DU Dance, Trinity’s dance society, has swept up at Intervarsities, taking home first place for jazz and contemporary, second place in Irish dance, third place in hip-hop and two outstanding performance awards.
While the issues that the society has faced with space this year, with the ongoing renovations and repurposing of campus space forcing them off-campus and leaving them forced to cut workshops so Intervarsities teams could practice, Treasurer of DU Dance, Lauren Keogh, described the win as “an amazing end to a year filled with anxieties and fears about rehearsal space, costs and time pressure”.
Speaking to The University Times by email, Keogh stated that “here was a mix of fear and excitement” as the society waited to hear the results, a mood that soon changed to “shock and pride”.
The society sent 50 dancers to the competition, hosted in Galway’s Black Box Theatre, where 12 institutions were represented.
All teams entered by DU Dance placed in their categories.
The individual awards went to Ronan O’Gorman of Irish dance and Claire Crowley of jazz.
The jazz team was coached by Cisca Devereux, Layla Wade and James Burns with hip-hop coached by Darren Byrne and Katie O Neill. Béibhinn Walsh, Alison Ryan and Katie Milner coached the contemporary team while Lisa Heffernan, Aine tucker, Ronan O Gorman and Emma Tracey coached the Irish team.
Keogh noted that the society is “really looking forward to continuing to improve”, noting the recent winning of £5,000 through an online competition to help secure permanent practice space and the society’s Best Event award at the annual Central Societies Committee (CSC) awards.
