Graduate student by day, ballroom dancer by night, Jayna Enguita is waltzing her way through college while earning degrees and placing in national ballroom dance competitions.
The Frankfort native just graduated from the University of Alabama with a double major in chemical engineering and chemistry and minors in French and mathematics. In March, she competed at the gold level for the first time in the 2023 National Collegiate DanceSport Championships. Along with teammate Reed Fowler from Seattle, Washington, she earned fourth place in Collegiate Smooth, which included Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot and Viennese Waltz and also finished in fifth place in Adult Smooth. The duo also earned finalist placements in all events across four levels and American Smooth and International Latin styles.
This fall she will Hustle to West Lafayette, Indiana, to mambo her way toward a Ph.D. in chemistry at Purdue University. As for her ballroom dancing days? They’ll continue as a Boilermaker.
“Purdue has an outstanding ballroom team,” she said. “Lord willing, I’ll be a grad student by day and ballroom dancing by night.”
Enguita never envisioned herself becoming a highly successful ballroom dancing graduate student, but it’s also not a complete surprise to for her to excel in the arts either. Her background includes musical theater while attending Lincoln-Way East High School. Her passion for dance, though, truly developed after arriving arrived via a simple invite.
“I was invited to a ballroom dance class at a local church and thought it would be a good way to feed that hunger for the arts,” she said. “And the crazy thing about this particular dance is that it’s something you can do for the rest of your life. And it’s so fun. You cannot only connect with people today but it’s a good way to meet different people for the rest of your life.”
Enguita’s strong final showing at the University of Alabama followed her strong debut in 2022 when she paired with Fowler, who was just a freshman at the time. The duo ranked first in both Collegiate and Adult Bronze International Paso Doble.
They were also American Smooth finalists, earning fourth place for Waltz/Foxtrot and fifth place for Viennese Waltz, and were semifinalists in Adult International Tango and Viennese Waltz. Their American Rhythm and International Latin dancing skills resulted in third and fourth placements (Cha-Cha/Rumba, Swing, Jive, Samba) against 60-90 other couples.
“She taught me from the beginning and we were quite similar in that I saw the ballroom table during Get On Board Day (Alabama’s signature involvement fair) my freshman year and figured why not,” Fowler said. “I fell in love with it. I definitely wouldn’t be the dancer I am today if it weren’t for Jayna and her patience. She’s been a great leader for the team and was president this last year. The reason I kind of picked her as my main partner was because she’s dedicated and cares to put in the work. She’s passionate about it.”
The confidence, artistry and creativity along with the coordination, balance and stamina to perform at such a high level in such a short time is just another example of how special of a talent Enguita is regardless of what she’s doing.
“Ballroom dancing allows me to express myself in a way that is so different from my other disciplines and interests,” she said. “I enjoy dancing because each experience on the dance floor is different each time, whether it’s a competition or a social dance.”
Away from the dance floor she’s performed research investigating biomass fractionation with the goal of developing more sustainable and biodegradable packaging products by focusing on lignin recovery. That might not make sense to you, but it does to Enguita.
“I’ve been working on organic extraction techniques which have implications on sustainable packaging, she said. “Biodegradable packaging is just so much better for the environment right now.”
She knows what she’s talking about. In fact, she co-authored a manuscript detailing procedures and data from the project, years after her mother, who is a high school chemistry teacher, instilled an interest in the sciences. It’s an interest that continues to grow.
“Being surrounded by a love for science and education growing up and developing a passion for both myself, I knew I wanted to keep studying chemistry,” she said. “In high school, I realized I was pretty good at chemistry and math and thought engineering would be a good fit for me to flex my creative muscles, so I decided to major in chemical engineering.”
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Moms teach their children lots of things, but few also teach them chemistry.
“My mom has been very supportive of my doctoral pursuits,” she said. “She’s probably pleased to hear that teaching me polyatomic ions at age 10 paid off. I truly do have her to thank for my love of science. Without her influence I probably would have chosen a very different career path.”
She may have never become a ballroom dancer.
So, she can thank her mom for that, too. Just in time for Mother’s Day.
C.R. Walker is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.