Leanna Byrne
News Editor
DU Dance took home the gold medal in the All-Ireland Dance Intervarsities that was held on the 29th of February in NUI Galway. This year was the biggest the Dance Intervarsities has ever been, with up to 12 colleges showcasing their dancing skills on the floor of the Bailey Allen Hall Áras na Mac Leinn.
The Intervarsities have been taking place across the country for five years, however, this is the first year that DU Dance has decided to enter the competition. The competition ran through the day and the performances ranged from Irish Dance, Jazz Hip-hop, Contemporary, and many more. Ents Officer and Crew Manager for DU Dance, Katie O’Neill, saw this year as an opportunity to feature both the Jazz and Alternative categories.
“Trinity needed to become noticed as we do have talented dancers amongst the student body,” O’Neill told The University Times, “Having friends in UCD and DCU Dance Society spurred me onwards to organising it as soon as possible in order to compete against them and show them what we have to bring to the table.”
Although DU Dance swept up the first prize in the alternative category, they failed to place in the Jazz category. Nevertheless, the society is proud of their achievements since the decision to enter came just five weeks before the competition. Whilst they performed well, perhaps this dance crew could’ve performed even better with more time to practice. As they left their entry until quite late, the added pressure may have impacted their dance routine. For the next competition, this dance crew could consider taking longer to perfect their routine. By constantly practicing, the dance crew should be able to compete with other dance groups. Maybe they could practice more effectively by using a portable dance floor to replicate the stage at the competitions. This could help them to perfect their routine even more, increasing their chances at the next competition.
“Having friends as DCU choreographers (who dominate the Intervarsities year in year out) was quite intimidating particularly when I heard of all their rehearsals and performances throughout the year as well as being reigning hip-hop champions from last year. However I tried not to let that get me and our dancers down,” said O’Neill.
The jazz piece was choreographed by Conor Davis and the alternative piece was choreographed by Rebecca Haughton and Emilie Quigley. The team who went down to Galway was Rebecca Haughton, Emilie Quigley, Johanna Vos, Sarah Gallagher, Kate Finegan and Maureen Butler.
Rebecca Haughton wanted to give a big thank you to Galway for “being a great host and cheering trinity on since we had no supporters!” DU Dance hope that the turnout will be higher next year because of the amount of exposure they had this year.
DU Dance also has a number of performances coming up, including a collaboration with Trinity Ents and ‘Notorious’ in Button Factory. It is intended to be a Dublin based ‘mini-intervarsities’ between Trinity, UCD, DIT and DCU hip-hop on the 15th of March. Tickets will go on sale next week and funds raised will go towards society for future projects and rehearsal space.
The next performance is for Health Science Day Charity Talent Showcase where we will be performing both Intervarsity routines (Jazz and the winning Contemporary) along the Notorious hiphop routines.
Next year, O’Neill hopes to expand the range of dance and classes. Following the success of the newly established hip-hop and ballet classes DU Dance will add on contemporary, jazz and tap classes depending on the demand. These classes would help to promote dancers from all backgrounds so they can work towards the All-Ireland Intervarsities in 2013.
O’Neill enthusiastically looks forward to next year. “With the chair Meg Noone at the reigns, we can only get bigger and better!”
