University Report
The Winter Gardens Blackpool provided the backdrop for the 43rd annual Inter Varsity Dance Competition on Saturday 12th March. An impressive 700 competitors representing 25 universities made this the largest event ever.

The long day started at 9 o'clock with the offbeat section which saw teams of dancers compete against each other in a varied mixture of Disco jazz and Street Dance. Well done to the team from City of London for their win.

The Standard section followed with around 350 couples taking part. The Beginners and Novices saw the largest entries with over 100 each. The Intermediate entry was only slightly smaller with the Advanced class and ex Students also well supported. It was an excellent turn out and there was so much enthusiasm especially from the beginners and novices many of whom had no or very little dancing experience before going to University.

After a short break, the Latin followed with just as many entries and even more enthusiasm! It was also great to see the support the dancers got from their team mates throughout the competition which certainly added to the atmosphere. Another short break was followed by a Rock & Roll competition that provided a lot of entertainment and proved very popular.

The evening session was taken up by the Team Match. This was a really impressive event with 64 teams of 4 taking part {each university was allowed to enter up to 4 teams} for the EADA Division One and Division Two Trophies

The first round saw each team dance one couple in each of Waltz,Q/S,Cha Cha and Jive. The collective scores for each team were added together then the teams split into Two divisions with the top 32 teams dancing Div one and the rest in div two. The teams then danced in their divisions until we were left with six teams in each to dance their respective finals.

While we all waited for the results we were treated to an excellent demo from Mathew Cutler and Charlotte Egstrand.

We would like to say well done to everyone who took part and also say that it was great to see a number of competitors from the open circuit representing their universities. As EADA is working with IVDA on ways to encourage links and to keep students dancing after they leave University, this is something that we would recommend to all of you who are about to go to Uni, check if they have a dance team registered with IVDA. If not you could start one! The camaraderie and enthusiasm is there to be absorbed and you will enjoy the experience. If you want to know more about this event or IVDA you can find them at UniversityDanceport.com

The Team results can be seen below for all other results visit www.universitydancesport.com
EADA Division one trophy
1) Bristol A 2) Oxford A 3) Oxford B
4) Cambridge A 5) Imperial College London 6) Cambridge B
EADA Division two trophy
1) Surrey A 2)Bath B 3)Leicester A
4) Warwick B 5) Leeds B 6) Hull A

It was a busy day for the hard working IVDA organising committee led by president Rachelle Stretch and Tina and I would like to thank them for inviting us and taking the time to make us feel welcome!

Submitted by Steve Holes 28 March 2005