DanceTalk

Empress Ballroom, Winter Gardens, Blackpool

I watched through my hotel window, eating my lovely Blackpool fry up, as hoards of students streamed along the roads towards the Winter Gardens. In the early morning half-hearted drizzle, wearing fleeces and hoodies with university names on the back, you could almost see the excitement emanating from them. Many of the girls were already in full competition make-up and most were carrying assorted bags and covered clothes hangers full of costumes. It was the biggest competition on the university circuit, the culmination of a year of effort and hard work. The Inter Varsity Dance Competition 2012, this year the 50th anniversary of competitive dance between the universities, was about to begin!

Dancing in the evening was to be to the Empress Orchestra. There was to be a team of 12 adjudicators chaired by Alan Grassby. Two ballrooms would be in use, the Spanish Hall and the famous Empress Ballroom, to accommodate the large number of entries the event attracts.

After my yummy breakfast I walked over the road to the Winter Gardens, feeling a momentary nostalgia for the days of attempting to keep small boys looking clean and smart on this very route, to discover the competition in full swing. In the Empress Ballroom the ground floor was seething with dancers as heat after heat of novices took to the floor, the balconies full of excited parents, relatives and friends shouting, cheering, and clicking away on cameras. The music was playing, students were quick-stepping and the atmosphere was electric. Names and numbers were being shouted out and I knew we were in for a long day of ups and downs, emotionally and physically demanding for competitors and supporters alike. I settled in the Balcony.

The competitions passed so very quickly, time going by at a faster rate than usual as it does when you are engrossed in an event and the ballroom finals crept up on me. Though we were not to discover the results till late in the evening it was obvious some of the competitions would be very difficult to determine. I am full of admiration for those judges who must on occasions have had some very difficult calls to make throughout the day, and there were inevitably to be some disappointed students alongside those who were delighted with their success. With over 1 000 dancers competing it is not surprising that results do not always turn out as anticipated.

Those couples who danced in the finals for beginners and novice should be proud of themselves, amongst the huge number of entries they did very well to get there. The intermediate ballroom 3 dance final showed dancers with a lot of promise and I do hope they all continue to dance for many years to come. 1st were Josheph Roffey & Halliki Voolma for Cambridge 2nd Antony Dauppe and Rachel White for Imperial, and I was pleased to see Bristol’s Darren Whitby and Catherine Vick who`s dancing I have watched from the very early stages, come 3rd giving the other finalists a stiff competition.

The advanced 4 dance final was, of course, a joy to watch. I don`t think anyone doubted who the winner would be with Kyle Taylor & Polina Shklyaeva competing for Liverpool 1st place was almost a given, and their dancing was a treat to watch. The other finalist’s non-the-less all danced their hearts out and presented us with some superb dancing. A well fought competition ended with Ian Preston & Charmaine Yap taking 2nd for the Featherwaites, Sam Redfern and Katie Murray 3rd place for Nottingham and Alex Robinson and Kirsty Sahota, 4th for Southampton.

The ballroom 5 dance (ex-student above novice – for those who have continued to dance beyond university), can be an intimidating competition for some as it contains a wide range of ability not just those who competed in the advanced 4 dance. The quality of dancing in this event throughout the day really did show just how much dancers can continue to improve even with the commitment of full time, often demanding jobs. 1st place went to Craig Jones & Jennifer Riley for Liverpool, 2nd to John Sinclair & Denise Brocklebank for Oxford and 3rd to Tibor Poc & Hilary Mouat for Edinburgh.

It was then time for the offbeat and I managed to watch all but the last presentation by Kent as I had to dash off to the Spanish Hall. Durham’s ‘Ex-terrestrial’ was well rehearsed with sharp well synchronised movements and Warwick the ‘Toys are back In Town’ was clever and entertaining. Leeds demonstrated some good street style dancing and it was a nice change in tempo.

Over in the Spanish hall the big guns of Latin were warming up and I sat with great anticipation and enjoyment to watch the advanced 4 dancers and ex-student 5 dancers stretch their muscles and demonstrate all the dances. It’s a lovely room for Latin dance competitions with atmospheric Spanish themed tromp l’oeil on the wall setting the scene well. I`d like to say I watched all the competitors with equal interest, but I`m a Mum and my middle son was on the floor. Put yourself in my shoes, who do you watch most closely?

