Page 35 - Eclipse - RVC Alumni Magazine - Autumn 2020

STUDENT NEWS
The RVC's Dance Competition team
Helaina Cressy, Dance Society President Elect
The final event of the 2019-2020 season for RVC Dance found us at Buckinghamshire New University, home of the BUCS Dance Competition. With five dances we had performed the week before and another secret wildcard tucked up our sleeve, the team of 31 dancers and all our beloved supporters were up bright and early to prepare for the day.
Leading up to that day were weeks of evening rehearsals, endless scribbles in my choreographer’s notebook and the faff of organising costumes for nearly 20 people in each dance. As it was our final time performing the dances we’d developed over the course of the year, the nerves we had the week before were barely there, as we were doing what the RVC Dance team does best: enjoy ourselves.
Ballet got the day started, before a very swift costume change for many as we began the Tap section, a number we eventually placed second in! Afterwards:
Jazz, Contemporary, and our American Country wildcard.
Then the entire RVC team assembled
to perform our jointly choreographed dance to ‘This Is Me’. Every style of dance was crammed into this number, and our identities written on our t-shirts earned us a standing ovation and the title of ‘Best Overall Performance’ of the competition. Tears were shed both on and off stage, for what was probably the proudest moment in RVC Dance’s history!
This year, RVC Dance is endeavouring to split from the Performing Arts Society and form our own independent society. We might not be doing dance degrees like most of our competitors, we just dance because we love it and it brings us together as a family. We’ve grown
so much over the last few years in both numbers and skill that we know it’s our time to push ahead alone, and hopefully continue to grow!
Photography by Chantelle Leanne Edwards
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