Sheets of brightly colored silk fan through the air, twirling around and around, the light from chandeliers overhead catching every little embellishment on the fabric. It is here, at a top-level ballroom dancing competition, that we find senior Allen Granzberg.

At age five and a half, Granzberg was put to the task of ballroom dancing by his grandmother, Yulya Matro, whose sole intention was “keeping [him] off the street, and being a good boy,” she said. “I just didn’t want him being a hoodlum. He needed something to do and enjoy doing in his life. I never intended for him to be a professional dancer,” Matro said.

At eight, playing with his Game Boy Color and collecting Pokemon cards were far more enticing than dancing. But Granzberg said he gradually came to like it, enjoying the combination of skill, passion, and rhythm. Nonetheless, he said he covered up his “ballroom dance story” because it wasn’t considered cool and dancing was unusual for a boy. However, Granzberg now embraces his hobby. “It serves a larger purpose. Ladies dig it and suddenly it’s what people find interesting and even mysterious about you,” Granzberg said.

Since his dance lessons occurred outside of school, dancing never affected Granzberg’s school life. Until senior year, Granzberg spent at least 12 hours a week practicing or going to lessons. He had five-hour classes on Sundays, and two-hour classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays. These classes included regular lessons with 15 or so other couples, practicing with his partner, and two-on-one private lessons with an instructor.

During his many years of training, Granzberg has been able to compete at some of the higher levels of ballroom dancing. For the last two years he has competed alongside Victoria Krugyak, a student at Baruch College. Competitions are usually held in hotels throughout the state and last an entire day, though the dancing lasts only six minutes. Each dance is more or less a minute and thirty seconds, and there are four dances, and couples are divided into “heats,” based on the age of the male.

In order of increasing difficulty, the categories of the competitions are: Newcomer, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Novice, PreChamp and Champ. Granzberg has often competed in PreChamp, and occasionally in Champ. According to Granzberg, those in the adult category for Champ usually practice for about 40 hours a week and are usually professional dancers.

Granzberg explains that competitors are judged based on more than their dancing. “If you run too quickly, talk too loudly, look too wacky, someone is always there to take note. The judges begin to form opinions ahead of time, before you even set your foot in the ballroom,” Granzberg said. While he is a regular semifinalist for Adult PreChamp and often takes home a prize, Granzberg has rarely competed on the Champ level because of the near-professional atmosphere in that category of the competition. “It’s nice to win, since you devote so much time to it, but that’s not why you do it. You do it for fun,” Granzberg said.

“Allen and I have spent a lot of time together, whether it’s practicing or competing together. Both of us have other commitments—things we do […] But dancing is definitely more than a hobby. At the end of the day, it’s great knowing that we’ve improved, had fun, and put everything we could into dancing,” Krugyak said. This year, he has spent less time competing and taking lessons in order to teach lessons to children from ages four and up from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays. He occasionally competes with younger girls who do not have partners yet, but even then has rarely been entering competitions.“Before, I kept dancing on the down-low, and I didn’t really go around telling people that I danced. For SING!, people somehow found out, and said, ‘Wow, that’s cool, I wish I could do that,’” Granzberg said. “When I showed some other people videos they said, ‘That’s just not you.’ I mean, people were surprised because I’m not physically skinny, and I don’t specifically have ‘that look.’”

Along with senior Diana Liskovich, Granzberg was co-director of the Latin dance crew for the first time in his SING! career. He said that because SING! requires much dedication, he was dissuaded from participating in previous years.

“Doing well usually comes with time and commitment. I’ve been dancing for many years and it’s hard to give up entirely. Because I spent so much time dancing, it was natural that I would want to do well and keep investing in it, even though I don’t intend to be a professional,” Granzberg said. “Ballroom is an art and a sport. For me, it has become more than just an activity; it has become part of my culture.”