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If forced to think of engineers and dancing, one would probably conjure-up images of a shrinking violet at a formal, or a gamer trying to find rhythm and timing in the video game Dance Dance Revolution. However, engineering students at Mississippi State have broken out of the stereotypical mold, and their comfort zones, to become the “mambo kings” of campus.

“You can trace it back to middle school. We were the typical wall-flowers who would shy away from girls and wonder how other people had the confidence to ask and do what we couldn’t.” said Harry Lam, a graduate student in industrial and systems engineering. “Now, ballroom dancing is an icebreaker and we get the opportunity to do what we couldn’t in the past.”

Lam joined the MSU’s Ballroom Dance Club to experience something new. However, while attending the meetings, what he found, was an uncanny number of engineering majors among the participants and a new way of thinking. Like himself, other engineering majors seemed drawn to the classes as a way to expand their social circles or overcome shyness, but many also find an mathematical precision to the dance steps. For the engineers in the class, like instructor Michael O’Neal, that precision draws them into dance and helps stunt the learning curve that exist when developing almost any new talent.

“It’s surprising to see the number of engineering majors we have in the club, considering that most people think of dance as something artistic, but, to an analytical person, dancing is a type of problem with a specific technique to solving it.” O’Neal, a biological engineering major, explained. “To me, the biomechanics of it is also fascinating because of the way everyone moves. Each dance is different from the waltz, which is smooth and has a feeling of classic high-society, to the more involved Latin dances, which seem risqué and sexy.”

Both O’Neal and Lam see how participating in ballroom dancing has given them an added perspective in approaching problems both engineering and social in nature, a view point they share with other engineers in the class. Most admit that as students, much of their time is spent working on engineering problems, surrounded by other engineers who have personalities and habits that closely resemble their own, but dancing brings new people, points of view and practices into their lives.

“Dancing is a great stress reliever that can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be at the time,” noted Preston Cauley, an electrical engineering major. “It is something that everyone can relate to, and for us, being able to put a formula to the steps makes it more appealing to our scientific nature.” He jokingly added, “Plus, it’s a great way to meet girls.”

For students interested in diving into dancing, or making a more personal connection, the club meets Sunday afternoons, with beginner classes starting at 5:00 p.m. in the Sanderson Center on campus. To get more information about the club, please visit www.msstate.edu/org/msubdc/index.php.