Lent term is the arguably the most intensive but also most important term in the competitive season for CUDT. The team will attend three matches: starting with the Sheffield Social, held on February 6th at the Octagon Centre, University of Sheffield, followed by the Southern Universities Dancesport Competition (SUDC), on February 13th at the Talybont Sports Centre, University of Cardiff. The season culminates with the Inter-Varsity Dance Competition (the Nationals), on February 27th at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

The results so far have been encouraging. CUDT dancers delivered some incredible performances at the Sheffield Social. The day started with the open sections: competitions where dancers from each university compete for their own titles, in both ballroom and latin. Cambridge’s excellent standard of coaching means that the team has representation in almost all of the finals from Beginner to Advanced level. In some events, the majority of finalists were from Cambridge: five out of seven in the Beginners’ Waltz and six out of seven in the Advanced Latin. Cambridge dancers took home the most coveted prizes in the open events: Bence Börcsök and Valeriya Malenko won the Advanced Ballroom event, while Kien Trinh and Kirsty Davies took home the Advanced Latin trophy.

Encouraged by this excellent set of results, the team entered the final, but most important, part of the day: the Team Match. A unique feature of the Sheffield Social is the Knock-out Match. As the name suggests, university teams face each other by a random draw. Three dances are called at random and each team has five seconds to put one couple on the floor to ‘dance off’ against each other. The team that wins at least two out of the three dances will progress to the next round. Since a team cannot use a couple more than once unless they have used up all of their dancers, the coaches and captains must make their decisions tactically to ensure that they win the match but also preserve their strength for subsequent rounds. An intense three-way final between Cambridge, Imperial and Birmingham saw the Light Blues triumphant, taking home the Knock-out Trophy.

The final competition of the day was the regular Team Match: each university enters teams of four couples, each to compete in one of the four team dances: Waltz, Quickstep, Cha-cha and Jive. Cambridge once again proved its dominance on the university dancesport circuit by having four teams (out of six) in the final. The final line-up was: Cambridge A, Cambridge B, Imperial A, Cambridge C, Oxford A, Cambridge D. CUDT deservedly took home the ‘A Team’ Trophy, completing a clean sweep at Sheffield.

One week later, CUDT once again takes on the dance floor at SUDC – the Regionals. The team has unfortunately saw a number of injuries which prevented a few dancers from taking part. On the other hand, other teams have brought in some very strong dancers. The Oxford team arrived at SUDC with a completely different (and significantly stronger) A team compared to the week before. CUDT faced a tough day ahead. Cambridge dancers rose to the challenge and proved once more why CUDT has remained undefeated since 2012. In the open sections, the majority of finalists from Beginners to Advanced level were, once again, from Cambridge. Highlights of the open events included Harry Kingdon and Abi Malins deservedly winning the Best Beginner Couple trophy and Lawrence Alexander and Chantelle Caines taking home the Most Promising Newcomer title – as chosen by the Chairman of the Adjudicators. Philipp Verpoort and Caitlin Duschenes won the Novice Ballroom title, Michael Ha and Maria Ouvarova took home the Intermediate Latin trophy while Cat Lyon and Kate Elliott were the Same Sex Ballroom winners.

The Team Match section of the day saw a new addition to SUDC 2016: the Beginners’ Team Match. Following the same format as the regular event, it saw universities entering teams of four Beginner couple to dance one of the Waltz, Quickstep, Cha-cha or Jive. Cambridge beginners proved their strength by winning all four dances to take home the title. In the main Team Match, Cambridge faced significantly stronger opposition from other universities, including Oxford, Cardiff and Bristol. It is during difficult times like this that CUDT dancers join together and outperform themselves. The heroes of the day were Bence Börcsök and Jodie Chalmers – two of Cambridge’s top dancers – who put together a Waltz routine at two days’ notice when both of their partners could no longer compete at SUDC, and delivered a stellar performance for the Cambridge A team. They managed to beat several couples with months (and in some cases, years) of dancing together, to come second in the Waltz Team Match. Cambridge A narrowly beat Oxford A and the final team line-up was Cambridge A, Oxford A, Cambridge B, Cardiff A, Bristol A, Oxford B. CUDT once again took home the A, B, C, D and Overall Team Trophies, extending its undefeated string.

CUDT now looks towards the biggest event of the year: the all important IVDC on February 27th. Cambridge has every chance of winning its fifth consecutive National title, but only if every dancer continues to train hard and keep their focus in this crucial two week window.