Students got the chance to grade their professors at “Dancing With the Professors” Sunday night.
Professors showed off their newfound skills onstage with Penn Latin and Ballroom Dancesport Team students, who have spent the past two months teaching the professors to waltz, tango, samba and cha cha.
The dance competition was modeled off ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” and featured seven professors who had volunteered to take part in the competition.
“We sent an e-mail out to all the Penn professors over the summer, not really expecting too many to respond,” said Engineering senior Michelle Chen, who organized the event. “We got a lot more interest than I thought we would.”
The professors were then narrowed down to the final seven according to how much dance experience they already had under their belt.
Theater Arts Professor Marcia Ferguson said she got tricked into volunteering for the event by her husband.
“He applied with me, but when I’d been accepted he turned the invitation down,” she said. “I’ve still really loved the experience, despite him being lame.”
Each professor was assigned to an upper-level dancer who worked with him or her on routines in a reverse student-teacher role. The students and professors then performed together Sunday night.
Nursing professor Terri Lipman said she felt that working with her partner, Wharton senior Nadeem Almoayyed, was “incredibly rewarding.”
At their final practice Saturday afternoon, Lipman and Almoayyed worked to perfect their cha cha routine to Santana and Rob Thomas’s “Smooth.”
Almoayyed played the role of teacher as he patiently corrected Lipman’s mistakes, and worked on each move until it was perfect.
College senior Sarah Basham and East Asian Languages and Civilization professor Jiajia Wang were the only same-sex couple who performed.
“We had a shortage of guys,” Basham said. “It’s a perennial problem with dance.”
There were also guest performances by the American DanceWheels Foundation — an organization that provides people of all ages and abilities the opportunity to partner-dance by pairing a person with an ambulatory disability with an able-bodied partner. Proceeds from the event will go towards the foundation.
At the end of the night, audience members voted on each performance. Third place was awarded to Sociology professor Tukufu Zuberi and College senior and PLBD president Irene Yiu, who performed the cha cha to Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow.”
Wharton professor Nicolaj Siggelkow and College sophomore Laura Micu took second place for their waltz.
The winners of the comeptition were Lipman and Almoayyed.
“He’s been so patient, and has taught me to be a better teacher myself,” Lipman said.
Almoayyed commended Lipman for the effort she put in.
“It’s great having a professor who’s so dedicated,” he said.
