Balfanz receives high school letter for dance

Contributed photo
Bill Balfanz was the first male athlete to compete in dance at Robbinsdale Cooper in the mid 1980s. He went on to have a successful career dancing in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Japan, Europe, Orlando and cruise ships.

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Forty years after his high school graduation, Henning resident Bill Balfanz finally received his high school letter for a sport that was rather unique for male athletes during his time in school.

Contributed photo
Bill Balfanz, who currently lives in Henning, had a successful career dancing in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Japan, Europe, Orlando and cruise ships. 

Balfanz was the first person to join high school dance for Robbinsdale Cooper High School, and by many accounts, the first male athlete in state history to join the high school sport. 

Not one for the spotlight the Henning resident said he never made a big deal about being the first male athlete in his school’s history to join dance. 

“Even in show business I didn’t want to be in the spotlight I just wanted to be the short guy on the end,” he said with a laugh.

After high school Balfanz enjoyed a long and rather unique career in the dancing industry that took him to performing on cruise ships, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Japan, Europe and a 20-year stint in the greater Orlando area. When COVID-19 pandemic essentially shut down the entertainment industry he traded his life in the entertainment industry in Orlando for Henning to move closer to his mom and sister.

It was his parents, after all, who encouraged Balfanz to get into the dance industry in the first place in high school. After moving to a new school his sophomore year, Balfanz said his parents told him he needed to join an activity to experience high school life outside of the classroom. He set his sights on dance, and prior to his senior year of high school, he tried to join the high school dance team.

“My parents said you have to do something in school that isn’t classroom related,” he said of joining dance. 

Balfanz always enjoyed dance and began researching rules from the Minnesota State High School League that didn’t state anything specifically about being a male or female athlete. The high school senior said he spoke with the dance advisor and “said I want to audition is that OK with you?” 

The advisor agreed to allow the male dancer to join the sport and Balfanz found himself in front of the school board to make his request to be the first person in Robbinsdale Cooper to join the high school dance team. After some back and forth at the school board level, Balfanz was allowed to join dance, but not until the season was already underway. At the time the dance program season started in the summer, but due to the delays in approving him to join dance, Balfanz didn’t join the team until fall. 

As his organizers prepared for their 40th high school reunion, Balfanz said a group of his classmates wanted to borrow his letterman’s jacket for a guessing game at the reunion. It was then that his classmates realized that their Class of 1985 friend never received a letter for his time in dance. 

“They wanted to use mine and didn’t have one because I didn’t get a letter,” said Balfanz who said his classmate organizing the reunion thought it was strange he never received a letter for his time in dance.

Forty years later, Balfanz said he isn’t entirely sure why he didn’t receive a letter for his time in high school dance. He assumes that he didn’t receive one because he technically joined the sport late, but getting a letter wasn’t why he joined the sport in the first place—it was just to hone his skills and do something he loved to do.

Unbeknownst to Balfanz, some of his high school classmates went to work to present the school’s first-ever male high school dancer with a special surprise at their 40th class reunion. 

“When we got to the reunion and they said we have one more surprise left,” said Balfanz. “They started reading some stuff about me and I thought gosh that sounds like me.”

At the end of the letterman’s game Balfanz was presented with the high school letter he didn’t receive 40 years ago. Though he said it was a great surprise, Balfanz didn’t give much thought to not getting a letter in high school. That being said the Henning School paraprofessional credited his classmates for making the 40th high school reunion extra special. 

“I didn’t know it was coming, I didn’t expect it,” he said of getting a letter. “It was 40 years ago…but it was a good surprise.”