The 54th Inter-Varsity Dance Competition (IVDC) – the National Championship of the student dancesport circuit – took place at the legendary Winter Gardens in Blackpool on February 27th, 2016. Cambridge arrived as the reigning champions, having been undefeated since 2012. The team was anticipating some very strong competitions this year, but after months of training, CUDT dancers are up for the challenge ahead.

The morning began with the Ballroom opens section, where couples compete for individual titles. Cambridge beginners made a great start of the day for the team, occupying the top three places in both the Waltz and the Quickstep competition. In the Novice category, Zoltan Szenczi and Natalia Skorupska came 5th out of 170 couples. Thomas Nelson and Rebecca Lees made the Intermediate final and in the same sex category, a relatively new event that was only introduced in 2015, Catherine Lyon and Kate Elliott came sixth. Cambridge had two representatives in the Advanced Ballroom final: Captain Kien Trinh and his partner Kirsty Mary Davies came fourth while CUDT alumni Filip Bar and Yasmine Young became the top ballroom student couple in the country.

As the competition progressed to the Latin section, Cambridge results improved further as this is where the team’s strength has traditionally been. CUDT beginners continued to dominate their events with Harry Kingdon and Abi Malins winning the Cha-cha and Sam Rowe and Chaka Laguerre taking home the Jive trophy. The Intermediate competition saw four Cambridge partnerships making the seven-couple final, with Michael Ha and Maria Ouvarova placing first. Kien Trinh and Kirsty Mary Davies together with Luke White and Chi-Hé Elder represented CUDT in the Advanced Latin final, coming fourth and sixth in the final placings.

The evening session was the most important part of the day for Cambridge with the Team Match events. Each university were allowed to enter up to six teams (called teams A-F) of four couples dancing the Waltz, Quickstep, Cha-cha and Jive. Cambridge has always prided itself on the strength in depth of the team line-up. This element has been crucial in the team’s success in recent years. All six Cambridge teams effortlessly made the First Division in the Team Match, ahead of several other universities’ A teams. Cambridge A,B,C & D made the top twelve and our A & B teams were safely in the final. This last battle was by far the toughest one the team has faced yet – Oxford has managed to produce a very strong A team with very strong Advanced level couples. The team danced their absolute best and managed to narrowly edged ahead of its rival to once again become the best Dancesport team in the country, winning by a slim margin of 1.5 points. The placings in the final were: Cambridge A, Oxford A, Cambridge B, Cardiff A, Nottingham A, Imperial A. Cambridge completed a clean sweep of the Team Match trophies, winning the Best Beginners’ Team, A, B, C, D, E, F and Overall trophies.

This is the team’s 15th National title since the competition began in 1963 and the fifth consecutive year that CUDT has been the top dancesport team in the country. This result was achieved through months of relentless hard work that each team member has put in, together with our unparalleled team spirit that CUDT has long been known for. The team now looks forward to its final battle of the year – the Varsity Match against Oxford on May 14th.