Half an hour later and it was back to the Empress Ballroom with barely a moment to grab a bite to eat, more dancing to watch and then the much anticipated latin finals. I loved watching the enthusiasm of the Latin beginners and noted the improvement in dancing showed by those, in their second year or more of dancing, in the novice competition. The intermediates again gave us some very good dancing with Aldo Gordani & Julia Zimmermann taking 1st for Imperial, Jonathan Bourg and Catrinel Danauta taking 2nd place for Southampton and Josheph & Halliki, for Cambridge taking 3rd demonstrating their versatility as dancers following their earlier victory in the ballroom.

The advanced 4 dance was the last final to take place, and again I don`t think anyone had doubted but that Kyle and Polina would take the honours for Liverpool. I thoroughly enjoyed all the dancing in this tough final with Peter Kecskemethy & Janet Gooi of Oxford taking 2nd place and Alex & Kirsty 3rd for Southampton. I was disappointed that Patrick and Sonia from Bristol did not make the final, being a particular fan of theirs, but that’s dance competitions for you and like most enthusiastic amateur spectators I don`t always agree with the judges on every call.

The ex-student 5 dance final was, of course, the one I watched with the greatest excitement and it was with mixed emotions I later waited for the results. Any parent will know the particular feeling of heartfelt anxiety and anticipation which accompanies the wait during the results announcements. My enjoyment of the day was complete, when my son Andrew and his lovely partner of 4 years Sarah Buckley took 1st place. David Tan & Olesya Nikiforova took 2nd for Oxford, Tibor Poc & Hilary Mouat, 3rd for Edinburgh and Keneith Yong & Sarah Farrell 4th.

Whilst I missed most of the following rock and roll competition, the glimpse I caught of the acrobatic section leads me to believe I would have watched most of it anticipating broken limbs all over the place. That this did not happen demonstrates the skill with which it must have been enacted! I’m still not sure I really think of it as dancing, but it’s certainly entertaining and exciting.

Well done to everyone who danced in the competitions throughout the day, you all provided terrific entertainment, super dancing and amusing moments. Amusing highlights included the two couples in the novice jive who from the balcony looked to have swapped partners at one point and looked momentarily confused enough for that to have been the case. Clothing highlights, well the honours there must go to, Royal Holloways ‘natty’ offbeat sailors. Dancing highlights, the super dancing from all the couples I`ve mentioned in the finals results above, and indeed moments from many of the other dancers at all levels.

The evening was to be dedicated to the Team Matches and the demonstration. The team walk on and the qualifier round, where it is determined which teams will dance in division 1 and which teams in division 2, took us up to the ballroom demonstration by Craig Shaw and Evgeniya Sutyaginska. Their foxtrot to a rumba was interesting and the clever mini-comp organised by Craig whilst his partner was changing costumes was a novel interlude. Two ladies and two men were chosen from 4 random universities, partnered, and then the lady had to lead and the man had to follow. I thought both couples did amazingly well and it was a delightful break from the serious events.

The team matches then began in earnest, with one partnership of the 4 couple team doing waltz, one couple quickstep, one couple cha cha cha and one couple jive. The volume of shouting and cheering was deafening and as always it is great to see so many young people enthusiastically enjoying dancesport both as participants and supporters.

I have no idea how all the results of the evening matches are composed so quickly but shortly after 11pm presentations were made and we discovered who had won what and who had been placed where. Nail biting moments for all those concerned! I am afraid I have no idea how they work out who won what, where the university placings are concerned, I probably should after 5 years of spectating but I always seem to be so exhausted by this point that both ears and brain cease working! It seemed to me that Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool, Imperial College and Bristol got mentioned quite a lot! Leeds and Royal Holloway also seemed to get mentioned, all the university teams are wonderful as far as I`m concerned, and the results in full are all at http://www.scrutelle.info/results/estelle/2012/120303_ivdc/index.htm

All the Team Captains, Coaches, and other officials that work together to get all the students to Blackpool do a very good job, as do all those involved in making the huge event that the IVDC has become into a successful and well organised day. It was lovely to see some of that hard work acknowledged when a number of the team coaches were given official recognition during an awards ceremony. Amongst those honoured were the Oxford coach Bruce, and Bristol coach Diane, who have given around 30 years or more of time and dedication if I heard correctly.

Of all the competitions I have attended in about a decade and a half, from open championships, EADA selection events, medallist competitions and team matches, none come close to creating the level of enthusiasm and support demonstrated by spectators at IVDC. If you’ve never been to watch, and you get the chance…. GO!

Debbie Duke

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This year SUDC was held at the leisure centre in Bath, a super venue in terms of the size of floor space (a large sports hall) but sadly car parking was scarce and expensive with an automatic £25 fine for going over 4 hours. There was no café, just vending machines which again proved pricey at £1.20 for teas or coffees. Toilet facilities indicated for use by SUDC attendees were insufficient though separate changing rooms helped somewhat and fortunately there were other facilities elsewhere in the complex if you had time to go and find them.

