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