Loughborough Dance Competition 2008
By Kirsty Bennett and Leanne Vele, with images by Anyness Von Bock

Loughborough University’s Dance Club’s third annual dance competition, held on February 16, 2008, was the biggest yet – attracting 16 university dance squads from as far afield as Edinburgh and Exeter, as well as the LSU Hip Hop Dance Society and of course, LSU Dance themselves. The change of venue from the Cope Auditorium to the Netball Centre, on the university campus, allowed hundreds of spectators to come and watch almost 500 competitors in action, and as well as raising their profile, the club collected around £500 for charity.

The competition co-ordinator, Kirsty Bennett, along with the LSU Dance Committee did an amazing job organising and conducting the whole event, which saw dancers battle it out in contemporary, tap, ballet, hip hop and jazz at novice, intermediate and advanced levels. Four judges – a professional dancer and choreographer, professional dance teachers and a physical education and sports officer – awarded the final placings.

LSU Dance Club kept up the Loughborough tradition of winning sports awards by scooping first place in Novice Tap, Novice Ballet, Novice Jazz and Advanced Ballet, a title now maintained for all three years. The club also came third in Advanced Jazz, losing out to Birmingham (first) and Kings College, London (second). Kings’ Advanced Jazz routine also won them the Best Costume award of the day, their contrasting coloured clothing and make-up attracting the judges’ eyes. Out of the 18 university dance squads, LSU Dance were incredibly proud to win the title of Best Overall Club, having featured in all the categories at a consistently high standard.

Other major winners included Nottingham University, who won first place in both Advanced Contemporary and Advanced Tap, and one of their dancers, Suzi Ring, was awarded the title of Best Female Dancer and won a year’s subscription to Dance Today, who also supplied a free copy of the magazine for every dancer at the event. Warwick University, who took part in the competition for the first time this year, along with Nottingham, went away with first place in Contemporary, second in Advanced Contemporary, third in Advanced Tap and third again in Hip Hop – the most popular category of the day. Aston University won first place in the Open Hip Hop category, while Durham University, hungry to win and maintain their title for another year, were awarded first place in the Advanced Hip Hop with an amazing piece that also won them the best overall routine. This was choreographed by Gregory Nicholls, winner of the Best Male Dancer title. The LSU Hip Hop Dance Society competed in the competition for the first time and achieved third place.

The day proved to be a great success and hugely enjoyable for all who were involved. Planning will soon start for the 2009 event – find out more about LSU dance as well as the competition by visiting www.lsudance.com.