Sara Applegate--Captain3rd Year Member
Sara has loved being on the Ballroom Team throughout high school. Dance has always been a part of her life. She started dancing ballet and jazz at CVAC when she was younger and continued for many years. Once she reached middle school, she was introduced to ballroom. She was on the team at Elk Ridge and decided to continue pursuing ballroom in high school. She is so grateful for all the opportunities BBT has given her these past few years. She’s happy to be back to dancing after being out for the majority of last year due to a concussion. She is especially excited to help lead the team this year. She is following in the steps of her older sister, Jessica, who was on the original ballroom team at Bingham and was also captain her senior year. Sara wants to thank her team and coaches, Gina Terrell, Ginger Weber, and Dani Ward for pushing her to be the best she can be. She also wants to thank her family and her friends for always supporting and encouraging her. |
Abby Bassaragh3rd Year Member
Abby loves Ballroom Dance with her entire heart. This team has molded her into the person she is today. She is forever grateful for her time spent with this team. The lessons, connections, friendships, and adventures will never be forgotten. Abby has always been dancing her way through life. Her first real training as a dancer happened at the American International School of Utah. There she was a part of the Dance Company and Ballroom Team for three years. She then later pursued training in Latin Dance at Ballroom Utah with Nick Bloxum Carter. After leaving AISU, she was ready for a completely new adventure! She joined both Bingham Ballroom Team and Bingham Dance Company her sophomore year. She later served as Technique Officer for Ballroom her Junior Year, and now Vice Pres of DCO! Even though she isn’t an officer her senior year for Ballroom she is very grateful that she was able to still be a part of the team. She wouldn’t have done it without the support of her amazing family, and of course her coaches. She would like to say thank you to Gina for helping her grow, and always believing in her. Lastly she would like to say thank you to her amazing team. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to call my family, I am forever grateful for every single one of you. |
Mackenzie Jensen3rd Year Member
Mackenzie Jensen started ballroom 4 years ago at Elk Ridge Middle School. She has always been interested in ballroom and has always loved being on a team. Mackenzie has been taught many different dancing styles by Megan Rees and Gina Terrel such as swing, pasodoble, rumba, waltz, cha-cha, samba, lindy-hop, etc. Mackenzie used to participate in a Mexican Folkloric Dance Group. She was in that dance group for 4 years. She has always loved dancing, painting, sewing, cooking and singing. She has taught herself to paint and sketch. She has also loved fashion design and wants to do it as her future job. Mackenzie is normally called Kenzie/Kenz. She wants to thank her parents Robert and Kathi, and her dance teachers Areli Garcia, Megan Rees, and Gina Terrel for inspiring her to keep dancing. |
Rachael Matthews1st Year Member
Rachael loves dance more than anything. She has been doing Ballet since she was three years old, and currently dances at Canyon View Arts Center. She takes Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Hip Hop, and Pointe. She is always interested in trying new styles of dance, so she took Ballroom 1 and 2 in school her Junior year for gym credit. She has loved Ballroom ever since. Besides dancing, Rachael loves to draw, paint, read, and do makeup. Rachael would like to thank Andrea Edwards and Andrea Wilson, two of her dance teachers at Canyon View Arts Center. They have always inspired her and she looks up to them so much. They have helped her improve in dance and become more confident in dance and herself. Rachael would also love to thank her family and friends for always supporting her, and coming to her competitions and performances. She couldn’t do any of this without them! |
Devon Parikh1st Year Member
Devon has been a light follower of Ballroom dance for a while. It started in elementary when he got dared to join the ballroom dance team and fell in love with it. At Hawthorn academy he danced for two years, that being the only real dance experience he had. Devon was a football player for most of his life as well, a hobby that took over for a while. After entering middle school, Devon dropped dancing entirely. He in fact didn’t pick it back up until his junior year of high school, when he auditioned for the schools musical, and, much to his surprise, made it as a soloist dancer. He fell back in love with dancing after that, doing it whenever he got the chance. Devon had wanted to do ballroom long before he actually joined the team but never went through with it. He would like to thank Liz Smith, the theatre teacher and director of the musical last year, Emma Rains, the choreographer for the soloists. Both of them had an incredible impact on Devon, as well as all of the other members of the cast, and so far the very supportive members of the ballroom team. He is looking forward to this year very much! |
Charlotte Toone2nd Year Member
Charlotte has been fascinated by ballroom dance ever since she was a kid and would watch the ballroom dancers practice at her fencing studio instead of paying attention. She has been social dancing with her dad since she was a little girl and was really excited when she made the team. Her favorite dance is Samba because of the hip movement. Her favorite things to do besides dancing are riding her motorcycle or being up in the mountains skiing. She has loved her time on the team and is sad to say goodbye. She hopes that she can continue dancing after highschool. She would like to thank her dad for being so supportive and listening to her ramble on about ballroom, and her amazing teammates for making her laugh and making waking up for 6:30 AM practice a little less painful. |
Brandon Johansen1st Year Member
Brandon has been a very athletic kid for the majority of his life, playing sports like baseball and football for many years. He decided to take a ballroom dance class last year, just for the fun of it but he found that he liked it. He’s only been dancing for less than a year but is very excited to be on this year’s edition of the Bingham Ballroom Team. |
Aidan Kemp1st Year Member
