Back to Intervarsity 2008

The Trip

As you all know intervarsity is coming up and by now you might want to know what actually happens at intervarsity. You've all heard the general description: dance, dance, forget to sleep, dance some more and when all other institutions are on the floor dance even more. And then win a trophy or two for your performance, and after that dance some more. Well here are some more formal names for the different times and places to be dancing at this year's intervarsity.

Thursday

On Thursday the 21st of August, just after the ballroom classes end, at 22:00 we are getting onto a bus and beginning our trip to Port Elizabeth.

On the way we will stop for the odd toilet break and maybe to pick up a snack or two. Then we arrive in Port Elizabeth.

Friday

08:00: Breakfast time

We have about two hours to kill before we settle into our two backpackers, Heli backpackers and Ikayalam lodge. This two hour break is just what we need to grab some breakfast at the nearby(2km) boardwalk, and make a presence on the very nearby beach(<1km).

10:00: Sign in

We get into the backpackers on Friday morning and can then sleep until lunch, or later.

18:00: The Social

There is a pre competition social where you get to socialise with some other dance crazy people and practice a little before the big thing. This ends at 22:00, and after that there is practice time for formations. We all go home and try to catch some sleep before the competition.

22:30: Formation Practices

Only the formationists really need to be aware of this one. we get half an hour to perfect the formation routine on the competition floor.

Saturday

10:00: Competition begins

The sections in the competition are:

Standard Ballroom:

Order of Dances:	First	Second	Third	Fourth
For beginners this means:	Waltz	Rhythym Foxtrot
For intermediates this means:	Waltz	Rhythym Foxtrot	Quickstep
For advanced this means:	Waltz	Rhythym Foxtrot	Quickstep	Tango
For pre bronze this means:	Waltz	Rhythym Foxtrot	Quickstep	Tango
For bronze and above this means:	Waltz	Slow Foxtrot	Quickstep	Tango

Speciality Dances in Ballroom:

For all levels: Vienese Waltz

Standard Latin:

Order of Dances:	First	Second	Third	Fourth
For beginners this means:	Cha Cha	Jive
For intermediates this means:	Cha Cha	Jive	Rumba
For advanced this means:	Cha Cha	Jive	Rumba	Samba.
For bronze and above this means:	Cha Cha	Jive	Rumba	Samba

Speciality Dances in Latin:

For all levels: Boogie
For all levels: Mambo
For all levels: Paso
For all levels: Sokkie

All the sections above are danced in heats. In each heat the numbers are reduced by the judges selecting couples to go through to the next round. So if there are a lot of people in a round then there are many rounds.

In each section you are allowed a different partner. So for beginners ballroom you could dance with person A and in Beginners latin you could go with person B and in Vienese waltz you could dance with Person C of a different level. The sections marked with "all levels" can have couples with any level together, beg. int. or adv. bronze. or beg. adv., or anything. it's open to any couple. ( i'm not sure if they would accept a girl girl or guy guy couple though).

You can choose to dance in any or all of the sections. After all the above sections are done there are two more events before the day is over. They are the Teamdance and the Formation dance

Teamdance:

Each institution present puts forward one couple for each dance in the ballroom section and one couple in the latin section. This amounts to 8 couples that are made up of people from beginners up to whoever we think will do us the most proud. In this event any person may only dance exactly once.

The dances are:

Ballroom:

Waltz

Tango

Rhythym Foxtrot

Quickstep

Latin:

Samba

Cha Cha

Rumba

Jive

The event is judged as a whole and there is a trophy for the best overall institution in the teamdance.

Formation Dance:

The final event is the formation, this is the one where the formationists get to dress up and break most normal dress conventions to wow the crowds, and also where we get to show off the results of the formation team's hard work. In this section each institution gets a slot and only one institution is on the floor at a time. This is the part where you will see all the most wierd and wonderful dance moves of the day.

Shortly after that the prizes are handed out and the winner declared.

+-22:00: the Afterparty

so after we win the competition we get to go out to another place and celebrate in a more free form environment at an afterparty location. Sometimes we just go home and reminisce on the videos captured during the day, we'll probably decide at the time what we want to do on that score.

+-10:00: the morning after

Now we get back on the bus and head home, hopefully in time to catch the evening news on ETV

I came up with a quote borrowed from the inside cover of a Lord of the Rings Book, i think:

There are two kinds of people in the world, Those who have danced and those who are going to.

See you in class

Mark