Click here for an audio slideshow about Ian Truelove.
It's early in the morning and students are just leaving for class. Some carry coffee, some wear headphones and some walk briskly while mentally preparing for their early-morning class. But just down the sidewalk a student with headphones blaring busts out dancing while moving toward his own class.
Ian Truelove, a sophomore dance major, is a student who dances to class on a regular basis. He has been taking dance technique classes at Ball State University for two years and has been dancing on his own for about five years. He said that love for the art makes him do it.
"If someone were to love football, and they could go around and play football on their way to class, wouldn't they?" Truelove said. "Or if someone loved animals, wouldn't they love it if they got to walk with alligators and zebras on their way to class? I have the option to do what I love whenever I want, so why not take advantage of it?"
There are people who like and dislike what he does. Some people have told him he can't dance and that if he keeps doing it, a car or a bike will hit him one day. Some have told him it's dumb, not knowing why he does it. But Truelove said none of this fazes him.
"Life is too short to be caring what other people think all the time," he said.
Truelove's friend Katie Dewitte, a sophomore dance major, agrees with Truelove. It is something she knows him for and something she agrees with when it comes to his movement around campus.
"I think it's really amazing," Dewitte said. "He doesn't care what other people think."
There are people who appreciate his dancing along the sidewalks at Ball State. Some students really enjoy it, saying it makes them happy to see him dance. But for Truelove, that's not what it's all about.
"Do it for yourself, and if it makes other people happy, so be it. And if it makes them mad, then I guess they'll be mad," Truelove said.
Stephanie Doub, a sophomore dance major and friend of Truelove, considers him brave for being able to do what he does across campus.
"If he's comfortable doing it, he's braver than all the rest of us dancers," Doub said. "I give him props."
Not only does he dance around campus, but also he uses dance as his "non-drug drug." When something is troubling him, he dances.
"I use a lot of dance when I need to get out certain emotions, or even under stressful situations," Truelove said.
He has developed his own dance style based on inspirations from a number of different places. Along with hip-hop inspirations like Usher and Chris Brown, and teachers at Ball State, a compliment his brother paid him when he was younger about his dancing, as well as Hok from "So You Think You Can Dance?" has pushed him in his dancing.
"[Hok's] movement is really amazing, and that really inspired me," Truelove said.
Formerly a social work major and dance performance minor as of two weeks ago, Truelove now focuses his study strictly on dance and has come to find his place at Ball State in the dance department.
"My heart wasn't in [social work], and I didn't want to waste any more time doing what I don't love," Truelove said.
Allison Florea, pre-business major, dance minor and friend of Truelove's, said switching majors was a good choice on his part, having seen the dedication he puts into his dancing and how serious he takes it.
"I think he has something special that the dance world can really feed off of," Florea said.
Doub said although Truelove is new to the technical side of dance, especially when it comes to ballet, he really has something to offer that others don't have.
"He has his own style of choreography that I don't think anyone else on this campus can master," Doub said.
His love for dance extends to specific types of dance, including hip-hop, contemporary and ballet. With hip-hop, Truelove enjoys the beats in the music and its hard, in-your-face style.
"I don't really pay attention to the lyrics," Truelove said. "I feel like the beat is going to rip out of my body, and it comes more natural to me."
He likes contemporary music because he says there are no rules, no true definition to the style — it's just whatever is going on at the moment.
"I honestly don't know what it truly is because I haven't taken any classes in it," Truelove said. "Contemporary in general means coexisting in the present."
Florea said his dancing is bound to make a wonderful career for him.
"I think that not only could he have a good career dancing, I think he has a really good chance of choreographing and having some really good pieces of his shown somewhere," Florea said.
However, Truelove holds different views toward his future. He does not necessarily think his dancing will take him to an actual place but will lead to greater things.
"Dance will make me happy, and I just need to be happy," Truelove said. "I don't know if I'll get lucky and be in a company or in a music video, or that I'll be able to choreograph something really great, but I know it'll make me happy in the long run."
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