As Nicole Markovic and her dance partner began learning the precise steps for the international foxtrot and quickstep, the linguistics senior’s movement progressed from shaky uncertainty to bold confidence after a few attempts.
With that same speed, Markovic rocketed through competitive dance levels in less than a year. The competitive dance levels begin with newcomer, followed by bronze, silver, gold, novice, pre-champ and championship. At this time last year, Markovic was a bronze level dancer.
Currently, Markovic and and her partner, graduate student Dan Totzkay, are sitting on the cusp of gold and novice levels only a year after beginning their ballroom dance journey together.
Dancing has been a permanent fixture in Markovic’s life since childhood when she performed Serbian dance as a cultural tradition. However, her focus shifted to ballroom dancing when she was in middle school after watching dancing shows on television.
After she became a Spartan and discovered the MSU Ballroom Dance Team , it felt like a perfect fit because of the dancing community’s welcoming attitude.
Markovic joined in fall 2011 but her partner later quit during the fall 2012 semester, causing Markovic’s involvement with the team to decline.
Without dance playing as important a role in her life, Markovic found herself in a strange and uncomfortable place.
“You’ll hear any dancer say that if they go a day or two without dancing, their body becomes depressed, and that was me for a while,” Markovic said.
After dealing with the dark emotions that came with no longer being able to dance, Markovic made a New Year’s resolution last year to begin dancing frequently once more. The timing couldn’t have been better, because Totzkay, who was still on the team, also found himself without a partner.
On a whim, Markovic and Totzkay decided to team up for one competition, without the intent of making it a permanent partnership. However, after their first time competing together on the dance floor, both knew they had to continue.
“We ended up having a really good connection on and off the dance floor,” Totzkay said.
With a new partner and a renewed spirit, Markovic and Totzkay spent much of the past summer practicing and broke into the novice level together after fall semester started.
After whirling through several competitions, Markovic and Totzkay broke into the gold level and have started breaking into the novice level.
The duo has already qualified for the USA Dance Nationals that will take place next March in Baltimore, Md.
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