Teen pair win national ballroom titles

Bayley Brooks and Nicholas Kane are national champions.

The teenage ballroom dance partners went to Baltimore during their spring break from Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy at the end of March to compete in the 2012 USA Dance National Ballroom Championship and returned home with four titles, winning first place in all of their events. The dancers also were awarded a $225 scholarship for their win.

“It has put them on the map,” Brooks’ mother, Jami Brooks, said in a telephone conversation. The teenagers – Bayley is 14, Nicholas, 17 – who have been partners since June, competed against 58 couples. The teens can now dance at a championship level. Brooks lives in Hauser, Idaho, Kane in Newman Lake.

“Now they’d like to go as far as they can. They’re excited; their win has made them want more,” Jami Brooks said. “Their goal is to place in the top two at the 2013 Nationals in Los Angeles so they can represent the U.S. at Worlds,” she said.

Jami Brooks said the teens are the only multiple title national winners from the Pacific Northwest.