The club’s recent record is simply astonishing - you’ve been National Champions 11 times since 2014. What’s the secret?
We are the largest team on the UK University Circuit, taking 126 people to the Student Nationals in Blackpool and competing in every category from beginner to advanced. I think this depth is really important for the success of our team - only 16 couples’ marks will count towards the overall team scoring, but having a strong, tight-knit Second and Beginners team is key.
Your best dancers are obviously going to be those who walk onto the team, having competed since they were kids, but you can’t control when that’s going to happen. Ballroom and Latin is not as popular in the UK as it is in Europe, and since Brexit, we have had fewer of those sorts of dancers to rely on. To keep up, the team has shifted more focus to ‘homegrown’ dancers. If you catch someone at the start of a 6-year degree or - even better - future MB PhDs, you can get quite far.
We start every year by getting as many people through the door as possible. Since Covid, we have had about 80 new people joining a beginners class each year, and some of these people will find that they’re really quite good - maybe a third of the intake. After that, it’s about keeping that rate of development up by providing the right atmosphere and infrastructure for success; the culture, coaching, practice spaces, and the right partnerships. As you can imagine, this approach takes a huge amount of time and effort from our committee to keep the cogs running, so a huge, huge thanks to them.
I know it sounds cheesy - but a love for dancing, commitment to the team, and friendships are just as essential. People spend a lot of time doing things they enjoy, and we really pride ourselves on being friendly and nurturing.
As elite dancers, how does it feel watching everyone else’s attempted moves on a night out?
From an outside perspective watching us on the competition dancefloor, doing what we have trained all year to do, I’m sure it makes us look slick. But in reality, we only know what we’re doing because we have drilled it so many times. In actual fact, many of us have two left feet and can’t dance in a club any better than the person next to us!
We also remember that nerve wracking time when we were beginners in our first class of Freshers week in Cambridge, and how we didn’t know which way was up, so we are in no position to comment on someone else who is definitely making a better attempt at moving to the beat than we once did.
If for no other reason, we would recommend joining CUDT because you soon realise that any popular club song played in Revs or Mash is a plausible ChaCha or a Samba, or sometimes a Jive! So, once a beat comes on that maybe we do know, the muscle memory kicks in. If you want a good night out, invite your dance friends and make sure their type of music is playing. Then you’ll really get a show, we promise!
“Many of us have two left feet and can’t dance in a club any better than the person next to us!”
How do you manage training for what is simultaneously a highly strenuous sport and also a deeply expressive art form?
Performance is something we are encouraged by coaches to train from day one, along with technical skills and partnering skills. Some of the dances, such as the rumba and the paso doble, can have quite prominent storytelling or theatrical elements. What exactly that story is is not terribly important, but after these ‘performance related’ elements are choreographed (the winning smile, well-timed wink, or a sassy hair flip), they are practiced and drilled, just as footwork is.
Artistry can’t be separated from a technically strong foundation. Being physically and technically strong is freeing and allows for greater expression. The greater the control you use, the more choice you have in your movements, which allows you to exploit the music, explore choreographically interesting ideas and engage with the audience through storytelling to a greater degree. You cannot dance ‘to’ a member of the audience if you cannot spot when you turn. There are shapes you cannot create without a certain degree of flexibility, or if you do not have the core strength to hold a leg up.
Being a good performer is also important competitively to showcase technical strength. On the competition floor, you are compared and marked against other couples dancing around you. People, including judges, like to watch things that are visually interesting. You may have technically accurate footwork and textbook hip action, but this may never be seen and marked if you cannot command attention.
While you can practice all you want, in the end you really do have to give it our all on the day. Confidence comes the more you compete, and there is no way to recreate the eyes of the crowd in training, which is why we also take our team to several competitions a year, even as beginners.
Ballroom elegance or Latin passion?
Jas: This is a very tricky question. Both styles have their own attributes and the feeling of each is not comparable to any other when it all comes together on the dance floor. Both styles can be intimate, passionate, fiery, controlled, smooth or energetic. The mixture of emotions which go through each dance makes them individually special and for that reason I don’t think I could choose one over the other.
My favourite dance changes with each partnership and evolves as I learn new figures to better understand the style. Ballroom is not all about elegance, with tango showing how it can bring fiery passion, while Latin is not all about passion with Samba showcasing an energy which is just thrilling.
Qing: I’m definitely team Latin. I mean, I think it might just be because my ballroom is worse! Partnered dancing really appeals to me because with the weight and movement of your partner you can move faster and stretch more than you could ever do on your own, and with the fluidity of the hold and the spacing between you and your partner in Latin, I just feel it more.
Your Varsity victory streak extends back to 2012. Will it be yet one more in 2025?
We hope so, but Oxford’s team is also always evolving, and it’s been getting quite close in recent years. We may have held our title for many years but that success does not show any of the hard work and dedication which has allowed for these results. Our team works incredibly hard and we couldn’t be prouder of what they have achieved so far this year. Of course adding another Varsity title to our streak would be amazing, but we won’t know until the end of the competition and it does promise to be an exciting (and nerve wracking) competition as usual.
Is Strictly even close to the reality of competitive dancing?
We have had many people come on to our team as a result of Strictly and we still do socials through Michaelmas where we collectively watch the show. The show does capture most of the dances we do, however, there are some fundamental differences between their set up and our competitions.
Firstly, we don’t have a surplus of experienced dancers to partner beginners with. Beginners start with beginners, and we all learn together with the guidance of our amazing coaches David, Paul and Crystal. This means we start slow and build up in such a way that you can soon stand on your own two feet and understand the fundamentals of dancing. Then, you can dance with anyone and don’t have to rely on your partner to show you what to do.
