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On Saturday 22 February, in the venerable setting of the Empress Ballroom at the Blackpool Winter Gardens, the Cambridge University Dancesport Team (CUDT) once again defended their title as overall British champions on the University Dancesport Circuit.

As a result, the team who compete in the traditional ten Ballroom and Latin dances (Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese waltz and Quickstep as well as Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Samba, Paso Doble and Jive) have now won the overall trophy ten times in the past eleven years. This year, the Cambridge team comprised five current and three former Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çstudents.

All current Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çstudents only started dancing this academic year, thus qualifying as beginners, and achieved absolutely outstanding results in the highly competitive Beginners’ categories, with approximately 140 couples competing in each event. Third year engineer Rajat Kale placed 15th and first year HSPS student Ella Trenberth placed 10th in the Beginners’ Cha Cha Cha. 

Jeremy Ingham, final year graduate medic and rising star on the dancesport horizon, achieved a phenomenal 3rd place in the Pre-Intermediate Latin, competing two categories above the usual Beginners’ category he would be eligible for.

In a complete blaze, the entirely Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çcouple Tom Barratt (1st year graduate medic) and Eloise Valasek (masters in genomic medicine) won almost everything there was to win in the Beginners’ categories across disciplines: placing 1st in Jive, 2nd in Cha Cha Cha, 5th in Quickstep and 9th in Waltz, and thus making three finals and one semifinal! Due to their spectacular results, they were additionally awarded the trophy for the best overall beginners couple – and thus won so many trophies that they weren’t able to hold them all at the same time for a photograph!

Boris Vasilev, formerly a Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çmasters student and now studying for a PhD at Corpus Christi, placed 8th in the final of the equally competitive Novice Latin category (129 couples). In the Ex-student Intermediate Ballroom category, Karol Langer, who completed his chemistry degree at Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çlast year, came 11th and Julia Becker, former Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çPhD student and current College Research Associate, made the final and placed 5th.

Now that one of the top two events in the dance year, the Inter-Varsity Dance Championships (IVDC), is over, the team will focus on the second major competition which is fast approaching: the annual Varsity match against Oxford, which will take place on 17th May 2025 at the University Sports Centre in Cambridge. CUDT, who have an unbeaten run of Varsity titles since 2012, will certainly not want to see that trophy make the sad journey to Oxford this year!

Image caption: Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çfinalists at IVDC 2025 (L to R): Jeremy Ingham, 3rd place Pre-Intermediate Latin; Eloise Valasek & Tom Barratt, 1st place Beginners Jive, 2nd place Beginners Cha Cha Cha, 5th place Beginners Quickstep, best overall Beginners couple; Julia Becker, 5th place Ex-student Intermediate Ballroom.