Lancaster took the four points available in Dancesport in a fantastic sweep for LUDanS, who have gone from strength to strength this year, including multiple wins in national competitions and an outstanding dance show in March. The afternoon was an incredible display of the variety of dancing talent at Lancaster University, with guest performances from the Indian Society, Cheerleading Society, and Hip-Hop Society, alongside York’s very tough competition. The Lancaster societies performed extremely well, showing exactly why they deserved to be there.
The crowd was huge, and incredibly supportive of all the dancers, although there was a much larger Lancaster contingent who cheered loudly whenever Lancaster performed well.
There were five categories: tap, ballet, jazz, contemporary, and street.
The tap routines turned out to be incredibly close, York with a dance inspired by the homeless, and Lancaster with a more traditional jazzy tap number. Both performances were very enthusiastic and tight, Lancaster continuing on gamely despite a dancer losing her hat halfway through. York ended up taking the win by 274 points, narrowly beating Lancaster by three points.
York performed a very traditional ballet routine, using classical music, and it did not go down quite so well with the crowd, although they applauded all the same. Lancaster’s routine went down much better, with all the girls almost perfectly in sync, and they took the points easily.
The standout routine of the day was Lancaster’s jazz routine, a clear winner against York’s. York had an audition inspired routine, very fitting for dancers, but it just could not compete with Lancaster’s flawless jazz, gaining the best crowd response of the afternoon, and effortlessly winning the section.
Possibly the best section of the day was the contemporary category. York’s routine tackled the issue of domestic violence, using their male dancers to perform tricky lifts and with very impressive choreography, however unluckily for them LUDanS were more than up to the challenge, performing a striking routine in blindfolds, symbolising the blind. Lancaster won in this, although it could have gone either way.
The final routine of the day, concluding an amazing afternoon of dance, was Lancaster’s Mean Girls street routine that they had performed the day before at the Roses opening ceremony. It was a confident and strong performance, bolstered by the highly enthusiastic crowd, and it was a clear winner against York’s efforts.
The outgoing president of LUDanS, Siana French, was delighted with the result, saying “I’m so proud of everyone on the team, they deserved this and it’s amazing to see all of our hard work this year pay off! We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who came to watch because that crowd was incredible and partly to thank for our win because the cheers really spurred us on! All round an amazing competition and what a way to finish my year as president!”
With four wins for Lancaster compared to York’s one win in tap, it was a solid and well-deserved victory for LUDanS, which can only top off their year of excellent achievements.
