing with the Stars television show that fall, and seeing retired Dallas Cowboys’ running Emmitt Smith sweep away the competition.
“Emmitt was a big guy and (his winning) opened the possibility of my competing,” McArdle said.
He joined a small studio and began dancing a few hours a week.
In January, he was introduced to Gardner as a potential competition partner. The match was a good fit.
“Our dancing kind of blossomed,” McArdle said.
‘Floor craft’
Gardner, 29, by contrast, has been dancing since she was 12, when she started with ballet.
She took a two-year break in high school, but started again when she was 18, and has not had a break since.
Gardner picked up ballroom dancing two years ago and worked with several partners before McArdle. None of the others seemed to fit.
“I tend to overpower all the men I’ve danced with,” Gardner said.
This was just fine with the powerful McArdle.
Now that the partnership hopes to bring home a national championship trophy.
To get there, though, the two must follow a very strict training regiment. They practice three hours every day at their studio, the Ballroom Dance Co. in Tigard.
“Since I’m 38, I have to work harder and longer,” McArdle said.
Since beginning dance, he has lost 67 pounds.
“It is so much physical work when you are going full-bore,” McArdle said.
On weekends, Gardner and McArdle not only practice, but they also attend social dances “to improve our floor craft,” he said.
Floor craft is the ability to do their dance routine on a crowded dance floor, which is the competition environment.
In addition to the training, Gardner and McArdle have watched and analyzed videos of couples they will face in the national competition.
Life sacrifices
Both McArdle and Gardner have had to make sacrifices in their lives to fit in the huge dance commitment.
“I have a very understanding boyfriend,” Gardner said. “But I don’t feel like I have sacrificed my social life because I choose to dance. That is what I choose to do with my time. You only live once.”
Gardner works as membership director of the Beaverton Family YMCA.
McArdle has a similar view. His life has become very busy, with all the dancing, but he still works very hard to spend time with his wife.
“She is in dental school, so we are both very busy,” he said.
But they still coordinate their schedules in order to spend the most time possible together.
McArdle owns Huserik Wire Products in Northeast Portland. He bought it from the family owners three years ago.
Jessie Higgins is an intern from the University of Oregon.