While the way to a man’s heart is through his appetite, it could be said that the way to a woman’s is through dance. This theory brought Jason Cheberenchick (COL ’09) to the GU Ballroom Dance Club, but he surprised himself when he developed a love of the sport and ended up remaining in the club. Now he is team captain, taking on responsibilities and a level of commitment he could have never expected from an activity that he joined on a whim.

How did you first become interested in ballroom dance?
I was in my freshman year, and I was following around a girl that I liked. She said she was going to ballroom dance, and I said, “Sure, I’ll come along!” and that’s how I got started. She’s gone now, but I stuck with it because I found a really good group of friends there.

Did you have any experience with dance beforehand?
No, absolutely none. I had done some performance stuff in general, but no dance.

What does it mean to be on a ballroom dance team?
Our team does quite a bit of stuff. First of all, we teach classes to anyone in the university or just anyone in general who wants to come to the university. We teach team classes, which are taught by professional coach, one of the best in the nation. He teaches competition-style dancing — good technique, all the professional steps, what you would see on TV on “Dancing With the Stars.” Also, advanced members of the team teach social classes for kids on campus who want to just learn some steps for their brother’s or sister’s wedding or want to go social dancing and want to learn salsa for a fun night at a club.

But other than that, we go to a lot of competitions during the year. This semester, we’re going to Boston, to MIT, and we’ve already gone to Manhattan for the Manhattan Amateurs Classic. Last semester we went to Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, and a competition at the University of Maryland, just on the other side of the city.

Have you had any exciting experiences because of the team?
We got invited to go down to Florida for the filming of the “Dancing With the Stars” Christmas special. When we were at Nationals, we got hooked up with Tony Dovolani, who was choreographing for the special. It was a lot of fun — they paid for everything. We got to spend one day in the amusement park, spend one day learning the choreography and the next day we were up at five o’clock in the park, filming on a big stage.

What is the biggest challenge that the ballroom dance team faces?
For me personally, the biggest challenge is in the organizations of the competitions. You’re trying to organize something for sometimes 40 or more people. We’re traveling to another city and may have 10 different cars going, meeting at 10 different places, staying with 10 different hosts. Everyone is at a different level, and everyone likes to dance different dances, so the logistics are crazy, making sure we don’t leave anyone behind.

For the team in general, the biggest challenge will always be maintaining a steady stream of recruitment. We’re a very sound team financially, so we don’t have to worry about any of that sort of stuff.

What kind of relationship do you have with nearby dance teams?
We actually have an amazing relationship with the other teams. Every other weekend, all the area’s schools — GW, Georgetown, University of Maryland, Catholic and a lot of alumni — get together at a dance studio over in Friendship Heights and all hang out. We’re best friends with every one from every other dance team. It’s actually kind of creepy — we joke that we’re a cult because we know everything that’s going on even if it’s on the other side of the city. We support each other a lot. We just had a Masquerade Ball this past weekend to raise funds and have a good night, and we probably had just as many people not from Georgetown as there were from Georgetown.

How has the team changed over the past few years?
Overall, we’ve grown a lot, but last year we had a good class of seniors who graduated, which is kind of sad because we were much more evenly set up, age-wise. This year, we’re much more bottom-heavy, a lot more freshmen than upperclassmen, but it’s still a lot of fun.

What happens to a ballroom dancer after college?
They stick around — some of them for 10 years. But we’ve had people on the team who go on to start dance companies, become professional dancers or professional ballroom teachers. So it really does open up a lot of opportunities. If you don’t know what you want to do after you graduate, you know you can find a job somewhere teaching dance and have some fun before entering the real world. We maintain really good relations with all of our alumni. We have a lot of alumni who stay in contact with us and travel with us to competitions, so it helps that we still have the older people as resources to help teach the younger people.

What are your plans for the future of the team?
A personal goal of mine has been to attract more guys to the team. Ballroom dancing requires a guy and a girl, and if you don’t have the guys, the girls tend to quit. I don’t think the guys would have a problem if they actually knew what went on because it actually is a lot of fun.