TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — TROY students grabbed their dancing shoes and learned ballroom dancing to prepare for the International Student Services (ISS) “Under the Stars” formal.

Tuesday night, the International Student Cultural Organization (ISCO) hosted a ballroom dancing event taught by Professor Ellis Bush.

“I really enjoyed this ballroom dancing event and my favorite was probably dancing the swing dance and the Cha-cha-cha,” said international student Dylan Park. “I really like the part where everybody would gather in a circle and just dance together because we would get to switch partners and get to meet everybody.”

Students learned dances such as Swing, the Cha-cha-cha and the Tango. The dances were learned in pairs.

“This was just a fun night to learn some basics of some of the different ballroom dances,” said Ballroom Dance Professor Ellis Bush. “We started with the swing dance, traditional American dance and we learned some of the basic swing dances. Then we moved to a Latin dance, the Cha-cha-cha and then ended with a slower dance, the tango, just because it’s so much fun.”

Those who participated were not only able to learn something new, but socialize with different people as well.

“Ballroom dance is called a social dance, which means you don’t just dance with the person you came with, you dance with everybody,” Bush explained. “You get to meet other people, you get some good exercise and just laugh and have fun.”

The event was in preparation for the upcoming Under the Stars formal put on by ISS.

“I definitely think I’m going to be using the dances at the formal because we’re going to be using the songs we played here at the the dance,” Park said.

The Under the Stars formal begins Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Trojan Center ballrooms.