Once Upon A Time...

Once Upon a Time, 

in a land far, far away, there was a Ballroom Social. Messengers went from city to city, house to house, making this event known to all as a mystical gathering of fairy-tale characters who came from far and wide for an evening of merriment.

With the stage set, castle in the background and all, the dancing began in earnest. Esmerelda met the Cheshire Cat, Aladdin introduced himself to Sleeping Beauty, a passing pirate danced with Batman and a local piper displayed a magnificent sokkie whenever he could. While these events of legend continued, a story-book was set up next to the sound system and the tale of the Once Upon a Time social was written by those characters passing by.

As the evening drew to a close, and the dancers faded away back to their day-to-day lives, a final piece of magic was worked by the dedicated Comm. to turn Bryce's vision back into Molly Blackburn Hall.

This fairy-tale was a splendid way to lead up to the Formal, and what a wondrous social it was - The End.

Written by Peter Beare

PR Manager 2013

Photos by Anton Moisey

UCT Ballroom and Latin Dancing Society Takes Gold!

a U! a U! a UCT!!!!!!! THE WINNING TEAM!

Intervarsity (the annual South African National Student Ballroom and Latin-American Dance Competition - ooh, how fancy it sounds!) is always the biggest event of the year for UCT Ballroom and Latin Dancing Society. This year, the competition was hosted by Tuks on Saturday 11 August. After six months of training (and only six months of dancing for the beginners), the team of 70 dancers hopped onto an Intercape Sleepliner (aah comfy!), singing cheers, eating junk food and watching dancing movies. After over twenty hours of bus games and bonding, we collapsed onto our beds in Pretoria on Friday night for an hour or two before the social.

Dominic Nunes and Wendy Stephenson waltz
 to victory in the Silver Ballroom Section

Tuks' theme for Intervarsity was "The Phantom of the Opera" and their 'black and white' social was in keeping with the theme when each dancer was given a mask. These masks were used as an ice breaker game - "ladies ask a man from a different university, with a mask that is a different colour from yours, for a jive", although peripheral vision is somewhat skewed when wearing a mask, as we learnt, and so is finding people...The social was thoroughly enjoyable and served as a way for the dancers from the different universities to meet, assess the competition and to get in some last minute practise.

Angela Boroughs and Vaughan Moss
doing a 'surprise Tango'

When Saturday morning arrived, despite our fatigue, we were ready to dance our hearts out to maintain our title as the winning university (15 out of 21 competitions!). UCT competed in 23 sections, including Beginners’ to Novice-level Ballroom and Latin, Viennese Waltz, Sokkie, Paso Doblé, Mambo, Boogie, Same-Sex Cha-cha (oh the outfits!) and a 'surprise Tango' in which the gentlemen were blindfolded. UCT also competed in the Formation and Team Dance Sections. The Formation Dance is a choreographed group dance, while the Team Dance is an event in which each university enters eight couples who each perform a different dance, but are scored as a team. This year's UCT formation dance was a Paso Doblé-based Latin combination dance to the music of Georges Bizet's Carmen. UCT came third for Formation with Maties taking second place and Tuks in well-deserved first.

UCT's Formation Group Dance - A Paso Doblé

Despite the fierce competition from Stellenbosch, Tuks, NMMU, NWU, Rhodes and Wits, UCT won 21 medals – 9 Gold, 7 Silver and 5 Bronze. UCT also waltzed off with the Team Dance Shield, the Spirit Trophy and the Overall Trophy, winning the competition with 140 points, with Maties achieving second place (108 points) and Tuks coming in third (81 points).

The winning snowman!

Our friends from Maties ended the day on a high when they flocked towards us as the awards ceremony came to a close, chanting "a U! a U! a U, C, T!" and we chanted back with "Maties jou lekker ding!" We knew that the day had been worth all of the sweat, excitement and nerves.

After all of the dancing and cheering, we then piled ourselves, our medals and our trophies back onto the bus (with far less energy) and (most of us) slept our way back to Cape Town, with a bit of snow along the way.

Intervarsity is by far the biggest bonding and learning experience, and probably the most memorable event of the UCT Ballroom and Latin Dancing Society calendar. We would like to say a huge thank you to Tuks for organizing such a fantastic competition, our competitors for being such great sports, our committee for organizing such a smooth Intervarsity and our Intervarsity Team for succeeding in their first profession - win, win, win, win!

