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Home > Studio 665 Woburn > About 665 > News
Local woman rocks in Collegiate Ballroom Dancing
Woburn, MA -- March 12, 2007 -- Lexington resident, Eiko Onagi, surprised onlookers as she advanced to the semi-finals at this past Sunday’s Harvard University Invitational Ballroom Dance competition. What is amazing is not only that this woman is 76-years-old, but also that she danced the man’s part! Onagi donned a pair of black trousers and a black vest and went on to lead her partner, Angela Shi, in round after round of Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, and Quickstep. Over 120, mostly college-age couples started the event, and as the crowd cheered, Onagi and Shi beat over 100 couples as they advanced all the way to the semi-final round.
In 1986, Onagi started her ballroom dancing as a frequent attendee at the social dances at Wonderland Ballroom and Moseley’s on the Charles. She began competing in ballroom dancing at Studio 665 in Woburn at age 60. Four years later, she became a champion at senior level. Over the years, Onagi has competed in both Pro/Am events (partnering with her teacher, Mark Nocera) and Amateur events (partnering with her amateur partner, Satoru Toga) throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. She won first place at a dance competition in Weymouth, England at senior level. During her years of dancing, Onagi has developed a very wide circle of ballroom dance friends throughout the area ballroom dance community. In addition, she has been a long-time supporter of collegiate ballroom dancing.
When asked why she decided to attend classes to learn the leader’s steps, Onagi said, “When I went to group classes I could see that there were not enough leaders. So I started to do the man’s part to lead the other women in the group classes. When my fellow student, Angela, told me that she wanted to compete but didn’t have a partner, I offered to be her partner.” Once the decision was made, there wasn’t much time before the Harvard competition for Onagi and Shi to practice. They were only able to fit in a few practice sessions.
Onagi said that she plans to continue to learn the leader’s steps and hopes that more people, especially men, will learn ballroom dancing. Onagi said, “Ballroom dancing is getting so popular. This area has great dance studios to take lessons.” Because of the success of her first competition as a leader, Onagi is now preparing to compete as leader at Boston’s biggest competition, the Eastern United States DanceSport Championships. The Eastern will be held in February 2008 at Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel.
Eiko Onagi leading her partner Angela Shi
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