About Our Program
Our History
Ballroom dance was first offered at Provo High in 1997 with just two class offerings: Beginning Social Dance and Ballroom Team. The classes were taught by Richard and Marie Roberts. The following year they added an Advanced Social Dance class. In 1999 Provo High got a different ballroom coach, Rose Stinger. The following year Angela Williams was hired as the new ballroom coach (and science teacher), and she increased the course offering to 5 classes: Beginning technique, Intermediate technique, Competition class, JV Team, and Varsity Team. Within a few years the school needed Angela to teach more science classes so they added the position of assistant coach. To date the assistant coaches have been Sean Ferris, Tiave Matagi, Dane Tolman, Jeremy Wengreen, and Hannah Carver.
Our Students
As the program has grown, so have the number of students participating. We have had as few as 50 and as many as 200 students in the ballroom program at Provo High school. Our biggest team tryout consisted of 150 students! With so much student involvement, we had to be creative in finding places to hold our classes. We have held ballroom classes in the West Lunchroom, Modern Dance room, Gym 2 and 3, Commons, and even the Auditorium stage until we finally got our own Ballroom Studio in 2008. Graduates from the Provo High School Ballroom dance company often continue their dancing at the collegiate level, many receiving scholarships to BYU, UVU, SUU, and BYU-Idaho.
Awards
Over the years the PHS Ballroom Dance Company has won numerous awards, including:
• 9 State Titles
• 2013 - State Latin Showdance Champions
• 2013 - State Ballroom Showdance Champions
• 2013 - State Latin Formation Champions
• 2013 - National Div. 2 Latin Formation Champions (TRON)
• 2010 - National Div. 2 Standard Champions (Hans Zimmer)
• 2002 - National Div. 2 Latin Formation Champions (MI2)
• 10 years of having Formation Team Div. 1 Finalists (usually in the top 3 spots)
PHS Dancesport Festival
In 2013 we celebrated the 10th year of the PHS Dancesport Festival. It started as a one day competition event beginning at 10am on Saturday morning and ending that evening at 8pm. It is now a 2 day event that starts in the early afternoon on Friday running until midnight, then beginning again on Saturday from 8:00 AM to midnight. It is the largest High School competition in Utah valley even rivaling the university entry numbers.
Parent Organization
PHS Ballroom has the best Parent Booster Organization. With some years having over 100 parents that volunteer and help run the fundraising, trips, food, and student organization of the PHS Ballroom program. Each year this organization helps raise upwards of $30,000!
Guest Choreographers
There have been many guests choreographers that have been brought in to help coach the PHS Ballroom team, including:
• Paul Winkleman
• Chris Williams
• Gehrman Mustoc
• Andrea Hale
• Michael Johnson
• Rick Robinson
• Elaine Grenko
• JT Thomas
• Thomas Lewandowski
• Izabela Lewandowski
• Buddy Shwimmer
• Christian Perry
• Ron Montez
• Nadia Eftedal
