For the Oxford team Warwick is the first inter-varsity event of the year on the dancesport calendar; beginning with open events throughout the day (in which couples compete individually in both ballroom and latin disciplines), moving to the highlight of the competition, the team match, in the evening.
The event began with the ballroom rounds in which competitors are split into different categories depending on their experience. There is a knockout format meaning that with each round couples are eliminated until there are only six couples remaining in the final.
In the beginners competitions there were several Oxford couples in the ballroom finals with Victoria Sore & Toby Mullins and Peter Goodliffe & Georgina Johnson placing in the top 3 for both waltz and quickstep. Having only been training since the beginning of term the beginners displayed a great confidence at their first competition with many couples showing great potential.
Oxford couples won in every category from novice to advanced, the latter section final containing only one non-Oxford couple. Success continued in the latin events as four Oxford beginner couples made the finals of their cha cha and jive competitions and once again Oxford dominated the intermediate and advanced categories. New to the team this year Zsolt Kiss and May Chick emerged victorious in both disciplines winning both the intermediate ballroom and latin whilst new partnership Sarah Farrell and Daniel Silva demonstrated their strength coming first in the advanced ballroom and second in the advanced latin category.
The most important part of the day is the team match where teams of four couples compete against each other, the most experienced couples dancing in the A team and so on down to the bottom team. Each couple dance either a waltz, quickstep, cha cha or jive as their contribution to the team’s score.
Because you are dancing as a team you are recalled as a group of four couples: you cannot get through to the next round as an individual so it’s important that everyone on each team dances their best.
The aim of each team is to get through to the final round which usually consists of six teams which are then placed. The lower division match was won by Bristol D whilst in the upper division Oxford A emerged victorious, followed closely by Oxford B. In an unexpected turn of events Oxford D beat the C team to 4th place coming in just behind Bristol A.
The results of the match prove just how strong this year’s team are: if this standard is anything to go Cambridge will have a struggle on their hands to defend their title as overall team winner at the IVDA competition in February.
