The Final Comp-down

Do. Dododoo do. Dododo do do. Dododoo do. Dododo do do do do. It's the final comp-down!

Yes, that's a really bad 80s music reference. Sorry.

I'm pleased to say that after all the craziness of the previous pair of weeks, everything has started to calm down a bit. I won't go so far as to say that it's a dull roar - just a mild one. Guys n' Dolls rehearsals. Ballroom (we learned Tango last week!). Cuppers practice. Harry Potter 2 with Jenna. I would say it is a mild roar in my book. I even had the time to take a nice (albeit crucial) two hour nap on Saturday afternoon before spending the evening at a bop in the Keble MCR.

And then there was Sunday - the day of the Cuppers competition! What is Cuppers, you may ask? Ok, I know some of you may have cheated and read Partner's blog already, but I'm going to make you at least scan through my long-winded description anyway. Cuppers is officially the last dance competition of the year, and is an intramural competition held between all the colleges. In fact, as far as I know, every Oxford sport has a cuppers competition. cuppers rowing (it's called Torpids or Summer VIIIs depending on the term), cuppers fencing...

[Jenna random interjection via text message from London: "I saw a fox."]

... cuppers table tennis, cuppers croquet (!), cuppers football, and thus cuppers dancesport. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if there's was cuppers punting, but I will need to first verify that conjecture. At any rate, the nice thing about cuppers dancesport is that its aim is to bring more people into the addiction of dancesport. Fresh meat is always good, right?

Here is roughly how cuppers works. Each college that is participating enters multiples of four couples: one each for waltz, quickstep, cha cha, and jive (WQCJ). There is no limit to the number of couples each college may submit, but each couple must be comprised of one inexperienced dancer. In some cases, colleges end up with an uneven multiple of couples. Those couples are amalgamated with couples from other colleges to form four-couple groups, and the points are shared between the represented colleges.


The competition itself works like almost any other competition. Each round for each dance is completed in heats so after each round, a number of couples are eliminated. After the final has been held for each dance, the couples are all ranked and points allotted appropriately. Remember how each college was required to submit multiples of W,Q,C, and J couples? Once the points are allotted, each college's highest scoring W, Q, C, and J couples become their 'A Team'; their second highest W,Q,C, and J couples their 'B Team,' and so on. In doing so, each team's total points are summed and the teams are ranked.

Unfortunately, since Jenna and I are at different colleges and both count as experienced, we could not dance together in cuppers. In fact, she ended up being the only dancer in her college, so she played the role of Keble cheerleader this time around instead of participating. I, on the other hand, convinced Peter - another guy on the beginners team - to dance in cuppers as well; together we dragged along Roos and Madeleine from the MCR to be our inexperienced partners. Peter and Roos chose to tackle the waltz as their contribution while Madeleine and I developed a quickstep routine. We practiced once a week for only four weeks preceding the competition, so I was impressed that Madeleine could pick up a routine that included a couple rather challenging moves (like run down the floor, jump, and turn into a skip, always maintaining hold? Yeah, that was crazy).

On the day of the competition, nerves were running high. I confess that I was actually more nervous for cuppers than I was dancing at Varsity the week before. The stakes were much lower for cuppers and the routine much simpler, but somehow dancing with Jenna has become sort of... a security blanket? Nonetheless, Madeleine and my quickstep became smoother and more confident with each successive round. In the meantime, Peter and Roos were looking incredible with their waltz! Aside from a few nerves of their own, they smoothly glided across the dance floor looking like pros.

As the rounds quickly passed - trust me, there weren't that many of them - it was soon time for the finals. First: the waltz final. "But wait, what's that? You say we have to give a solo demo? Oh." Yes, in most big competitions, the advanced-level finalists get the opportunity to dance a few bars solo to 'introduce' themselves to the crowd. They never do that with the beginners competitions... but at cuppers they decided it would be great for the poor nervous inexperienced dancers! So alas, when Madeleine and I were the last couple called into the Q final, away we went on our demo. I have to admit, it was really fun... but it's a good thing we did the basic portion of the routine ;-)

See, I told you I would be long winded in my description of cuppers! The dancing that day was a total blast, and it was fun to see what the other inexperienced couples had learned. As for results - Roos and Peter came in 5th overall for their waltz, which was sufficient to place them on the Keble B team. Madeleine and I placed 2nd overall in the quickstep... but as the first place couple was also from Keble, we too were allotted a spot on the B team.

And what about the team results? Annually, Keble has quite a good showing at cuppers and this year was no exception. We fielded 13 couples in total, which was good for three full teams with one spare cha cha couple. With a lot of main and beginner team talent leading the way, Keble A team and Keble B team took first and second place respectively, meaning that Keble B beat every other college's A teams! Honestly, I was totally unsuspecting of Madeleine and I making 2nd in Q and making the 2nd place team overall, but that's a testament to her picking up the routine as well as she did! It was so nice to have a relaxing afternoon of dancing ... and oh yeah ... I may have snuck in a couple social dances with Partner when I had the odd chance :-) At last, with the final comp down (hence the title), I'm ready for loads of casual dancing until September!

And speaking of Jenna, I finally stole her away to Port Meadow on Monday; a walk I've been meaning to take for a long time now. Finally this week the weather showed signs of summer (yes, I was still wearing long sleeves and a sweatshirt through the weekend), so I took the belatedly blue skies as a sign to go for a stroll. To heighten our excitement, I chose to pass off my dSLR camera for the occasion, allowing Jenna free reign to take any free range flora and fauna she could capture. With the sun setting at 2100, leaving after work at 1700 allowed for plenty of time to meander our way up to The Trout Inn for dinner and back. Perhaps the six mile walk would have taken the average person only two hours, but we definitely required the entire four, as we soaked up the sun, the ambiance, the photos and the smiles.

If that wasn't good enough, the following day saw us back in ballroom class where we got to learn foxtrot!! Let me tell you how excited I am about foxtrot. It is INCREDIBLE. The music is so smooth and relaxing; the dancing is soulful and elegant. While likening foxtrot to a four-beat waltz, I really think this fails to express how much more we enjoyed foxtrot than the waltz. Sure, I will even admit to spending half of this morning listening to Van Morrison's 'Moondance' on repeat.

Dance often. It's a wonderful thing.