Competition - Leicester Friendly 2021

Our first competition of the year is approaching! Leicester Friendly 2021 takes place on Saturday 6th November. It is a full day event - we will be leaving from the Guild of Students at 7am and expect to be returning around 10pm.

If you haven't already joined, we'll be posting about competitions on our private Facebook group.

Beginners

If you have just started dancing - fantastic! - Leicester is a great comp to go to. Their team always puts together a great event with a very supportive atmosphere for newcomers to the sport. Most of your fellow competitors from other universities will have been dancing just as long as you have and all of the other dancers will be cheering you on!

For many of us, Leicester was our first experience of University dancesport and we have all been in your shoes!

Preparation

Check out our newly-updated Comp guide! We will also be running a Practice Competition on Saturday 30th October, and the BALADS Bootcamp in the evening where you can learn all about competition hair and makeup (or go to the pub instead, if that's more your style).

Remember that Beginner (and Novice) is Restricted Dress - take a look at the Comp guide to find out what you can wear.

Events

As beginners, your main dances will be danced as separate events - you will be marked for each individual dance, rather than for several together. For Ballroom, you will dance Waltz and Quickstep, and for Latin, you will dance Cha-Cha and Jive. We recommend that you enter all of these but do not feel obliged to enter every one if you do not feel prepared! There's no penalty for one if you don't do so well in the others.

You may also enter Beginner/Novice events. This is a one-dance event combining both Beginners and Novices together, and it will be a dance that you have not done in your Beginners event. For Leicester, there will be a Beginner/Novice Tango and a Beginner/Novice Rumba. We often teach a basic routine for these dances in Social Class or at practice sessions.

If you are dancing in a same-sex partnership, you have additional events available to you! These are also Beginner/Novice and are what we call 2-dance events, where you will dance e.g. a Waltz followed by a Quickstep and your marks for both are combined (read more here). There will be two events - Waltz-Quickstep (WQ) and Cha-Jive (CJ) - and these are a great opportunity to get more time on the floor!

Finally, if you are feeling bold you can enter an Open event! These can be very intimidating as they are open to everyone - you will be competing against the best dancers at the competition. They are, however, a great confidence booster and an opportunity to enter more dances. For Leicester, there will be Open events for Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Samba and Paso Doble.

As a bonus, there are three non Ballroom and Latin events - both Non Acro and Acro Rock 'n' Roll - if you've been coming to our Monday classes you will have learned a few steps for non acro - as well as Salsa, which you can learn from DCL after Rock 'n' Roll on Mondays. There will also be a Mayfair Quickstep to open the competition, as well as a couple of fun dances - All Leader Rumba and Three-Follower Cha-Cha-Cha. All of these are Open events, meaning anyone can enter, but are another fun opportunity to do more dancing! The last two are fun dances and don't need to be entered in advance - most of us have a go on the day for a laugh!

It costs the same, no matter how many events you enter, so enter whatever you want to!

Below are all of the events discussed and their numbers in the programme:

There will be a table of the Opens later on in this page (in the Novice section)!

Team Match

One of the most fun things about University competitions is the Team Match! You will team up with three other couples and score points together. Each couple in your team will dance one of the four main dances - Waltz, Cha-Cha, Quickstep, and Jive.

Leicester is great because there is a beginners-only Team Match! You will only be dancing against other beginners.

Team Match is always Open Dress so you can wear some of the fantastic Team dresses!

Novices

Some of you may have been to Leicester before, but for some of you it may be the first time - maybe even the first time attending any comp at all! As I've discussed in the beginners' section above, Leicester is a very fun and welcoming comp to attend and, no matter how long it has been since you last danced, it's a great way to start the year.

Preparation

Remember that Novice is Restricted Dress - take a look at the Comp guide to find out what you can wear.

You can also attend our Practice Competition and BALADS Bootcamp to help you get back into the swing of things!

Events

Your main events will usually be a 2-dance - Novice Waltz/Quickstep and Novice Cha/Jive. For Leicester, however, these events are separate, same as for Beginners - more chance of a medal!

You will also have the opportunity to dance alongside the Beginners - you have all been in their shoes before so be supportive! There is a Beginner/Novice Tango and a Beginner/Novice Rumba event.

If you are dancing in a same-sex partnership, there are also the two Beginner/Novice Same Sex events to enter!

Finally, there is the usual array of Open, non-Ballroom&Latin, and Fun dances! You may well have routines already for some of the Opens - we would definitely encourage you to enter! Later in the year, at Northerns, there will be the chance to enter the Open 5-dance events if you feel prepared and this is great practice.

Any event that is Beginner or Novice will require you to dance within syllabus and with restricted dress - you can find out more about what this means here.

Here is a handy table of your category-specific events:

Here are the Open events as discussed earlier:

Team Match

If you haven't danced University circuit before there is always a Team Match. This is an Open Dress event so you can wear your fabulous outfits!

Pre-Intermediate

This category is for those of you who (like me) wanted a bit more of a challenge than Novice. Or who wanted to wear tailsuits and do charges? Either way, this is the (relatively) new halfway-house between Novice and Intermediate, aiming to make the transition from one to the other easier.

Events

All events you can enter will be open dress, open steps. Sadly, this means no more Beginner/Novice events (though your teammates will thank you for this!).

Your main events will remain the same as Novice - 2-dance Waltz/Quickstep + Cha/Jive. However, the step and dress restrictions are lifted, so you can be more creative with your routines.

For same-sex couples, you can also enter the Intermediate/Advance Same Sex events. These are still 2-dance events! You will be dancing against the most experienced same-sex partnerships in these events so they are effectively open events anyway.

All the Open routines are up for grabs, so enter whatever you feel confident with!

Below is a table of your events (fun dances and non Ballroom/Latin omitted):

Intermediate

This most likely isn't your first competition, is it? Or have you danced Open circuit / medallist / solos before? Leicester comp has a fantastic atmosphere and, regardless of how you feel things go, you will surely be watched in awe by many of your teammates.

Events

The main Intermediate events are 3-dance, with two of the dances always being WQ / CJ. The third dance changes on rotation - it should have been V / P last year and T / R this year, but we aren't sure yet whether last year will be counted or not (wonder why?). For Leicester, the dances will be Waltz/Tango/Quickstep and Cha/Rumba/Jive. (these events would normally be danced in this order - in the table they are printed differently so there may be an unexpected surprise!)

Early rounds of Intermediate may be danced as 2-dance due to time constraints. Which 2/3 dances are used will be announced before the rounds.

Same-sex couples can enter the Intermediate/Advance Same Sex events - both are two dance: WQ + CJ.

Finally, any of the Opens already discussed are up for grabs!

Here is a table showing all the Ballroom/Latin events you can enter:

Advanced

Why are you even reading this guide? 😂

Jokes aside, you will be the stars of the show today - all (most) of your team are going to be very impressed / intimidated. Any time that you can spend with Beginners and Novices will be greatly appreciated - many of you will have been in their position before and you will still remember what that feels like.

Events

The main Advanced events at Leicester are 3-dance WTQ / CRJ, same as Intermediate. Some comps, as you may know, run Inter/Adv as a qualifier - this does not appear to be the case for Leicester, but earlier rounds may be run as 2-dance events with the dances announced before the rounds.

Obviously, all of the Opens are there for the taking!

Sign Ups

We'll be posting the Sign up poll on our Private Facebook group - join if you haven't already! If you don't have Facebook and would still like to take part, get in touch with us.