Absolutely! We offer beginner lessons every week. Beginner lessons are for everyone, whether you have no experience or you’ve been dancing for years.
Nope! But feel free to bring a friend or two.
Any shoes are fine for the first week. Suede-soled shoes are required for the intermediate class, and optional in the beginner class (we'll help you find the right kind). If you don't have suede-soled shoes, try to avoid shoes that don't slide on the floor. You can also dance in socks (except during Viennese Waltz).
The intermediate class is for people who have been dancing ballroom for at least a year. We expect intermediate dancers to have a solid grasp of the Bronze (beginner) moves for a given dance. Intermediate dancers are also expected to compete.
You should come as often as you can — the more you learn, the better you get. But it’s okay if you miss some weeks, or can’t come on certain days. You can also choose to attend just the Smooth classes, or just the Rhythm classes (see the schedule). We don’t recommend taking multiple weeks off, since you’ll be behind the other dancers, but we’ll always welcome you back and help you get up to speed no matter how long you’ve been gone.
You sure can. We start teaching new dances at the beginning and half-way point of each semester — check out our schedule to see when the next dance starts. You can also join in the middle of a dance, but you’ll have some catching up to do.
See the bottom of the What We Do page for a list of the dances we teach.
See the Schedule to see when we teach each dance.
Meet our amazing coaches and our leadership team on the Leaders page.
Our classes are designed for complete beginners, even if you have no music or dance experience! Almost all of our current members had no dance experience at all when they joined.
You are not required to compete unless you are in the Intermediate class, but most members start competing within just a couple months of starting dancing! Competitions have a whole division, "Newcomer", just for beginners who have less than a year of experience.
Your first week is free, so you can try out dancing with no commitment! To join, the fee is $100 per semester for USC students. Your fees help us keep our professional coaches Lorena and Jonathan (see them on the Leaders page) at every class. Other ballroom dancing classes often cost significantly more than this. (Contact us for more payment details if you're not a USC student.)
You can talk to our Treasurer about setting up a payment plan. We need membership fees to help fund the organization, but we also really want you to be able to dance with us.
No! We welcome USC students, alumni, and faculty as well as Los Angeles community members. If you're not affiliated with USC, contact us for more details about joining!
You can email ballroomusc@gmail.com with questions. You can also sign up for our weekly emails and find us on Facebook.