Mary Planic has been a student of tap dance and ballet since she was 3 years old.
The Greensburg native loves the grace of movement that dance offers. And when she arrived at Duquesne University for college a few years ago, it didn’t take long for her to discover the school’s ballroom dancing club.
“I was just elected president,” said Planic, 21, a junior at Duquesne. “I initially joined my freshman year, but our competitive team kind of lapsed during the covid pandemic.”
The group was back at competitions during her sophomore year, and that includes bringing a team to the USA Dance 2026 National Ballroom DanceSport Championship, where they will join more than 900 competitors Friday through Sunday in Pittsburgh. The competition took place in Pittsburgh last year and will also take place there next year.
It’s organized by USA Dance, whose local chapter first started in the 1980s before folding and reemerging in the late ’90s. Competitions are organized according to levels: pre-bronze, bronze, silver and gold. Dancers begin at the bronze level and work their way up. Each level contains a sort of syllabus of movements that judges want to see in competition.
The 2025 competition was the first year for new USA Dance President Chuck Garrett, and organizers said Garrett is looking to boost interest in not just the championships but the other events that will take place throughout the weekend.
“In the ballroom dance world, there are social dances that people can attend, where they take group lessons during the day and put it into practice in the evening,” said Jane Downing, who heads USA Dance’s Pittsburgh chapter. “Chuck wanted to add a social dance component to this year’s competition.”
The Wyndham Grand Downtown hotel will host social dances on both Friday and Saturday nights.
“Initially we thought we’d be doing well if we got 30 people registered for the social dances,” Downing said.
As of early March, more than 100 people had registered to participate.
Social dance attendees will get to work with Chris Sharpley, dance instructor at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio’s Penn Hills and McMurray locations.
“I’ve been dancing with different groups in Pittsburgh for about 10 years now, and USA Dance’s monthly social dances were one of my major outlets for fun and to sort of hone my craft ‘in the wild,’ so to speak,” Sharpley said. “I’ve taught a lot of master classes for USA Dance over the years, and I began working with Jane Downing as a student, and the idea for the social dances kind of blossomed from there.”
Sharpley will teach a bronze-level lesson in Viennese waltz and East Coast swing-style dancing at the social dances.
“I really love that they’re introducing events where you don’t have to be qualified to enter,” he said. “They’re looking to expand the reach this event has, and I’m excited to come and do some workshops.”
USA Dance volunteer Gloria Schohn said the social dances serve multiple functions.
“It’s an ideal way to get people out to the national championships, but it’s also just an ideal way to get out and meet people,” she said. “For seniors, especially those who are perhaps living alone, there’s a lot to be said about the benefits, from meeting new people and maintaining a healthy social life to ballroom dancing as a form of exercise.”
“It’s created a different kind of buzz and hopefully it will bring some new people to the competition,” Downing 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.
Technically, there are two championship competitions taking place over the weekend. The second is geared strictly to college dance clubs, which is where Planic competed last year.
“I had a really great time,” she said. “I didn’t place, but I’m pretty new to everything. My first competition was the Carnegie Classic (at Carnegie Mellon University), and then we went straight to nationals last year.”
Recent CMU graduate Kyr Brenneman is familiar with the Carnegie Classic, and found herself drawn to the school’s ballroom dance club during her freshmen orientation week.
“I’d been an athlete my whole life — I played softball at CMU — and played a lot of sports growing up,” said Brenneman, 21. “I was interested in dance but had never done it. I tried it during orientation week and just fell in love with it.”
Brenneman will compete in Latin dance at the pre-championship level and will compete in the standard and smooth categories at the novice level.
“Latin will always and forever have my heart,” she said. “It’s the first thing that really got me hooked. The music and the energy really called to be from the beginning.”
The Carnegie Classic is open to anyone. Participants do not have to be official members of USA Dance’s Pittsburgh chapter to take part. But for those who are, the event is a USA Dance Collegiate Challenge and both college students and adults can rack up some of the points they need in order to qualify for a spot at nationals.
Planic said, whether it’s the Carnegie Classic or nationals, she enjoys the atmosphere.
“It brings together a lot of different people,” she said. “I like that ballroom dancing is very modular: You have your basics, but you can add different little pieces and moves. It’s very enticing for a beginner, because you learn the basics and then you can add little things to it and make it your own.”
Brenneman said she has to remind herself to rest.
“I love to dance, and I end up doing it six days a week, twice a day usually,” she said. “I’m a perfectionist. I’ll stay in the studio late running a routine over and over again. I just have to remember to rest my body and always be thinking about why I love dancing so much.”
The USA Dance 2026 National Ballroom DanceSport Championship will take place March 27-29 at the Wyndham Grand in downtown Pittsburgh. For more, see USADanceNationals.org.