Passionate, hard working, a busy bee and enthusiastic! These are just some of the adjectives her friends use to describe Christianna Gilbert. Christianna, our Dancer of the Month for August, is a 22 year old graduate student and competitive ballroom dancer. She values health, fitness, and dance. Christianna is very busy and spends most of her time in school working towards her Master’s degree, dancing, and with her family. She strives to live life doing what she loves.

When Christianna was three, she was put in gymnastics classes because she was extremely energetic. By the time she was six, she was competing as part of a local team, and training almost every day of the week. As gymnasts, their choreography was based on the fundamentals of dance – leaps, turns, jumps, and musicality. According to Christianna, dance was always directly or indirectly part of her life. When she decided to make a big change of sports at age 15, Christianna knew that dance was the next sport in which she wanted to be fully involved. She started ballroom dance shortly after that decision. After learning from her teachers at a studio, she went to college to start competing and performing as part of the Boston University team.

Christianna’s happiest moment dancing was during the summer of 2015 when she and her current partner made a commitment to start their partnership after trying out together. It was Christianna’s first amateur partnership after her time with professional teachers in her old studio, and marked a new beginning. She and her partner quickly progressed throughout the year, faster than is normal, and began to place high and win incredibly competitive events. This helped them to see that with hard work, they could do anything!

There are a lot of things on Christianna’s bucket list, but there are two that stand out. One is related to dance and one is unrelated. First, she would love to bring their talents as a partnership to an international competition and to dance against couples from other nations. While at an international competition, especially in Europe, she would love to set aside time for a few weeks to backpack across a few countries. Second, she is dying to go skydiving or bungee jumping. Christianna loves a thrill!

Every year, their ballroom team from Boston University comes up with costumes for each dance performance in their fall showcase that will embody the message of the dance. Their advanced piece this year was a medley, meaning it had three dances in it - cha cha, rumba, and jive. They really needed a skirt that worked for the moves in every dance, but also was not too loud for any of the dances. B Dancewear gave them a great selection of styles and colors, and the sizes worked perfectly for each dancer in their piece. The speed and convenience of working with B Dancewear made them feel much more prepared for their performance, and it went as well as it could have!

Christianna and her partner are qualified for the national championships, and it is their dream and goal to make it to the finals in their division on the weekend of the championships and place in the top eight couples in their level in the United States. It is their constant goal to always be improving, practicing, learning, and growing.

Christianna hopes that dance will take her to more international sites and competitions, to gain more friendships and coaches, and to continue achieving high placements at prestigious competitions. She hopes it allows her to impact others’ lives and improve who she is as a person so that she can continue to grow.

Quote: “B Dancewear gave them a great selection of styles and colors, and the sizes worked perfectly for each dancer in their piece.”

Tags: Ballroom, dance, team, cha cha, rhumba, studio