Oxford University Competition Dance: Inside the Elite Competitive Dance Team

Oxford University Competition Dance (OUCD) uniquely combines the arts and sports. We train at Iffley, endure meetings and reviews by Sports Fed, obtain our fair share of injuries, and like to think of ourselves as crewdate veterans. All the while, we spend our time cultivating musicality, quality of movement, and the intricacies of conveying a storyline through the medium of dance. We never know quite where we stand, and other sports often seem slightly surprised when we reveal our ‘half-blues’ status. However, we consider ourselves a bridge between disciplines as dance is both physically and artistically demanding, something any dancer will firmly attest to. 

OUCD is, as the name suggests, a competitive team to become part of; open to everyone, we audition around 150 people for 12 spots once per year, creating a greatly talented group of 35 dancers. We train and compete in Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, and Tap styles for our Varsity competition against Cambridge (along with ‘Wildcard’ and ‘Solo/Duo/Trio’ categories). We also train in Lyrical and Commercial/Heels styles for our annual national competition at Loughborough University. Resultantly, the beauty of our team is in its stylistic diversity; no one person competes in every style, rather, each dancer has a few specialist styles that overlap to create dances of between 12-18 people. Alongside these more serious competition-specific dances, we also put on an annual showcase, wherein any dancer can choreograph and perform a dance of their choosing. This year, this has ranged from a more orthodox ballet performance of ‘The Queen of the Dryads’ (Don Quixote, Act II), to a pretty camp 80’s jazz retelling of Rasputin. OUCD’s heterogeneity of skills, delivery of performance, and choreographic expertise produces captivating performances in our competitions, shows and performances alike. 

Despite the stereotypes of ‘Dance Moms’ and ‘The Next Step’, OUCD is a tight-knit community, being a small team with no secondary divisions. Like other sports teams, we bond over simultaneously cursing our trainers under our breath and the shared elation and disappointment of wins and losses. However, OUCD enjoys a unique closeness. Choreographing and performing emotive, and often personal, dances comes with a shared sense of vulnerability and emotional intimacy. The process of creating a dance, sharing unfinished and unrealised artistic visions and trusting your teammates to bring it alive takes courage but is incredibly rewarding. Creating these pieces is a months-long process of trial and error, repetition, refining, and finally, the satisfaction of a complete dance. The communal joy experienced when performing these dances is incomparable, and all the more special when shared with your closest friends. 

Last week we gave a stellar performance at Loughborough, still riding the high of our recent Varsity win. Not only did we come second in tap and third in ballet, jazz and contemporary, but one of our very own team members outperformed the 1400 other dancers attending to win the title of ‘Best Dancer’. However, in reality, the best part of the competition was sharing a Premier Inn together and talking until the small hours of the morning! While Loughborough marked the end of our competition season, we look forward to gracing the stages of the Trinity Term balls and continuing to showcase our dances to the Oxford community.

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