The Nottingham Varsity Ball, on Sunday the 25th November, was the first Inter-Varsity competition for CUDT of the year. After just six weeks of intense choreography learning and training, established couples, new partnerships and even those completely new to Dancesport were competing against other universities. With over 13 other universities in attendance, it was to be a long and testing day for each of CUDT’s competitors.

After leaving Cambridge at 5 am and arriving at the venue without any problems, the day began with the beginner’s categories. Not one tired face was spotted in the dance floor and the beginners clearly heated up the crowds. In the Ballroom section, Cambridge couples demonstrated the impressive breadth in our team line-up, with couples from all three teams (beginners, second and first team) making the final in nearly all categories except two. Cambridge had one couple in each Novice 1 and 2 final. In the same-sex ballroom competition, Cambridge placed fourth. The intermediate final saw two Cambridge couples among six finalists. In the Advanced category, Cambridge dominated the final with four out of seven couples.

In the afternoon, the beginners team rocked the Latin competitions and at least one beginners’ couple competed in the finals. The Novice 2 category was finished with strong third place by Cambridge. The same-sex category also saw one Cambridge couple in the final placing sixth. Moving on to the Intermediate competition, Cambridge moved with three out of six couples into the final placing second, third and sixth. Even in Advanced, Cambridge again had three out of six couples in the final placing third to fifth.

After the individual competitions, the day ended with the team match. 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 team of four couples, with each couple dancing one of the dances Waltz, Quickstep. Cha-cha ad Jive. Being one of the largest Dancesport teams in the country, CUDT managed to field six teams and all of them landed in the Division 1 team match category where they faced a fierce competition after a long and exhausting day. However, each and every dancer upped their game for the team and danced their shoes off. Cambridge C placed fifth, Cambridge B third, and Cambridge A second with Imperial A winning the team match.

In the next few months, we will continue to train hard and face strong opposition from Imperial, as well as from the universities we have yet to face in full strength. We are confident that our dancers will rise to the challenge and continue to work hard.