Sitting in a Murrysville restaurant on a chilly Wednesday in February, John and Deana Foley’s heads occasionally sway to the pop music on the radio.
But if a tango or a foxtrot were to start up, John would have to battle the urge to don a topcoat and tails, sweep Deana up and turn the dining room of the Juniper Grill into a dance floor.
The Murrysville couple will be among 900 competitors expected to take part in the USA Dance 2025 National Ballroom DanceSport Championship, which will be held March 28-30 in Pittsburgh, where it will remain for each of the next two years.
“We’ve been dancing competitively since 2010,” John said. “We started with Luanne OBrien at Integral Ballroom (now Integral Enrichment) in Murrysville and she introduced us to our current coach, Demetri Demidov (of Demidov Dance in Fox Chapel).”
The annual competition is organized by USA Dance, whose local chapter first started in the 1980s before folding and reemerging in the late ’90s, according to chapter President Jane Downing of Highland Park.
“USA Dance began as a social dancing organization,” Downing said.
“But as they moved more toward hosting competition, they really wanted to focus on amateur dancers.”
Competitions are organized according to levels: pre-bronze, bronze, silver and gold.
“Everyone starts at pre-bronze or bronze and works their way up,” Deana Foley said. “John and I are at the gold novice level right now.”
Each level contains a sort of syllabus of movements that judges want to see in competition.
“The judges wan to see recognizable movement that’s appropriate for your level and the style of dance,” John Foley said.
Adult couples must qualify for a spot in the national competition, which can be done two ways.
One is by accumulating points at competitions throughout the season. Dancers can also qualify for individual dance categories by placing in the top 50% in that category at a particular competition.
The Foleys qualified through their success at both the Carnegie Classic last October, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University’s Ballroom Dance Club, and at the Manhattan Amateur Classic in New York City.
Rachel Politinnikov, 17, is a senior at Franklin Regional, and has been dancing since she was 10 years old, also with Demidov as her coach.
High school and college dancers do not have to qualify to take part in the championships. Even so, Politinnikov is under plenty of pressure.
“Being able to memorize all the steps is the toughest part,” she said. “I have to memorize steps for 10 different dances. I go to the Demidov Dance studio two or three times a week, and I practice every day at home.”
And while Downing may be president, she’s also a Gold-level ballroom dance who’ll be competing at nationals.
“We have about five amateur couples and about 150 college and high-school members of the USA Dance Pittsburgh chapter who’ll be taking part,” she said.
On Feb. 4, both Downing and USA Dance Pittsburgh volunteer Gloria Schohn were at the Benedum Center for the “Dancing with the Stars” live show, where they also handed out leaflets letting attendees know where they can see plenty more ballroom dancing.
“I think the popularity of the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ show has definitely brought some more people into the sport,” John Foley said, adding that it helps keep him and his wife active and healthy.
“It’s physically demanding for a senior couple, so when we’re cross-training, we have to think about what muscles we’re trying to strengthen,” he said.
Schohn said she can’t wait for the lights to go up when the championships start at the Wyndham Grand, adding she really admires the work competitors put into it.
“It’s an incredible commitment,” she said.
The USA Dance 2025 National Ballroom DanceSport Championship will take place March 28-30 at the Wyndham Grand in Downtown Pittsburgh.
For more, including tickets to the competition, see USADanceNationals.org.