UALR senior dance major Emily Karnes, and recent dance major graduate Anthony Bryant, won first place in the fourth annual Dancing Into Dreamland competition Nov. 15.

Karnes and Bryant danced a pas de deux titled “Undercurrents,” which was choreographed by artist-in-residence Rhythm McCarthy, a member of the UALR dance faculty for the last six years.

The couple captured the first-place win out of nine dance teams entering the competition and took home a $250 cash prize.

Friends of Dreamland, a nonprofit group committed to bringing back the music and history of the Dreamland Ballroom in downtown Little Rock, established the competition four years ago as a fundraiser.

The Dreamland Ballroom once showcased legendary musicians of the 1930s. The ballroom is on the third floor of Taborian Hall, which has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Arkansas Historic Preservation Society.

AETN filmed the event for a documentary it is producing about the ballroom, one of a few original ballrooms left in America, according to event supporters.