Best foot forward: Warwick Latin and Ballroom celebrate successful season

Finding success with their jives and quicksteps, Warwick’s Latin and Ballroom club are celebrating another successful competition season after taking part in nine competitions across the country.

The club, which has members of all abilities specialising in the main 10 Latin and Ballroom dances, made a total of 122 finals in the 2023/24 academic year, an increase of over 30 on the previous year. Across those finals, the team took home 16 wins, making at least one final in all of the competitions, except one.

The competition season kicked off in style for Warwick on 11 November, with the team’s home competition, Warwick Varsity, held at the Sports and Wellness Hub. 57 dancers from Warwick took to the floor in the competition attended by 12 universities. The competition was the team’s most successful of the year, making 27 finals and picking up 5 wins.

In an impressive feat, every Beginner couple representing Warwick progressed at least one round, despite none of them having danced at all six weeks prior. This meant Warwick’s beginner team was the third best in the whole competition, with Warwick’s overall efforts making them the second-best team of the day, behind only Oxford.

Nationals was a rousing success for the 49-strong team from Warwick this year, making five finals across the day and picking up one title for Non-Acrobatic Rock and Roll

Another stand-out moment of the competition season for the club was, of course, the Inter Varsity Dance Competition (or Nationals, for short). Taking place in the prestigious Empress Ballroom at the Blackpool Winter Gardens, the competition has been held annually since 1962 and sees Dancesport clubs from 30 different universities take part.

Nationals was a rousing success for the 49-strong team from Warwick this year, making five finals across the day and picking up one title for Non-Acrobatic Rock and Roll. It was also the second year in a row where couples from Warwick made national finals, a commendable achievement considering Warwick had not made a Blackpool final for five years before 2023.

Team Warwick also excelled in the ‘Offbeat’ section, where teams from each university perform a three-and-a-half-minute routine showing off any dance style, other than Latin and Ballroom.

This season, Warwick has been represented in a Team Match final at eight out of the nine competitions

This year, Warwick combined rock and roll, street and disco in a routine entitled ‘The Twisted Jungle Book’, with dancers impressing the judges with their haunting performances as spirits and animals. The routine, choreographed by the club’s Performance Co-ordinator Katie Brown, took fourth place at the competition, behind only Durham, Bath, and London.

Latin and Ballroom have also had many other highlights and successes throughout the seven other competitions of the season, which saw the team travel across the country to the likes of Manchester, Leeds, and Bristol. Despite the frequent 4:00am calls, this has not hindered the club’s success, with Warwick’s results this year among the best in recent years for the club.

This is, undoubtedly, summed up by Warwick’s success in the Team Matches. In this section, teams made up of four couples compete against each other, with each couple taking on a different dance – out of Waltz, Quickstep, Cha Cha Cha and Jive – for the team. The scores for each couple are added together, with the most successful team taking home the Team Match title.

This season, Warwick has been represented in a Team Match final at eight out of the nine competitions, a much commendable feat against the likes of Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial who dominate the Team Match scene.

Aside from competition triumph, the club has also had a successful year in terms of their charity efforts, raising over £5,400 for charities

Aside from competition triumph, the club has also had a successful year in terms of their charity efforts, raising over £5,400 for charities including Movember, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and Wear It Pink.

The club also held their ‘Charity Week’ in February, raising money for Icandance, a charity which supports disabled children and young people through dance and performance. The week culminated in the annual ‘Warwick Does Strictly’ event where members from 11 different societies took on the challenge of learning a dance, coupled with a ‘professional’ from Latin and Ballroom in a ‘Strictly Come Dancing’-style competition.

In the space of six weeks, the couples went from strength-to-strength before performing in front of a live audience of 240 people in the Copper Rooms. Sophie, President of Warwick Climbing, came out victorious in the judges’ vote alongside her partner Karis, scoring a perfect 40 from the judges. However, it was Mixed Netball’s Lottie who won the hearts of the audience, winning the public vote. The event raised a huge £3,775 for Icandance, underlining how the club’s commitment to “giving back to the community and charities”.

As one successful year comes to an end for Warwick’s Latin and Ballroom dancers, the team are looking ahead to next year, where they hope to surpass the records broken by the club this year

As one successful year comes to an end for Warwick’s Latin and Ballroom dancers, the team are looking ahead to next year, where they hope to surpass the records broken by the club this year. Cat Adkin, Vice President for the club, shared her excitement for the upcoming year, whilst also reflecting on the last season: “The past year with Latin and Ballroom has been a joy to be a part of. Every single person within the club has improved so much.” She added: “I’m really excited to meet our new members, and watch them learn and grow over the coming year. Our exec committee is enthusiastic and raring to go so prepare for an incredible year!”

To keep up-to-date with the club’s journey across the next year, you can follow all the latest action and updates on the Warwick Latin and Ballroom Instagram page.