Every Monday and Wednesday as students are riding the bus home or catching a bite to eat after class, the Ballroom Performance Group is in the dance studio practicing for Ballroom Magic 2007.

It begins with the dancers circling up to stretch when one guy jokingly starts singing “Kumbaya.”

They come from all over the University. Some are biology or political science majors, others marketing or advertising majors.

But wherever they filter in from, all of the dancers trade their flip-flops for a pair of black jazz shoes when they enter the theater.

Charlene Wang, the president of the Ballroom Performance Group and a senior at the University, said she enjoys the group because the diversity of the students involved makes the group unique. She said her job is to encourage the dancers one-on-one and offer them good feedback.

“This is about a team,” Wang said. “When we are on stage, we move as one no matter what our backgrounds. Wang said Ballroom Magic is a great event for all students to attend.

She said dancing is different than what people see on television but as exciting.

“Our style is less competitive,” she said. “We focus more on performance and giving the audience a good show.”

Alan Hurst, a junior at the University, said he’s dancing in Ballroom Magic for the first time this year. A science education major, Hurst said dancing is a great hobby for anyone willing to put in a little time.

“It’s fun and kind of addictive because you can always get better,” he said. “We’re all putting in a lot of time.”

Hurst said outside of practice with the group he finds himself hanging out in front of the mirror at home rehearsing moves. The group is his only extra curricular activity.

“There are certain style things that I practice in front of the mirror,” he said. “When I lived in the dorms, I was that guy dancing up and down the hallway late at night.”

There are 10 couples and an apprentice group of six couples in the performance. This year, for the first time, the apprentice group will perform a piece. Helen Hsu is the director of the group and a senior at the University.

She said most people don’t even know an apprentice group exists, so the chance to give them a performance was important.

“It was exciting to give them a piece and motivate them to have it in the show,” said Hsu.

As the longest standing member of BPG, Hsu has become a leader for both groups of dancers. She said dancing for her is more than just a hobby.

“It is a passion. It’s an addiction,” she said. “You get so tired and frustrated, but you love it anyway.”

Hsu said Ballroom Magic is really a performance centered around entertaining the crowd. She said dancers work for hours to perfect the pieces for the show.

“It really is about the audience,” Hsu said. “Hopefully they will enjoy watching what we love doing.”

Derrek Walters said one main things people confuse about ballroom dancing is that it isn’t all classical music and boring steps.

“It’s not all Frank Sinatra and Beethoven,” he said. “A lot of modern tunes are just as compatible such as Queen, Aerosmith and Ray Charles.”

Walters said all music has an emotion. Therefore, each dance plays off of that mood as if the dancing were creating the music itself.

“It is unreal seeing all the lights and the music come together,” he said. “There is only a few seconds between each piece so the energy just keeps flowing. You’ll just have to sit back and take it all in when it’s over.”