Competitions also have levels and we’re not the only ones on the dance floor. Beginners compete against other beginners and everyone else is divided according to the level which they enter. Having several couples on the dancefloor at the same time also means avoiding other couples while trying to perform, which adds to the skill of competition. We call this ‘floorcraft’. It’s not as easy as you might think to avoid people while charging down the floor at full speed when they’re spinning in unpredictable directions.
Our dancers also don’t learn just one dance at a time, like they do on the show. We compete in up to 10 dance styles and some couples will constantly train for all 10 dances, and keep the same choreography which they will build on throughout the year. Beginners start with 4 dances, competing mainly in these, and by the end of the year will have been shown all 10 in classes.
Who would your dream dance partner be?
Jas: Personally, I’ve danced with some pretty great partners already. Yes, I could simply say that my dream partner would be the guy who won British Open Amateur competitions this year but, honestly, I would be way out of my depth, so maybe not. And, of course, someone with a strong ballroom frame, who hits all the Latin beats and who looks like they belong on the dancefloor, makes a good partner.
However, I also find that dream partnerships are not just about how good your partnership is but about how much fun you have training and how well you get on together. Not all partnerships are meant to be, no matter how well they ‘should’ work on paper and each has its own something special. So, my dream partnership would be one where every practice session feels like hanging out with my best friend, which I’m happy to say is something I have experienced more than once already.
Qing: I would agree with Jas. I have dance crushes, definitely, but I couldn’t say they would be a dream partner. You can spend hundreds of hours with your dance partner throughout the year. Being a pleasant person is quite high up for me as well, but I would also say that your working styles being compatible is super important. If you can’t coordinate your schedules, or give and take feedback effectively, it’s going to be a tough year.
Your most treasured memory from the dance floor?
“It’s an honour to dance on the same floor as professional competitions”
Jas: The energy of the Student Nationals in Blackpool’s Winter Gardens is absolutely electric. The venue is gorgeous, and it’s an honour to dance on the same floor as professional competitions.
My favourite feeling is when you’ve danced your last round, change out of your heels into comfy slippers, put in some ear plugs and sit at the edge of the floor, slightly delirious from being up since 5am, and feel the vibration of the music and dancing through the sprung floor.
Qing: Winning the overall team match feels pretty good too, but the thing I will remember most is the magnitude and intensity of the pride I felt in the hard work and the successes of everyone on the team, of dancing that wasn’t my own. I was pretty surprised by that. And I will remember the feeling of my co-captain Jas’ tight embrace under the lights of the Empress Ballroom as it finally empties out at 1am.
Jas: Qing couldn’t be more right. (It’s) the feeling after such a long day, waiting eagerly for the team match results to be read, with so little sleep that you wonder how you are still going. Watching everyone pace nervously because it means so much to the team, and listening to our coaches crunching numbers in the background to think up probabilities as each result is read in reverse order. It all comes down to the final result and it’s so close we can’t call it, then the rush as Cambridge is read out as the winners. All the hugs, tears and jumps for joy, it shows how much time and effort everyone puts in - and for that I couldn’t be more grateful. I don’t think any experience can top winning Nationals this year with Qing by my side and our team all around us.
What’s the best costume you’ve ever donned? Do students suit up in sequins too?
Jas: The best outfit I have worn was a black, open back, halter-neck ballroom dress with silver and red rhinestones, black arm floats and embellished black gloves. It made me feel so sophisticated and like I belonged on that dance floor. The best part about it was the face of my dance partner when she was told that she was able to wear a tail suit to match. I’ve worn several team dresses but that one is the embodiment of elegance and class.
Qing: We try to lend costumes to everyone who dances in a team match. We unfortunately don’t have an extensive supply so it is not always possible to give everyone a sequin dress or a sharp tailsuit but we try to make sure all our dancers get the opportunity to wear one at least once, even the beginners.
Our first team dancers get ‘costumed’ at the start of the year, and the coaches tick off on it to make sure (the outfits) show all the lines right. They are assigned costumes for the duration of the year, and we take spares to competitions and swap around depending on which people compete. It is always great fun for everyone to try on the variety of costumes we have in our team wardrobe and the sparkle in the eyes of beginners when they get to wear their first costume is so sweet.
How do any keen Cantabs go about slipping on their dancing shoes?
Our main intake of beginners is in the Michaelmas term, but we are running 6 weeks of classes this easter! There will be a free demo on Tuesday 29th April, then 1 hour of combined Ballroom and Latin with David Mallabone (our head coach), suitable for complete beginners on Tuesdays at 9pm at Downing URC, starting on May 6th. You can sign up by the Beginners mailing list for updates…
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeEykbPwgsVbf8GTJMK5OFmtmbJvIWsxCO9zOPTt8aOiWircw/viewform
If you’re interested in competing, our competitive season re-starts in October. In the meantime, our Easter classes are a great way to get started on the basics. If after all you don’t want to compete, that’s fine - we also have social classes. CDC is our parent society with a wider range of social dance classes, and a social dance evenings every Friday. All the dances we do can be done socially, without choreography. These classes will teach you to lead and follow - which feels like magic when you first try it. You’ll leave knowing how to waltz into the night at a May ball and impress everyone at weddings.
Find us on Instagram @camdancesport or our website https://cudt.soc.srcf.net/
For CDC social classes and our timetable go to: https://www.cambridgedancers.org/teams/cudt/
