One of our many societies has danced its way to success in a couple of recent competitions.
One of De Montfort Students’ Union’s many societies has danced its way to success in a couple of recent competitions.
DMU Dance Society travelled to Cardiff and Sheffield universities to take part in the events hosted by the dance societies of each university and came away victorious in a category at each competition.
Sacha Jones, society chair, said: “Each year we try and compete in different university competitions, and this year we went to Cardiff and Sheffield.
“Cardiff was a bit more relaxed and we did really well in that.
“We entered in advanced tap, and jazz, contemporary and hip-hop which were all intermediate level.
“We came first with jazz, which was the only award we got – as they only announced first prize – but with the others we scored really highly.
“They gave us the sheets where they marked us and feedback as well, so we used that to then try and improve the dances for Sheffield.”
She continued: “Sheffield was a week later, and was a bit more professional. They’ve been running a bit longer and know how these things go.
“It was a bit of a higher standard with a lot more teams involved.
“Again we entered in advanced tap, and jazz, contemporary and hip-hop were all intermediate level. Jazz came second out of 10 or 11, and hip-hop came first out of three, so they improved and ended up winning.
“The other two scored really highly again, but we don’t know the exact placings.
“It was all a really good experience for people to have.”
The society’s success in different categories was no accident, Sacha explained, and said that performing well in different areas of the competitions was down to a number of factors including foresight, commitment and hard work.
She said: “As chair, I kind of took onboard that we need to teach it [different styles] in classes so we tried to expand things.
“I teach jazz, tap and point, and then we’ve got other teachers doing contemporary, someone else does belly dancing, someone else does Irish, we offer a lot.
“With auditions to get into the groups, you need to accept the standards so that we’re confident that you can be committed and have a standard ready for the dance.
“It’s nice to have the variety, and to not be a one-trick pony and have the range. But winning the jazz was unexpected, but a nice and pleasant surprise.”
Sacha, a third-year Pharmaceutical Science student, said that after being inspired by the dance societies at universities such as Cardiff and Sheffield, and as it continues to grow, next year the society is hoping to host its own competition.
She explained: “We tried to organise our own competition this year, but it just didn’t happen because we didn’t do it in enough time, making people aware of it and get applications and things in on time.
“We just need to get the ball rolling earlier, but the groundwork is set and hopefully next year when we do the committee handover we can tell them to start from now.”
You can find out more about DSU’s dance society on their page here. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.