Becoming the Dance Persona, Performance, and Identity in University Ballroom

Abstract

This paper explores how university ballroom dancers build and embody persona on and off the competition floor. Using interviews, observation, and my own experience at the Inter Varsity Dance Competition in Blackpool, I show how dancers learn to project confidence, style, and emotion long before the music begins. Beginners often “act” confidence while advanced dancers internalise persona until it feels natural. Costumes, audience expectations, and gender norms all shape how dancers move and present themselves. Drawing on scholars such as Ericksen and Marion, the study argues that ballroom is more than technique: it is a space where identity is rehearsed, polished, and eventually lived. Persona becomes a tool, a performance, and ultimately part of the self.