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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 24 Artscene Oakville ballroom dancer ranked first in Canada, second in the world for 2014 by John Bkila Oakville Beaver Staff "Connected to your Community" Ruddick leads Team Canada to five-time World Pro-Am champs It is often said golf is a sport that can be played for life -- for Oakville's Scott Ruddick, ballroom dancing is his golf. "Ballroom is the dancing you can do for life," said Ruddick, who owns and runs the Oakville-based dance studio Tulip Classic, where his youngest student is five years old and his oldest is 80. The 33-year-old Oakville resident has been dancing since he was 10 and he's turned it into a full-time career. And it's paid off. Ruddick has been ranked first in Canada and second in the world, in 2014, over approximately 4,000 Pro-Am DanceSport teachers. Tulip Classic was ranked the No. 1 dance studio in Canada last year and No. 5 in the world for competitive Pro-Am. "Pro-Am is like (the TV show) Dancing with the Stars, just at a much higher level," said Ruddick. "You train amateurs to dance and compete with them. How they place counts towards your overall score... so, it takes a lot of competing and a lot of good placing to rank well." Ruddick is also the captain and creator of Team Canada in the Pro-Am ballroom world. Last November, the team competed in the World Pro-Am DanceSport Series world championships in Ohio and became the only five-time undefeated champions in the history of the competition. "The room just exploded with excitement, our team and all those that came to cheer us on celebrating and dancing around," said Ruddick. "It was one of those times you could actually feel the energy in the air and the vibes from the power of cheering.... We have the most wins of any region. No region has won more than twice in a row." Created six years ago, the team is now made up of 18 members with two couples competing in each style of ballroom dance -- smooth, standard, Latin and rhythm -- an assistant captain, and Ruddick as captain. Before Team Canada's creation, Canadian competitors were split into their provinces, with each joining a different The room just exploded with excitement, our team and all those that came to cheer us on celebrating and dancing around. It was one of those times you could actually feel the energy in the air and the vibes from the power of cheering.... We (Team Canada) have the most wins of any region. No region has won more than twice in a row. Scott Ruddick Ballroom dancer Oakville's Scott Ruddick dances with his partner, Eunice Brewster, during the Fall Premier Ball competition (Jan. 23-24) in Niagara Falls, Ont. | photo by Alexander Rowan ­ courtesy DanceSport Photography and Scott Ruddick U.S. region. "I wanted to see Canada become its own region. At the time, no one thought it was possible," said Ruddick. "My goal was just not to place last (during the first year)... Canada, Region 7, our newest team, ended up becoming champions." When Ruddick started dancing, he admits, he never really thought about competing and achieving anything with it -- he just knew he wanted to dance for the rest of his life. Early on, his teachers told his parents that he had started too late and would not be able to make a career out of dancing. "I did not care what they said," explained Ruddick. "I knew I would do this forever and my parents supported me in every way they could." Ruddick now trains dance competitors; runs social dances as the co-owner of the Burlington Social Club; is the coowner of Future Steps, one of Canada's largest and longestrunning dance programs for children; and runs the Tulip Classic dance competition. The latter shares the name of his dance studio and is one of Ontario's largest DanceSport competitions and host of the North American Show Dance Championships. Ruddick, who is married and has a 14-year-old stepson, stopped competing in Pro-Am for a number of years to focus on running his business, but returned two years ago. "What I missed most was competing with my students," he said. "The thrill of making someone accomplish something they did not think they had in them, when they first walked in through the door, is greater than winning any achievement myself." Ruddick advises anyone who is on the fence about taking up ballroom dancing to just do it. "People prescreen themselves and think they cannot do it for whatever reason," he explained. "But what Dancing with the Stars has shown the world is that anyone with any background can learn to dance. You don't have to be artistic... you will be surprised with how many skills you already have that come into play when dancing." 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