10,367 intramural athletes • 1,268 seats in the de Jong Concert Hall • 404 campus pianos
4:22 PM
A Self-taught Guitar Player’s voice rose and fell with the paradoxical phrases, reverberating off cool, white walls: “Stones taught me to fly/Love taught me to cry/So come on courage!” In fall semester Romney B. Doria (’09) often sought the quiet solitude of the Maeser Building, playing Damien Rice’s “Cannonball.” “The song becomes part of me if I can learn it and sing it myself,” says Doria, a freshman from Provo. On this warm September afternoon, under partly cloudy skies, Doria wanted to “just let go and not worry about schoolwork and appreciate some good memories.”
Across campus in the fading hours of sunlight, students like Doria put down books and picked up basketballs, played music, and put on costumes. Others retreated to the library for more study or spent the evening with family and friends.
Sept. 22 was opening night for World of Dance, an annual extravaganza featuring the Ballroom Dance Company, the International Folk Dance Ensemble, the Cougarettes, and other performing groups. The dancers performed for a sold-out audience in the de Jong Concert Hall and in front of BYU Broadcasting cameras for television production. Before the show began, the ballroom dancers met to do hair and makeup under the careful eye of Linda Baes Wakefield (’77), the company’s costume director, who wanted to ensure a uniform look for the cameras.
“As ballroom dancers we use tons of gel and hair spray to get a totally slicked look, and we glue on monster fake eyelashes and the shiniest red lipstick,” says Addy Bigelow Squires (BA ’02). An experienced performer, Squires no longer felt fear before World of Dance; instead she felt anticipation to do “what you know you do well and to entertain the audience.”
Dancers aren’t the only ones who know that appearance can be important in performance. For their intramural women’s soccer game, the Rednecks sported matching green shirts. “We all went to the same high school and our green shirts are from Provo High,” says Katy Graham Storey (BS ’04). Reunited for friendly BYU competition, the Rednecks enjoyed their fall season. “We didn’t do very well, but we had a lot of fun. We all love to play—that’s why we did it.”
Intramural sports are an outlet for many BYU students to display their athleticism, reduce stress, and maintain friendships despite changing addresses and schedules. On Sept. 22 students played more than 75 intramural games, ranging from coed basketball to ultimate Frisbee. The weather that afternoon was ideal for outdoor play, as the temperature flirted around 60 degrees Fahrenheit from 4 to 6 PM.
Whether for amateur, informal athletics or practiced, disciplined dance, BYU students make time for their extracurricular interests. A third-year law student and apartment manager with her husband, Squires has little free time. But in assessing her schedule, Squires decided, “If I had to cut something out, it wasn’t going to be ballroom. Developing excellence and achieving goals is important to me. I am busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
