Supadance Team Match
22nd October 2006 : Oak Farm School, Farnborough
Back by popular demand (you stopped asking me not to do it!) - the Match Report...
Match Report
So, Supadance team matches, how do they work?
Well, during the long, hot summer months between the dizzying heights of the Nationwide (anyone thought of getting sponsorship from a certain building society?) finals at Blackpool in April and the stresses and strains of qualifying in October, there's not much in the way of dancesport competitions going on. So, in order to keep us from hanging round shopping centres in our hoodies causing trouble on Sundays, Mr Supadance (lord of all things dance-shoe related) invented a team competition in which dance schools from all over the country compete in regional leagues and then at a national finals for the coveted title of... well I'm not sure exactly, probably 'Supadance Champions' or something. Thus was born the Supadance league.
The actual mechanics of how teams go up and down the league places and what happens at the finals are, I'm afraid, rather beyond what my lowly maths degree prepared me for - perhaps one of our teachers would like to write a short masterclass for the website? However, the basic idea is that each school enters teams of four couples in the relevant age group (juvenile, junior, adult and senior) who then compete against teams from other schools. These take the form of 'team matches' in which each couple from the team dances four dances, two ballroom and two latin, in a random order, sitting down (sometimes) in between to cheer on their team-mates until they are not sure where they are, what they're doing or even what their name is. Then the 'officials' proclaim that some dancers were better than others and everyone goes home. Well, that's my basic understanding at least.
Anyway, you'll notice that I said this competition runs throughout the summer and yet the first you've heard about it on this website is in October?! Well, basically, I'm a bit lazy and didn't get round to writing match reports on the other Supadance matches that have already taken place this year, in fact this was the fourth and final one before the finals in Prestatyn on the 11th and 12th of November - sorry.
So, having explained (maybe) all that, the question that is on everyone's lips is, of course, how did Wright Rhythm do in these competitions? The answer is.... I'm not really sure. On the one measure that matters, the smile-o-meter, we were clearly in a league of our own, carried by very strong performances from they shortest squad members. On the dancing front I thought everyone put in very credible performances with many last minute partnerships being formed but I'm not able to tell you what the judges thought of us because I couldn't really tell.
The one result I did manage to discern from the frenzy of the prize giving and general marching about was that the Juniors won the second division despite their most consistent couple actually being juveniles and half the size of most other dancers - well done Nicole, Carys and all the other juniors, we'll be expecting a spectacular performance at the finals. I think the seniors came third in the seniors competition and forth in the adult second division?! And the adults came third in the first division (although that might have been first in the third division or 13th in the country!?!)
There were also several couples competitions which I should have been paying attention to but wasn't - sorry again - in my defence it was very hot and crowded in the ballroom so I spent most of my time outside playing at being an elephant... don't ask! If someone who was watching could let me know the, undoubtedly fantastic, results we achieved, please let me know.
Photos
Many thanks to Glen and Nicole who managed to embarrass me by taking much better photos with my camera than I did! The majority of the photos below are by them.