As the lights dim and the music turns on, judges watch junior Simone Mishuris compete her ballroom piece in a sea of contestants. Mishuris grew up in the ballroom world where she started out with her brother, Ethan Mishuris. Now, Mishuris is currently training to compete and attend conventions this fall.
“My mother actually, she saw me dancing at a very young age at home when I was very young, and she’s like, we need to take her to dance,” Mishuris said. “And I guess they sort of took me to ballet first when I was three years old, and they saw me, and it wasn’t a right fit, because the teachers were not cooperating with me. And they sort of saw that other side that I had that was very like, into big performances and being in front of crowds, entertainment-wise.”
Mishuris began her career in ballroom at the age of four in Brooklyn, New York, which is where she grew up before she moved to Texas in her freshman year.
“So there was a studio nearby where I used to live,” Mishuris said. “I used to live in Brooklyn, and ballroom is very popular on the East Coast. So they found a ballroom dance studio for kids my age.”
Kings Ball was Mishuris’ first ballroom competition at the age of five in New Jersey. The competition was run and owned by her former coach who taught her the foundations of ballroom.
“My parents sort of found a studio (for ballroom) and took me there, and ever since that day, I saw the movements, the rhythm, and I just fell in love with the way it all works,” Mishuris said. “You know, the way you move your body. And just being able to be yourself on the floor and feeling yourself is what I think caught my eye. And I just continue that forever, and I’m never going to quit it or anything. It’s my favorite thing ever.”
Mishuris trained with her first ballroom coach for six years.
“I thought ballroom was a pretty big thing until I moved to Texas and I saw that there was such a thing as a drill team,” Mishuris said. “And I actually had no clue what drill team was at the time, obviously, because I was so invested in the world, in my world of ballroom.”
Mishuris joined the Prosper Talonettes drill team her junior year and was a member of the JV Eaglettes drill team her sophomore year.
“Ballroom is its own category of the way you’re disciplined to train, and the intensity levels are so much different because now that I feel like I joined this drill team and I’m comparing it to what I do now,” Mishuris said. “There’s a huge difference in techniques, discipline, and intensity.”
Although Mishuris said she enjoys drill team, ballroom is her passion that she’s dedicated her time to since she was little.
“My first competition was in Jersey with my brother, and it wasn’t anything serious,” Mishuris said. “It was just like a little kids thing. It was for fun. Got little ribbons, and we were doing that for a while. After that, my brother sort of lost the love for dance because I started going ahead of him.”
After entering the ballroom world with her brother, Mishuris then searched for potential partners to advance her level.
“So I was moving ahead of my brother. He sort of fell behind. So at that point he just lost the passion, and sort of said, ‘Yeah, this is not my thing. I’m not that creative, flexible. Let me just do something else that’s better for me.’ So he quit,” Mishuris said. “And then I said, Okay, you know what? I’m just gonna find myself a real dance fighter so I can go to these bigger competitions.”
While still in New York, Mishuris moved to a new studio once her previous coach moved to Miami, Florida.
“My new studio, Dance Passion, in Brooklyn was a lot more serious when it came to training kids,” Mishuris said. “It was, it was a little sketchy because the level that they would treat you was very ignorant. It wasn’t the greatest. So it’s like, you dance good, you dance good, you dance bad. That’s your fault. You know, they’re not gonna fix you. Everything is your problem. Everything is a responsibility.”
While also earning a variety of honors and awards, Mishuris faced challenges along the way.
“I had to go to a summer camp for this one cup, for this one studio in Jersey, and they had a week-long camp that was very intense,” Mishuris said. “I was new to it, obviously, you know, I was not that great. And I saw the way they treated the camps. And I was like, ‘Absolutely not.'”
At the camp, all attendees had to wake up at 6 a.m. to start the day with a workout, breakfast and proceed with ballroom classes throughout the day.
“They were very discouraging,” Mishuris said. “They didn’t include you in any of the activities or practices. I felt very alone because I didn’t know much people, and I remember staying in a cabin beforehand with this one girl, and she also wasn’t the greatest dancer, but we sort of bonded, and I guess she sort of helped me get through the time.”
Mishuris said her peers and her endurance are what pushed her to keep going and ultimately grow as a dancer.
“It’s also about if you have enough self respect for the talent and the hard work you have and put in enough not to let yourself be immature and you know, drown in that category,” Mishuris said. “But when it comes to me, when it comes to me being that person, I’ve actually, I’ve had a story of my experience and why I ended up, you know, having to find myself again because I’ve been in a situation where I actually drowned.”
One of the hardships Mishuris has faced is finding a trustworthy partner to compete with her throughout her career.
“I became incredibly depressed because of the case that I let myself go through,” Mishuris said. “Instead of keeping a professional status and knowing this is going nowhere but dance and there’s no potential way of turning into something more than that.”
During February 2023, Mishuris was taking online coaching with her former director to keep sharpening her ballroom technique.
“Basically, you have to keep professional, and I’ve been and after that since I was left partnerless,” Mishuris said. “So I was single doing Pro-Am for about September to February of 2023, just quite recent.”
Since Mishuris moved to Texas, she found a new partner in the summer of 2024.
“He was 17 turning 18, so obviously we have a huge age gap difference,” Mishuris said. “And, you know, it had to maintain professional, and we maintained as really good friends, and our status was all just dancers.”
Mishuris practices weekly at her studio led by Olga Elsbury.
“I think because of his age, maturity, or just the way he was raised, everything, our practices were very consistent,” Mishuris said. “And everything was very smooth.”
Now, this marks Mishuris’ 12th year in ballroom.
“You’ll see it nowadays, because, you know, everybody’s quitting, especially in high school, everybody’s either deciding they want to continue the career or they want to quit,” Mishuris said. “And a lot of girls left at a young age without partners, and they look for something more mature, and they look for better quality. A lot of girls get better at this age. They get better at a younger age than guys.”
Mishuris said she wants to continue her career into her adulthood and grow as a person and dancer in the future.
“But I believe that if you have the right technique, and you know what you’re doing, standard (ballroom) is incredibly easy because you’re not focusing on isolating so many things at once,” Mishuris said. “But on the other hand, it is harder if you really think about it, because you have to be able to isolate a lot of the things in your body separately, all in one frame without actually, you know, breaking anything.”
Mishuris has been coaching with Elsbury for three years now where she attends her weekly rehearsals.
“Sima (Simone) is an amazingly talented young lady,” Elsbury said. “I have seen an amazing growth in Sima since we have been working together for the last three years. I believe that she will become one of the greatest dancers in the future.”
Mishuris trains in all styles of ballroom in order to continue her career as a professional in the future.
“What I admire the most about Sima is her tenacity, dedication and grit for the art of ballroom dance,” Elsbury said. “We all know that it is not enough to have just a talent to be the best, but you also must be dedicated to the craft and have a work ethic as well. I believe Sima has all those qualities. Not only that, but what Sima has is also the support of her family, which is just as important. After all, it takes a village. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for her.”
