On the 1st of December 2012 Royal Holloway, University of London’s Dance Society hosted their inter-university dance competition ‘Get Down @ RHUL’. Ten different universities came to the little town of Egham, Surrey to compete. In total around 400 spectators and competitors packed themselves into Royal Holloway’s Students’ Union for the day. Throughout the preparation for this event and on the actual day Dance Society raised an amazing £1200 in aid of danceaid.
RHUL Dance Society had a great time in the lead up to and on the day of ‘Get Down @RHUL’, choreographing and rehearsing, fundraising for danceaid and preparing to welcome over 400 students, family members and friends through the doors.
Dance Society held fundraising events such as the ‘Onesie Walk to Windsor’; five-hour marathons walk to Windsor and back in animal onesies. A ‘Gangnam Style Dance-a-Thon; teaching students on campus the real routine to Gangnam Style and events to launch the competition such as the ‘Opening Party for ‘Get Down @ RHUL 2012’; showcasing team RHUL’s routines before the day. All of this has helped them reach their target of £1200 for danceaid! At RHUL Dance, we all hope the money will help the charity to really make a difference to the lives of less fortunate, vulnerable children around the world; and we would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped us reach our target.
The competition itself was an amazing success and RHUL Dance received roaring feedback from all participating universities about the efficient and enjoyable day at ‘Get Down @ RHUL’. RHUL Dance was thrilled to have three danceaid patrons, professionals in their field, as judges on the day and to perform their dazzling demos. The judging panel included Hugo Cortes, who is currently appearing in the West End Musical Stomp! Lizzie Gough, who was a finalist on ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ UK Series 1 and a judge for UDO World/British StreetDance Championships, and Caramel Soldier who is a top UK house dancer and tapper and has worked with artists such as Usher.
All three judges were brilliant and we were very grateful they offered their experience, inspiration and support to help us host a successful competition and raise money for danceaid. To top it off RHUL Dance left the competition with 3rd Place for their Tap Team!
The Students’ Union at Royal Holloway has never been so packed full of people who have so much passion for dance and we really enjoyed hosted this amazing event, which has brought so much awareness and joy for inter-university relations and for the amazing work of danceaid. We would really like to thank Laura Wilson for helping us so much in the preparation for the competition and a massive thank you to every university who came, cheered and competed. We will never forget the pumping atmosphere throughout the day with teams cheering each other, the dancers buzzing around the building and the mass crowd of energy that burst into life during the dance-off that ended the day!
To add to the amazing success RHUL Dance Society has experienced from their competition, on the 9th of February 2013 at Royal Holloway’s Societies, Rag and Media Ball, Dance Society was presented with the prestigious award of Best Event 2012/2013 for ‘Get Down @ RHUL 2012’. The award was given to Dance Society for the success, innovation, publication and attendance of ‘Get Down @ RHUL’ and Dance Society was honoured to win this award over every other successful event hosted at Royal Holloway this year. We were overjoyed to win this award and would like to thank everyone who made it possible for us to. After the success from this year we can’t wait to host ‘Get Down @ RHUL 2013’ and hope for an even bigger and better competition, attendance and fundraising and support for the amazing charity danceaid!