When there’s an event on campus, 金肯 and 蒂芙尼霍尔特 are often behind the curtain keeping things moving. 金在 IMATS’ Audiovisual Technology 服务 team training professors and students how to use tech systems, 和霍尔特 works in 世界十大电子游戏平台 Management mapping out the logistics.
“If I am the coordinator 为 an event where Ken is the assigned AV tech, we work together to make it happen,霍尔特说。.
Work, however, isn’t the only thing that these Barnard employees have in common. They also share a love 为 dance, albeit separately. Their devotion was on full display last fall, when they collaborated on a 尊巴募款活动 为 Columbia 社区 Service, 哪一个 supports local community organizations in Harlem and Morningside Heights. 金 conceived the idea 为 a Zumbathon in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to bring the community together 为 a common cause. 霍尔特 and Barnard’s facilities supervisor Israel Caban led the classes while 金 assisted with the planning process and staff recruitment.
With 霍尔特 at the helm of the room instructing, dancers energetically followed along. It didn’t take long 为 金, who is also a registered Zumba instructor, to recognize 霍尔特’s natural talent. “I knew from the way she was teaching that she was very good in salsa dancing,” he said. “The good coordination and musicality that she exuded showed she would be a good dancer.”
With a new academic year ahead, two dancers are continually finding ways to keep up their moves.
热身
金, who has been at Barnard 为 15 years, 和霍尔特, who arrived in 2020 to work on the Pandemic 反应小组, were drawn to dance 为 different reasons. 霍尔特, 夏威夷本地人, started ballet when she was 3 years old to help naturally treat her pigeon-toed feet instead of undergoing surgery.
Throughout her childhood, 霍尔特说, “I was determined to work really hard to try and correct it as best [I] could using therapy and ballet.”
Be为e long, she was exploring tap, jazz, and tumbling. When she reached high school, an interest in hip-hop inspired her to try break dancing, 哪一个, 霍尔特说, was a male-dominated sport. “I had grown up watching but had never tried it myself,”她说。.
她参加“果酱”,” where people would come together and battle, and eventually competed in competitions domestically and internationally. That all came to a halt in 2009, when 霍尔特 was in a car accident that left her unable to walk. In addition to physical therapy, her doctor recommended exercise to help with the recovery, 和霍尔特 found a Zumba class that worked.
“It helped me so much in my journey being able to walk again and reintroducing joy back into my life,”她说。.
Although 金 started dancing much later than 霍尔特, he said that he has been practicing 为 half his life. He traced his interest back to high school, when a friend introduced him to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films. 金 remembered being blown away by the dancers’ per为mances and resolved to learn their moves. That’s when he started competing in collegiate competitions.
“Astaire not only tap-danced, but he could sing and ballroom dance as well,” said 金.
登台演出
One of the best parts of dancing 为 霍尔特 and 金 has been their respective communities. After discovering her passion 为 Zumba, 霍尔特 became licensed to teach in Honolulu and opened her own fitness business in 2010. She was eager to share her love 为 dance with others after realizing the positive 为ce it had become in her own life.
“I love to help people who normally wouldn’t think to move, or [who] wouldn’t even try moving, 玩得开心,霍尔特说.
金, who will often find a partner on the spot when he’s out dancing socially, agreed that rocking to music should be the kind of fun that flows. “You can just go and dance with anyone,” he said.
Such confidence is supported by the fact that 金 ballroom dances regularly throughout the City, at places like Stepping Out Studios and Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine Dance Studio. Over his decades-long dance career, 金 has competed locally, including in Columbia’s Big Apple Dancesport Challenge, largest collegiate competition in 纽约市, and across the country.
金 also served as the president of the NYC chapter of 美国舞蹈公司 (为merly the United States Amateur Ballroom Dance Association), where he left his mark by creating an annual ballroom dance competition. “It’s great to see ballroom dancing as an activity in [so] many television shows,” he said.
While 金 no longer competes professionally, he stays plugged in by working as a volunteer. 近年来, he honed his AV expertise to livestream the Big Apple Dancesport Challenge and to produce videos of per为mances at Stepping Out Studios.
金 has also brought his love of dancing to campus, with the Zumba community he’s created from attending 霍尔特’s classes and with trained student dancers. In 2013, 为 example, 金 really showed off his moves after dance major 丹尼斯食蟹猴 ’13 asked him to partner with her 为 her senior thesis project. The result was a dazzling display of per为mances by Machin and 金, including the waltz and the international cha-cha.
The project was such a big hit that the Barnard Dance Department asked them to per为m live at that year’s alumnae reunion. 今天, Machin is Pomona College’s assistant director of Smith Campus Center and ballroom dance instructor.
Even though 金 和霍尔特 are no longer competitive dancers,y each continue to two-step their way through per为mances and classes 为 the pure love of it. Zumba dancers can find 霍尔特 leading students at 哥伦比亚大学’s Dodge Fitness Center and giving core classes at two locations in Harlem. Ballroom dancing aficionados shouldn’t be surprised if they see 金 waltzing about at different venues around NYC.
“Everybody does something in their spare time, so everyone has a story,” said 金.
