CARMEN DURLAN
Assistant Campus Editor
Jaana Kunitz looks like a Latin dancer, in an elegant black dress with a white poof of ruffles around her shoulders, dark hair slicked back into a bun and just enough makeup to make her face stand out.
Jaana is married to James Kunitz, and together, they are the 1996 United States Rising Star Latin American Champions. Jaana and James came to BYU for the first time to judge and perform at BYU’s DanceSport Championships Friday and Saturday.
“It’s so very exciting to see so many people competing,” Jaana said. “I’m from Finland, and we have a lot of young people doing ballroom dancing. It’s surprising. This reminds me of home.”
Jaana said that in Finland, it is common for ballroom dance events to be in gymnasiums and sport halls. Holding the BYU DanceSport Championships in the Smith Fieldhouse “is very much European in a way,” she said.
In Finland, there is a ballroom dance league for the city, similar to an American football league, Jaana said.
There are six levels of dance in the league, from beginning to champion. Dancers advance to the next level from the points they earn by winning competitions. The ballroom association in Finland adds up the points and gives a certificate of advancement, she said.
Jaana shivers under her wine winter coat. “They’re always teasing me. Me, cold?” she joked.
Her husband was having fun, too. “I’ve heard a lot about it (DanceSport Championships), but I think it’s even better and bigger than I expected,” he said.
Friday night the Kunitz’s danced cha-cha, samba and paso doble for their showcase performance. Saturday evening they performed Argentine tango, jive and rumba routines.
Jaana said they have about a dozen different routines. When they worked on a cruise ship, they had to perform a different routine every week.
Because they have so many, “it changes slightly, but the idea is there,” she said. “We love to act.”
And when you make a mistake? “Just act, go with the flow,” Jaana said.
When judging a competition, Jaana suggested the same idea. The main thing she looks for is presentation, she said.
“Of course, you must have a certain technique, and then it becomes a matter of who has the most fun,” Jaana said.
When judging the first round of a competition with three heats, “it’s easy to pick a few outstanding ones. The difficulty is choosing between many people at the same level,” she said.
Jaana, 24, and James, 26, have danced together for six years and were partners before they were married.
Jaana started dancing at age 9. But she was learning ballet, jazz and modern. She didn’t know about ballroom dance until she was 13.
Jaana said her family moved from a small city with no hobbies and surrounded by forest to a large one. It was at an elementary school that she saw her first ballroom dance performance. “I loved it,” she said.
When they won the U.S. Rising Star Latin American Championship, “it was very exciting,” Jaana said. Now when they perform, “people want to see us dancing Latin.”
Jaana said they also won second in the world Latin competition, but “sometimes people in this country just remember the national title.”
Now the Kunitz’s goal is to win the open final. That competition is Wednesday through Saturday, Jaana said.
