The Nottingham Varsity Ball was the first Inter-Varsity fixture for CUDT this term. This year, the competition underwent a number of major changes. The venue was moved to the King’s Hall, a beautiful ballroom in Stoke-on-Trent. The adjudicators were some of the most respected names in dancesport, such as Nicola Nordin, former European Professional Latin finalist, or Ryan McShane, runner-up at the British National Championship. Most significantly, for the first time there was criterion dictating a competitor’s level of entry in the competition: if an individual dancer has previously made the final at a Inter-Varsity Dance Competition (the University National Championship) in Ballroom or Latin, he/she has to enter at the next level. This rule has been the subject of an intense debate between team captains since the beginning of the academic year. The Nottingham team’s decision to enforce it generated much controversy, with several teams vocally supporting and rejecting it on social platforms. The Cambridge side has long believed that such a rule would make university dancesport competitions much fairer, and fully supported the Nottingham team of their decision.

The day began with the Open events, where couples competed for individual titles. In the Ballroom section, Cambridge couples demonstrated the impressive breadth in our team line-up, with couples making the final in almost all categories. Most notably, the Beginner Waltz and Quickstep events saw five Cambridge couples among seven finalists, and the Advanced Ballroom competition was also dominated by CUDT dancers. The Latin section immediately followed in the afternoon. Once again, Cambridge couples managed to dominate events from Beginner level (five out of six spots in the finals) to Advanced (three out of six finalists). Konstantin Wolf and Daria Dicu won the Advanced Latin trophy, their second title at an Inter-Varsity competition this year. However, there was some significant competition from other couples, such as Nottingham’s David Bateman and Lizzie Smith – a new partnership that came third and second in the two Advanced categories, or Keele’s Thomas and Helena Winter, who placed first in Advanced Ballroom and fourth in Advanced Latin.

Feeling motivated after the successful Open events, Cambridge went into the team match with energy and determination. This is the most important part of the day, where universities directly compete against each other for the overall trophy. Following the format of the National Championship team match event, each university side was divided into teams of four couples, with each couple dancing one of the dances Waltz, Quickstep, Cha-cha and Jive. Being one of the largest (and most successful) dancesport teams in the country, CUDT managed to field an impressive thirteen teams. In the Second Division, Cambridge’s J and K teams competed against many other universities’ A and B teams, managing to come third and sixth overall. In the First Division, Cambridge’s strength in depth once again brought the team complete domination with the A-D teams making the final. Our D team placed sixth and our A-C teams occupied the top three spots. Cambridge once again convincingly won the overall trophy and extended our undefeated run.

With these encouraging results, CUDT dancers eagerly look forward to Lent term’s fixtures, which include the Regional and National Championships. There will be strong opposition from universities we have yet to face this year, such as Ox***d, Cardiff or Southampton. However, we are confident that our dancers will rise to the challenge, continue to work hard and prove once again that CUDT is truly the best dancesport team in the country.