The UNA Ballroom and Social Dance Club is currently at a standstill.

The club is one of many student-led organizations put on through the Office of Student Engagement.

Suzy Robbins, who has been a dance instructor at UNA for the past 15 years, has fostered the club from the beginning and has hope for its future.

Robbins said the club had no trouble taking off when it was originally started 12 years ago. The difficulty was in keeping it active.

“It was successful and it wasn’t,” she said. “(Students) came. They had a great time. But they didn’t follow up. I can tell you that those students had a blast. It was a good organization once and it could be again.”

A student-led organization without student leaders has little chance of survival, she said.

Robbins said when a club such as this one undergoes a period of inactivity, it is put into an inactive status, meaning that in order to be a considered as an organization, it will have to re-enter the application process.

Robbins said she is willing to go through the process again, but not without a guarantee of student involvement.

“I know there’s a ton of students who are not interested in dance, but where are the ton of them who are?” she said.

Sophomore Molly Lynn is interested. She was part of the club last year, and has decided that she wants to see it revived before the end of the semester.

“This club has a future. I’m not letting it slide again,” she said.

Lynn wants to get as much involvement as possible.

“I want to plan this end-of-the-year dance, have rosters for students to sign up for the club, host spontaneous dances on campus, try to bring in outside music and provide free lessons occasionally,” Lynn said.

Lynn said she thinks there might be some misconceptions about ballroom dance.

“Everyone thinks ballroom dance is stuffy, but if you learn the basics you can dance to any song with a beat. Waltz, lindy, tango, salsa—whatever,” she said. “It’s all really fun, and I hope that the UNA students will discover the incredible joy of ballroom dancing.”

UNA hosts dance classes periodically, some taught by Robbins. Most meet for four to six weeks, and UNA students can take these classes for half price.

For further questions about the Ballroom and Social Dance Club, contact Suzy Robbins at 256-767-1440.