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THE SAGA OF THE SIBLING SAMBA

Ballroom Dancing Team Jennifer M. Fung '97 and Alex M. Fung '98 Keep It in the Family

When both Alex and Jennifer got into Harvard, the family decided to switch partners for convenience sake. Since then, Alex and Jennifer have been a team, and have been members of the ballroom dancing organizations at Harvard.

"When I first came to Harvard, I was very impressed by the club because of their enthusiasm for ballroom dancing," Jennifer said. "Team members are very supportive of each other."

Both Alex and Jennifer credit the Harvard-Radcliffe Ballroom Dancing Club with offering a place to socialize and practice their dancing.

Jasmin S. Roman '00 began dancing with the club early during her first year.

"The team is like a family," she says. "When you learn a new dance, you feel such a sense of accomplishment."

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The Harvard Ballroom Dancing Team is the competitive wing within the club. The team competes against other colleges including MIT, Brown, Tufts and UNC.

However, the Fung couple also competes on its own as it did this past weekend in France.

Although the duo didn't make it to the semi-finals of the world competition, the pair says they were pleased with the experience.

"This was our first time competing at the world 10-dance competition so we didn't have any expectations," Jennifer says. "We just wanted to dance well."

Thirty-two couples competed, and like Alexander and Jennifer, each was the number-one ranked couple from their respective country.

Along with brother-sister duos, there are some husband-wife couples on the circuit. But according to Jennifer, these combinations are relatively rare in the ballroom dancing world.

"I think most couples are just good friends who dance and work together for the love of the sport," she says.

The 10-dance competition the Fungs attended last weekend consisted of two styles: Latin and Standard.

The Latin dances consist of the Cha Cha, Samba, Rhumba, Paso Doble and Jive. The Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz and Quickstep make up the standard dances.

Judges base their ranking on footwork, frame and musical interpretation.

"I must say, it was very tiring because we danced so many dances and had so many costume changes," Jennifer says.

Jennifer and Alex practice three or four times a week for one and a half to three hours with their two coaches.

The Fungs success in ballroom dancing seems to not be exclusive to the two that attend Harvard.

Last November the first U.S. representatives to the World Amateur Standard Competition in Vienna were Victor and Tiffany Fung. Tiffany is currently a sophomore in high school.

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