Cambridge Dancers' Club

We're students & residents who like to dance together! Our competitive teams are CUDT & CURnR. We will be trying out the Gibson hall for our social dancing on Fridays (while our usual venue, the grad.pad MDH, is closed for roof repairs).

Our next free taster session (ie with tuition) is at 6pm on Wednesday 19th April in the Gibson hall of Downing Place United Reformed Church (Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DS).

To join us: turn up at a class, fill in a registration form, pay the relevant fee, receive your membership card for the academic year and start dancing. NB The membership card includes some free class boxes to use but after that there's a per-class fee once you've had a chance to try the different styles and select the one(s) you like.

Coming Up

Easter/exam 2023 term

Classes will run from Monday 24th April to Thursday 15th June with some interference from bank holidays, exams, competitions etc. Exceptions to the regular timetable are noted below.

There are some ongoing practices and a few DanceSport competitions.

Week 6 (May 29): bank holiday Monday = no classes with Clive.
Kath plans to teach beginners quickstep then a quickstep workshop.
Youlie will teach foxtrot + samba, then tango + cha-cha.
Ben & Stef are away so Thursday 1st June is a longer practice.

Week 7 (June 5): normal classes.
Kath plans to teach beginners jive then a jive workshop.
Youlie will teach waltz + jive, then foxtrot + samba.

Week 8 (June 12): normal classes.
Kath plans to teach beginners waltz then a waltz workshop.
Youlie will teach quickstep + rumba, then waltz + jive.
Liger competition is Saturday 17 June (hosted by Imperial in London).

Summer 2023 holidays

Cuppers (the inter-collegiate competition) will be somewhere in the week of 19-23rd of June.

There might be a few ongoing classes - to be decided.

Classes and Practices

Classes

Most competitive dancers need to attend a matched pair of dancesport classes per week (ballroom & latin specialisms or RnR footwork & acrobatics). Whereas social dancers are more likely to attend just one regular weekly class in their chosen style(s).

You don't need to have your own partner to join our classes; although many people do have one or more preferred dance partners by the time they've left beginners and improvers and reached the intermediates or advanced levels. Similarly, you don't need specialist clothes or shoes when you start learning to dance.

Practices

Practising away from taught classes is the way to get better faster. It's also the end goal of social dancing, whereas dancesport dancers have competitions.

Our regular social dance practice is called General Dancing and is free to attend, even for non-club members. We try to run it on as many Friday evenings as possible. This is the place to bring visiting friends & family, including children. It's not a formal event, like a ball, so there's no need to dress up.

Our dancesport practice sessions are really only suitable for advanced dancers to train and require club membership & termly subscription fees (or per session fee) to attend. If you attend practices at Kelsey Kerridge, you'll also need to pay KK's own day/membership fee.

See the ongoing practice list.

Events

We're still holding occasional tea dances but no big ball dates have been planned yet.

Private Lessons

The CDC as a whole does not arrange private lessons for people. Those teachers who are willing to have their details made public are included on our links page (and if you attend regular CDC classes you may approach the teachers there too). However, if you are already on the DanceSport teams or are hoping to be selected, you may be able to arrange for a private lesson with one of the team coaches. Contact the CUDT Secretary to book a specific time slot. Non-team people should contact the new CDC competitive group to find out if there are any spare private lesson slots available with the coaches.

Promotions and Contacts

CDC T-shirts

The competitive teams have their own "stash" items but we are now able to offer CDC logo T-shirts again. The price is £8 each. The sizes range from adult small to extra-large (with most women being small or medium and most men being medium upwards). The new batch have red print on a black T-shirt and include some which are printed on the back instead for people who want to wear them while partner dancing; but we do also have a few other colour combinations left from the previous batch. See a committee member or email to arrange to purchase one.

CDC : : + (group) :
CUDT : : : :
CURnR : (page) + (private group)
CDC Competes on the open circuit (group)