Cha Cha Champion
Seton Hall > News & Events Monday, March 30, 2009
by: Virginia Hughes
No mere finance student, Kate Kapshandy has won two
national Latin dance titles - so far.
Last
September, sophomore Kate Kapshandy was sitting in the Jubilee Hall
office of one of her closest mentors, business professor Mike Reuter.
While they were chatting, finance professor Yeomin Yoon dropped in.
Yoon loves ballroom dancing, and every year at the Stillman School of
Business' annual dinner dance, he invites a professional dance
instructor to perform with him. So when introducing the two, Reuter
mentioned that Kapshandy was quite a dancer, too -- taking four
national amateur titles in the past two years.
Yoon immediately asked Kapshandy if she'd like to dance with him at the
upcoming Stillman dance. She politely declined, explaining that she
prefers to keep her academic and dancing lives completely separate.
“I've always felt they just don't mix well together, dancing and
school,” Kapshandy explains. “People at school think it's cool that I
dance, but at school I focus on school. And when I'm dancing, I'm just
dancing.”
And she's done a lot of dancing. The 19-year-old has performed in more
than 90 national and international competitions and won more than 40
titles.
Yet when it comes to planning her dancing career, Kapshandy is
surprisingly pragmatic. Other amateurs may focus entirely on
competitions, but she spends just as much energy on her academic life,
developing skills and contacts in the world of business.
Her dancing life began at home in Schererville, Ind., with ballet and
jazz lessons at age 3.
In the summer of 2003, when she was 14, she began “pro-am” Latin
dancing, featuring students dancing with instructors. She hated the
first few months, and by October, was ready to quit.
Kapshandy's mom, Marcy, begged her daughter to watch one last
competition before quitting. The girl consented, attending a
competition in Chicago where, for the first time, she saw kids dancing
with other kids.
“It was really weird: I just knew. The whole weekend I couldn't eat
anything,” Kapshandy recalls. “I started that Monday taking six lessons
a week when I used to dread taking even one.”
For the next couple of years, Kapshandy danced pro-am in many
competitions across the country. In July 2005, she went to a large
Manhattan competition put on by Gary and Diana McDonald, a
world-renowned dance team. Gary McDonald had seen Kapshandy several
times before, and was impressed. When the McDonalds invited her to move
into their New Jersey home for the summer and train in their famous
Fairfield, N.J., studio, she gladly accepted.
“These people were 10-time U.S. champions -- very, very strong in the
dance world,” Kapshandy says. “I couldn't have gotten a better offer.”
At first, her parents were unsure about the move. “There was still hope
in our mind that, `Gee, maybe it won't work out, maybe she won't like
New York,'” jokes her father, Tim Kapshandy. But she did. Five weeks
later, in Anaheim, Calif., she performed at her first amateur
competition -- finally with a partner her own age.
She remembers the dress -- a light-blue halter with blue fringe -- and
the intimidation of competing against 90 couples from all over the
world. She made it to the semifinals.
A month later, her parents moved to New Jersey so she could continue
the training with the McDonalds. She found a new dancing partner,
18-year-old Tal Livshitz, from East Brunswick. Their dance chemistry
was instant, and the duo went on to win a slew of national and
international competitions.
Despite the flurry of wins and the all-consuming schedule -- she
attends about two competitions a month, and spends 20 to 30 hours a
week practicing -- Kapshandy has always had a backup plan: a business
career.
She was at the top of her class in high school, doing especially well
in math. When looking at colleges, she originally chose Drew
University. But she changed her mind one blustery February day, after
attending an informational session at the Stillman School of Business.
“She was really impressed. The Seton Hall business program was more
focused, more hands-on. She realized it was the right decision,” her
father says.
“She had a very clear mind, and pretty much knew from the get-go that
she wanted a degree in business,” recalls Director of Midwest
Admissions Maureen Barney, who reviewed Kapshandy's application. “She
knows she has a talent and knows that it will always be an avocation in
her life -- even if it can't be her vocation,” she adds.
In March 2007, in Provo, Utah, Kapshandy and Livshitz won the national
championship in both the Latin and Ten-Dance categories. It was the top
honor of her career at the time, and is now one of her fondest
memories. A few weeks later, she moved into Boland Hall.
Kapshandy, who is double-majoring in Spanish and finance, was one of
just 21 freshmen to be invited to join Stillman's elite Leadership
Studies Program. These students take a series of leadership courses,
attend leadership conferences and networking events, and form mentoring
relationships with local business people.
“The more I work with her, the more I see the richness of leadership
within her,” says Reuter, director of the program. “She shows that the
key to success in life is a very simple truth: you find something you
love, and you go after it.”
In March 2008, just as Kapshandy finished her freshman year, she and
her partner again won the national championships in Provo.
As her dance reputation continues to grow, Kapshandy remains focused on
the other aspects of her life. She stopped dancing with Livshitz last
summer because he wanted to spend even more time practicing. She's now
dancing with Andrei Kazlouski, a 19-year-old from Belarus who was the
2008 world vice-champion in Latin dance.
“You just never know. Even if you're lucky enough to dance for a while,
you can't be a dancer forever,” she says. She would love to own and
manage her own dance studio. “I still want to be around it when I'm
older. So a business, with dancing? That would be great!”
Virginia Hughes is a science writer and blogger based in New York City.
She can be reached at virginia.hughes@gmail.com.
For more information please contact:
Editorial Department
(973) 378-2644
shuwriter@shu.edu
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