Despite the few, almost inevitable, negatives it was good day, though some results ran country to expectations. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending upon expectation but it certainly shakes away any complacency that may have set in! It was a busy well attended competition with all competitors’ intent on honing their performances for the main event of the season at Blackpool in a couple of weeks. The judges had tough decisions to make and worked hard all day with few breaks.

Beginners and Novice ballroom occupied much of the morning, with the first round of intermediates taking place shortly before lunch. This was danced with flair, enthusiasm and speed. Good floor craft is often difficult at this stage and there were the almost inevitable incidents when couples collided. I was very pleased, however, to note that apologies were made and no one, on this occasion, sustained any serious injury. The advanced ballroom was a real pleasure to watch.

There was a noticeable difference in floor craft ability at this level and some almost collisions in the quickstep were seamlessly and neatly avoided. I do hope judges give extra marks for this kind of skill. The eventual winners fought off some tough competition and deserved their result. Ex- student also demonstrated some good dancing and it is nice to see couples continuing after university. Well done in particular to those who had not competed much above novice but who have improved so much over the last year and had to dance against very much more experienced competitors.

The early Latin rounds of beginners and novice seemed to progress more rapidly than the morning ballroom sessions had but maybe I was just more caught up in the atmosphere and enthusiasm. The first round of intermediate was upon us almost before I realised it. In this event throughout the rounds I noticed particularly the difference in the way couples could interpret the music especially in the rumba. One or two really understood the concept and that made a huge difference to my enjoyment of the dance. In the advanced Latin there was generally less obvious differences in respect of musicality and all the couples demonstrated skill and understanding of the dances. It was good to watch!

Those couples who made the final all had tremendous ability, I particularly liked Patrick and Sonia’s jive and it must have been jolly difficult to place the couples! I enjoyed the ex-student Latin in particular, but then I must admit to being biased! When Andy and Sarah won, it made my day. As a parent you feel the years of commitment have been so worthwhile when you see your offspring succeeding, the demonstration by Neil and Ekaterina was yet again amazing.

Although it’s not long since I watched a demo by then I remained entranced the whole time. Neil announced that he had (on Valentine’s Day) asked Ekaterina to marry him and that she had accepted. The audience was of course, ecstatic We had to depart before the team match but I left really looking forward to the IVDC at Blackpool. Thank you to all those who organised the day, you did a good job.

Debbie Duke

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It was fairly noisy as we walked in through the doors of the Tower Ballroom having paid a very reasonable £4 for entry and I was immediately in the right mood for a dance event. The venue, a proper ballroom, is a treat in this day and age when so many events are in sports halls. Competitive ballroom dancing may be called dancesport but to my mind it is always so much nicer when in a ballroom rather that a sports hall, it adds so much to the atmosphere and entertainment value for a spectator.

There were a large number of competitors at all levels, up considerably in most categories I would think from last year, and the compare, Martin Cutler, did a good job marshalling all entrants and keeping the competitions running smoothly and on time. Judges for the day, Ken Day, Peter Nash, Carol Perry, Adrian Pritchard and Duncan Trevor, Martin Cutler (non-voting chairman).

By the time we`d found seats, comfy ones around a large table with a good view of the floor, and purchased the much needed coffees, it was time for intermediate ballroom. There was a huge variation in standard amongst the dancers on the floor and whilst, as is often the case where subjectivity is an element of judging, I did not always see why some couples had made the next round and others had not but those who made the final danced really well and undoubtedly deserved to be there. It was good that there were several rounds as it meant many dancers were not just out on the floor once. It was interesting to note how generous students are in their support of fellow dancers, not only of couples from their own university, but of couples from other universities too. It makes a great atmosphere.

The advanced ballroom and the ex-student ballroom followed intermediates and gave us some really good dancing. However with only one category for ex-student it was very tough on those who may have only competed in novice whist students to be up against advanced dancers. All those who danced really went for it though, well done to them all! Advanced was won by Oliver & Haibo for Oxford and ex student by John and Danise, also Oxford.

The Warwick Challenge run in the middle of the day consisted of foxtrot, tango, rumba and samba. Four dances not in the main team match and therefore giving dancers the chance to shine in a different speciality. Again the comp was well managed and demonstrated some very good dancing, with Warwick taking the honours.

