“We have U of M, MSU, we have a few people from Purdue and then we have some people from Lake Superior State, which is up in Sault Ste. Marie,” Kaley said. “It's their first time coming, so we were very excited to have them.”

Kaley said other teams that are usually part of the annual competition include Ohio State University and Indiana University, among other universities within the Midwest.

The first half of the competition featured slow, smooth Latin dancing, Kaley said, with the second half featuring fast-paced styles like swing, the cha-cha, rumba and mamba, among others.

“People who are not really into dance, I recognize they can be a little bit boring, but the rhythm and the Latin is when you're like fast-paced and they're really upbeat solos, so it's just looking to have like a good atmosphere of fans here,” Kaley said.

One of the MSU Ballroom Dance Team's specialties is the collaboration of different styles of dance, Kaley said.

“We specialize in American-style dancing because there's American and international style,” Kaley said. “We just get together and you learn dances and you can compete if you want to but we don't force anyone to compete if they don't want to.”

University of Michigan Engineering and Sustainability master’s student Nate Hodgson, president of the UofM Ballroom Dance Team, said he and his team found the Green and White Gala to be a “wonderful opportunity."

“I think the MSU competition is always a wonderful competition and wonderful opportunity for everybody, especially in Michigan, but I know we have other people from Purdue, other people from the University of Waterloo in Canada to come together at the beginning of the semester to get ready for the other competitions for the end of the semester.”

Hodgson spoke on the universities' collaboration for the competition and the experience every member gains in the process.

“It's wonderful that they have it and it's a really good resource for us at U of M to start preparing for the rest of the competition for the rest of the year to get to see all the friends that we've made at MSU,” Hodgson said. “I've been on the board for the past couple of years, and it's kind of the dance community growing in Michigan, hoping that one day we can get Oakland's team back and that we can bring U of M and MSU's teams together.”

Hodgson, who also participated in the competition, said the Wolverines' team goal and takeaway from the gala was to have fun competing, but also learn something from the experience.

“We are a competitive team focusing on how we can get better,” Hudson said. “We want to get everybody learning something from what they do and hopefully we can learn something from competing against all of the MSU and Purdue people and hopefully they can learn the same.”

Purdue University Aerospace Engineering junior Katharina Guth, president of the Purdue Ballroom Dance Team, said the Green and White Gala has been “incredibly inviting” for her and the team members.

“We came here early this morning It was a wonderful setup, we had a nice welcome dance last night and we have five members with us today. We've been dancing a mix of silver, gold and today was my first novice competition,” Guth said. “It's been fun, it's been good, the energy is there, the vibes are there and it's also been fun meeting new people from different teams.”

Guth said the Boilmakers’ team started as a social team before pivoting towards competition level, which led to some members being featured on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” and holding their own competition, “Purdue Ballroom Classics,” every November.

Team Captain and statistics and political science junior Sophia Chaparis spoke on the team’s goal in preserving the legacy of the group and those involved in it.

“We have great friends on the team, we have an amazing experience and time and so our goal is just to make sure that we can create that and encourage people to join the team, like underclassmen at Purdue.”

Team captain and genetics and anthropology junior Bella Marker said her takeaway from the competition is participating with her fellow team members.

“We're all really good friends, we joined in the same newcomer class, and so it's really cool to have just the five of us, we're the only ones from Purdue today, and we're all together and it's our day one, it's our year, it's really fun,” Marker said.

Kaley, who said she will be running the Green and White Gala next year, has a goal for the competition and group: to continue hosting different events and universities and grow its membership.

“I just hope that we can get more people interested in ballroom on campus,” Kaley said. “We hope our team can grow and become not just a competitive team, but a better social team too. We take pride in both our competitive aspect and our social aspect.”

At the end of the day, in the spirit of winning, sportsmanship and collaboration between universities were the real winners in the competition.