Aidan grew up playing sports like soccer and baseball. He never really thought he would sing or dance a day in his life lemme tell ya. Kid was a jock since birth and was like any other young boy who only thought that they were “too cool” to be dancing and singing. He never really got into singing until he somehow was put into a choir class at Elk Ridge middle school and slowly started loving it more and more. Aidan soon grew out of his comfort zone and started auditioning for talent shows and even the school musical. Jokes on his young self he then found a new love for singing and dancing. He just didn’t know what kind of dance truly had his heart, but one day he saw pictures of the past ballroom teams at Elk Ridge and was beyond fascinated. He did ballroom workshops thinking nothing of it whenever he could at Elk Ridge. Once he found out that there were ballroom classes at Bingham he signed up as soon as possible. He not only did ballroom 1, but he also did ballroom 2 for his next semester because he loved the feeling and confidence he felt dancing ballroom his sophomore year and that’s when he knew he had to audition for the Bingham Ballroom Team! He is beyond excited to do something he loves with a team of people that feels the same. |
Ashley Romrell2nd Year Member
Ashley has loved being on the Ballroom Team at Bingham so far! She started dancing when she was 3 years old, doing Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, and Tap. Ashley started ballroom dancing her freshman year at Quickstep Dance Studio and has loved every minute of it. She has enjoyed bonding with the BBT team and making memories. Her favorite part of ballroom is all of the really cool lifts. Ashley is excited to begin training for open dancing with her partner at Quickstep. As well as dancing, Ashley enjoys singing, acting, and participating in musicals. She would like to thank her studio coaches, Annie Topham and Alex Taylor for being amazing influences in her dancing career and shaping her into the dancer she is today. |
Kenna Bean1st Year Member
Kenna is the youngest of five in her family and has an adorable niece and a nephew on the way. Kenna has been dancing since she was four and has since then dedicated much of her life to it. She dances at Rocky Mountain Dance and is trained in Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz, and Hip Hop. She also had the opportunity to dance as a zombie in Odyssey’s THRILLER and loved how she could move and shape her body in much different ways then she was taught at RMD. She was first introduced to Ballroom in 7th grade when she decided to take the ballroom workshops at Elkridge, and she loved it. Since then she has gone to every workshop at Elkridge and even had her sister (a previous Bingham Ballroom Team member) teach her more steps and proper technique in ballroom dance. She also enjoys musical theatre and recently played the leading role, Cinderella, in her latest school musical. She values kindness and service and jumps in at every opportunity she has to serve and help the people around her. She is very excited to be a part of the ballroom team at Bingham and hopes for a great year. |
Zach LeBaron1st Year Member
Zach has taken ballroom classes for two years. This is his first year dancing on a team. He is number 5 of six boys in his family. He loves jeeping, hiking, swimming, vacationing, basically anything he can do with his family. Zach is the kindest, most loyal person and friend. He loves making sure everyone feels happy. His smile lights up the room. His fun loving personality makes everyone he knows feel so special because he cares so much. He is so grateful for all the love and support his family gives him in everything he does. He can’t wait to have an incredible year with his new team! |
Ashley Miller1st Year Member
Ashley started dancing when she was four years old and has loved it ever since. She has trained in ballet, pointe, jazz, modern, and tap at Canyon View Arts Center. She has also performed with South Pointe Ballet and was on the SoJo Dance Company. She was first introduced to ballroom at a summer ballroom dance camp, and knew she wanted to give it a try. Ashley also enjoys baking and running, and was on the Bingham High School track team. She is very excited and grateful to be on the Bingham Ballroom team, and would like to thank her amazing parents and dance teachers for supporting her in everything she does. |
Cade Poulter1st Year Member
Cade’s first experience with ballroom dancing was in 6th grade, when they did a few workshops at his elementary school. Let’s just say that he didn’t exactly fall in love with it. Still, he decided to try the workshops again when he got into 7th grade and 8th grade, and both times he still didn’t really love the experience. However, in 9th grade he went to the workshops again, and this time for some reason it just clicked. He loved learning new dance styles and new steps. It was even better when he got the leading role in Elk Ridge Middle’s musical Cinderella, and he got to do a big waltz scene in the show. He’s super excited to be on the Bingham Ballroom Team this year, and he hopes that it’s an amazing experience! Cade also loves singing and acting, and will often burst into song out of nowhere. He also loves playing and watching basketball, and well as being a huge Star Wars nerd. He would also like to thank his family and friends for their support throughout his audition process, and now that he is on the team! |
Beca Rios1st Year Member
Rebeca Rios is the youngest of five children in her family. She started dancing at the age of 4 and for 11 years she has centered her life around dance. She has trained in many styles including Tap, Lyrical, Contemporary, Classical Ballet, and Mexican Folkloric Ballet. She enjoys the thrill of dance competitions, photography, exploring outdoors, and participating as a choir member. Rebeca was first introduced to ballroom dancing in 7th grade as a dancing Folly in Crazy For You. She was absolutely hooked. By then, the Elk Ridge Ballroom Team had already been formed so she anxiously awaited for auditions next year. The following year, the ballroom coach announced that there would no longer be an Elk Ridge Ballroom Team, but that seasonal workshops would still be offered. Due to conflicts with her dance schedule, Beca wasn’t able to attend the workshops. Ever since then Rebeca has been eagerly waiting for when she could audition for Bingham’s Ballroom Team. She cannot express how honored she feels to be a part of the Ballroom Team family, and what a privilege it is to dance with the BBT members. She wishes to thank Trisha Wilstead and her instructors from RMD for teaching her everything she knows. She values the patience, courage, and support they have given her. |