This was followed by the Latin events with a large number of beginner/novice couples choosing to dance in red and black. From a layman’s perspective it seemed hard to differentiate couples, and although I`m sure the experienced eyes of the judges did not have a problem, it certainly brings home the concept that what you wear does matter. If only to avoid merging into the mass!

Beginners that I`d watched at Nottingham looked that bit more confident and a number of notably extrovert characters did particularly well. The novices were obviously getting much more into the swing of. Those who made finals deserved their places but I would not have liked to choose the finalist’s as many in both categories deserved recognition.

Intermediate Latin then demonstrated the next big step up, with freedom from the restricted choreography of the preceding events, some very good dancing culminated in an exciting final. Spectators were really finding their voices by this point and cheering all dancers on with great enthusiasm.

The advanced Latin won by Raymond Liu & Eva Lisicanova from Imperial was a treat to watch and I particularly enjoyed watching Patrick and Sonia from Bristol, not that I am ever biased of course! Ex-student honours were taken by Laurie Young & Larissa Matsuk from London.

Sadly we had to leave at that point to make our weary way home but I gather the team match made for a very exciting end to the day and I very much look forward to the next Uni comp I will be attending. Well done to everyone who competed and well done to the organisers for a very well-run day.

Author: Debbie Duke

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We arrived, after a long and foggy drive, just in time for the intermediate ballroom. I confess to being a little confused at first as to what level I was actually watching as there was such a huge variation in standard. However there was no variation in the level of enjoyment, each and every couple was obviously having a lot of fun!

It is still early in the year and it was apparent in the intermediate ballroom that there were couples new to each other, couples new to this level and well established, experienced couples all dancing in the same competition. The cut in numbers through to the next round seemed rather harsh and I would have liked an additional round in place to give some of the less experienced dancers a bit more encouragement and chance to dance again, at this point I`d better  confess to a personal interest in this particular comp though and am therefore not unbiased in my opinion! However as university competitions seem to be gaining in popularity year on year the pressure of numbers from beginners and novice entries seems to impact particularly heavily on the amount of time available for intermediate rounds. Well done to those dancers who made the final, the standard was high!

The advanced ballroom was lovely to watch with Sam and Katie taking the honours for the home team. For the first time I was able to really watch all the advanced dancers in a relaxed frame of mind as I did not have a personal interest and I thoroughly enjoyed being entertained without suffering any of the usual associated angst!

After a short break it was time for the Latin section and watching this years beginners I think next years novices will very good! I was struck by how much more extrovert many beginner dancers are now compared to just 5 years ago. There seems to be a huge willingness to just ‘go for it’ and leave inhibition at the side of the floor. I wonder if many of the students have been listening to the judges’ comments on Strictly?

The overall dancing in Novice was also good and again this early in the season you could see lots of potential coupled with inexperience. As students are only permitted to dance beginners for one year the novice category always seems to have a large variation in ability. From those dancers with a couple of seasons under their belts who with the confidence and choreography could easily hold their own in intermediate to those newly up from beginners.

I would really make the same comments about the intermediate Latin as the ballroom and I did particularly enjoy the final. There is some very good dancing emerging as the standard gets better and better each season.

In the advanced Latin there were sadly only two couples. I would have liked to see some of the intermediates dancing in this comp and it is a shame when lack of confidence seems to hold dancers back. However, winners Alex and Kirsty (Southampton), and Raymond and Eva (Imperial) treated us to some lovely dancing. I`d guess the judges had a tough decision to make, both couples danced really well with differing strengths and styles.

Next came the demonstration and I was pleased that for once the demo was early, when a comp is on a Sunday not everyone can stay till late evening. Neil and Ekaterina fresh from winning at the Nationals and en-route to Hong Kong entertained us with a superb show. I can truly say I have never enjoyed a demo so much! I loved the humour, the story telling, the choice of music and, well, everything about it really, my only complaint? I wanted it to go on for longer!!!

Next came the rock and roll section and at uni comps it always confuses me. I am used to the style and technique displayed by dancers at ISTD competitions so feel completely out of my depth when watching dancing which seems to bear little resemblance to that which I expect. However, a couple of girls in purple tops caught my eye and all the competitors very obviously enjoyed themselves.

The Salsa competition was good to watch with a huge range of styles and abilities. I loved the fact that dancers from all levels in the main comps were all competing together and having fun.

Sadly at that point we had to depart and I did not get to watch the team match. The spectator volume was already cranking up as we left and I would guess it was a loud, enjoyable evening. Oxford apparently took the honours and as I was there that day as an Oxford supporter I was jolly pleased. The icing on the cake? We won first prize in the raffle!

Well done and thank you to everyone involved in organising the day!

Debbie Duke

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