The winning Team Dance
From L-R: Francisco Agostinho and Nomusa Mavimbela (Jive), Richard Parry and Thandeka Cochrane (Rumba), Tebo Cochrane and Priscilla Chauke (Cha-cha), Chris Garrard and Clare Garrard (Samba), William Wu and Zulfa Martin (Quickstep), Irenee Kaminuza and Ncediwe Mdlulwa (Rhythm Foxtrot), Jared Baboo and Gibwa Cole (Tango) and Nathanael Sargeant and Maxine Van Der Schyff (Waltz).

Photos by Arran Graham and Nick Heins

AGM: running for Ballroom comm 2012!

Our Annual General Meeting will take place on 29 September. One of the purposes of this meeting is to elect a new committee, who will gradually take over the reins from the current comm, and lead the society in 2012.

We have a lot of enthusiastic members this year, and would love to see many of you continuing to be involved in UCT Ballroom. There are many ways to do this – but for those who want to know more about what being on committee entails, read on...

Why should I run for committee?
Being on comm is a great way to give something back to the society, and ensure that ballroom continues to be an awesome place. It’s challenging, fun, and you will learn a ridiculous amount from the experience. No, seriously.

Only been with the society a year? Not a problem! It’s vital that we get new ideas in the mix, & keep the society in touch with both new and experienced members.


General requirements & responsibilities
You should be prepared to be an active member of the society in 2012, participating in your own class as much as possible, and interacting with other society members.

You’ll also need to

– do music duty in at least one other class per week

– attend meetings (currently on a weekly schedule)

– help out with events

– & work with the rest of the team to fulfil the requirements of your portfolio.

This might sound like a lot of work, but if everyone pulls their weight it’s really quite manageable.

If you’re thinking of taking on an event portfolio, rest assured that the responsibility does not only fall on your shoulders! Part of being on committee involves learning to delegate effectively. When it is time for your event, you can draw on the committee, and co-opt other members of the society to help you.


The AGM:

You may run for more than 1 position. They will be elected in the order listed below – so for example, you may run for both Treasurer and O-Week coordinator, but if you are voted in as Treasurer, that takes precedence. You may, however, apply for multiple positions and make it clear which ones are higher priorities for you.

At the AGM, we’ll take nominations for a portfolio, and candidates will be required to give a short motivation as to why they are suited to the job. People might ask a few questions – but remember, the AGM attendees are the same people you see every week; they don’t bite ;) Then the society members who are present will take a vote.

By the end of the evening we will have a new committee, who will work with the 2011 comm to plan the upcoming year! As well as committee members, we’ll also need lots of helpers, especially as Intervarsity comes closer, so keep an eye out for opportunities to get involved.

If you have any questions, feel free to interrogate the current committee about their portfolios, or send us an email – uctballroom[at]gmail.com . We look forward to seeing you at the AGM!

Committee positions:
Chairman
Vice Chairman
Treasurer
Socials
O-Week
Medal Tests
Intervarsity
Formal
IT

Plaza Week 2011

Plaza Week, during the first week of the University calendar, is the best opportunity for us to recruit you! Did we succeed? I think so. It was certainly fun, encapsulating the atmosphere of dancing which we try to maintain throughout the dancing year; even during those oh-so-serious moments of medal tests and intervarsity.

That is what dancing at UCT Ballroom and Latin Dancing Society is all about, fun! As clichéd as it sounds, if you stop having fun, stop meeting people and stop enjoying the social aspect of dancing, then you need to reassess why you are dancing in the first place.

Getting involved is usually all it takes, just like the plaza week volunteers realised. If you were there you would have seen some (rather tired) but smiley-happy up-beat people, who are there to promote the thing that they love and believe in. You may have seen Nic and Mirada spinning in circles around the plaza, or the sweet and steadfast Leigh behind the desk. I hope you got a chance to meet some of the committee, because we are here to serve you.



If you signed up with us, thank you. We hope to make dancing mean to you, what it does to us. Dancing is many things and UCT Ballroom will give all of these to you, if you open your mind and allow your feet to follow the process.

Dancing means meeting new people all the time
Dancing means learning a life-long skill
Dancing means learning floor craft and spatial awareness
Dancing is good exercise
Dancing increases your enjoyment and your confidence in all kinds of dancing
Dancing means having fun

I want to thank all the people that came to help during plaza week:
Mirada, Nic, Rudi, Leigh, Neann, Kamla, Thandeka, Alicia, MJ, Michelle and all the Catherines and Katherines

Thanks too to the committee who made themselves available to do demos, hand out flyers and keep the spirit upbeat and happy.