DanceTalk

Martin & Carol Cutler Competition; 14th March, New Bingley Hall Birmingham

They sad bad luck goes in three’s but although Martin had to deal with a last minute change of venue, the sad fact that the demonstration could not go ahead in the evening and a floor which decided to come apart during the senior events, this was the best comp so far of the 2009 season.

It was very busy but due to the expansive size of the venue at the New Bingley Hall you could walk, watch, breath and even practice without fear of banging into someone. This was a great venue and an even greater comp. The New Bingley had an added bonus of free parking and plenty of it.The only disappointment was the sad fact that Christopher Hawkins was unable to do the demonstration in the evening due to events beyond his control but this did not stop the spectators piling in to watch the top amateur Ballroom and Latin couples from our great country. Apart from a couple of obvious absentees in both events, they were brimming with the best of English dancing and I for one was in awe of their standard and ability.

Thank you to Martin, Carol and all the dancers for making it such a great day.

Next year I would love to see Martin hold a comp with EADA events in all grades. It would be phenomenal.

Also thanks to the judges who gave us the best finals ever.

Sarah Rarity

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Lou (Ellejay_UK) and Ed taken by Nicholas Reed

Most ballroom and latin dancers have heard of the open circuit, and many have at some stage competed on the medals circuit or at least been involved in medal schools. However, there is another thriving dance circuit in Britain which is made up entirely of university dancers.

The university circuit is a series of competitions run across the academic year between November and April/May, which are organised and hosted by the many university dance societies. The competitions vary in size from the small to the huge. University competitions are very different to open circuit competitions: they are much noisier as everyone yells, cheers, claps and whoops for their couples and usually anyone else you happen to know even if they are from a different university. They can also be long lasting and contain fun competitions (silly/party dances), general social dancing, demonstrations and general partying.

The largest competition each year is the Inter Varsity Dance Competition (IVDC) which brings together all the affiliated universities in the country to Blackpool for a day of competitions at every level.  This year, the IVDC was held at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on 28th February. Over 1000 competitors from 29 universities took part. This year the competition was co-hosted by Nottingham University and the Featherwaits who ran a really well organised day. The day started at the unearthly hour of 8.30 am (particularly for those of us who had been out on the town in Blackpool just a few hours previously!) when doors opened and the competitors had one hour to dress and practice before the first round at 9.30 am.

At 9.30 am beginners’ ballroom started. This year there were 185 beginner couples taking part and 10 heats later all couples had danced their opening waltz on the famous floor of the Empress Ballroom. At this point, all the beginners, along with various team captains, parents, friends and spectators decamped to the Pavilion where a second floor had been set up. From this point onwards, the competition was run in parallel with novices, intermediates, advanced and ex-students dancing their ballroom on the main Empress Ballroom floor and the beginners dancing their waltz and quickstep in the Pavilion. At the quarter final stage, the beginners rejoined the main competition to allow all the quarters, semis and finals to be danced on the main floor. This year there was a very high standard across all categories and the usual shock results found at every competition.

After the ballroom came the offbeat section. The offbeat competition allows ballroom and latin dancers to showcase other dance styles. This year there were six entries from Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Warwick, Cardiff and London. This year Warwick won.  The dances varied widely with numbers from musicals Chicago and Dreamgirls, to Cardiff’s mix of street dance and ballet to Timbaland’s Apologize.

Following Offbeat was the latin section. As for the ballroom, the beginners danced their first round of cha-cha on the main floor before moving to the Pavilion for the remainder of the latin up to the quarter final stage, whilst the remaining competitors danced on the main floor. Like ballroom, the standard across all the categories was very high and the finals were very exciting with lots of fantastic dancing on show.
The rock and roll followed the latin. Both acrobatic and non-acrobatic styles can be danced and the numbers meant that both styles were combined into a single competition. Five incredibly energetic rounds of rock and roll followed leaving the final 6 couples to fight it out. Five of the couples in the final came from the Cambridge rock and roll team, and the sixth couple came from Southampton. Southampton went on to win it, in a fantastic result for Southampton who haven’t fielded rock and roll competitors for several years.

A feature of university competitions is the team match pitting university against university in a fight to win the overall title. This is preceded by the team walk on where the team captains from each university walk on and round the room waving their banners and mascots to riotous cheering from all the competitors.  Despite the competition already being in its tenth hour, the university team match was enthusiastically danced in two divisions allowing teams of similar standard to dance against each other. A welcome break came in the middle as the team match was suspended to allow a demonstration by professional ballroom dancers Craig Shaw and Natasha Manderson.

The competition was completed with the prize presentations and followed with a half hour disco and general party at the venue, followed by many university teams continuing to party long into the night in their hotels and at various Blackpool nightspots.

This year was the biggest IVDC yet and filled with fantastic dancing, brilliant team spirit and a real sense of the camaraderie and fun of competing on the university circuit. Look out for a university competition near you and see for yourself how much fun university students have with their dancing.”

Jenny

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