Unstoppable! 22 C&S
“And the winner is...”
These were the dreaded words to be heard by Dance UL’s four squads entered in the Dance Intervarsities held in Carlow IT recently. As 28 nervous UL students awaited the result, little were they to know that they would beat the other five colleges for 1st prize in not one category, but three! After six months of brainstorming ideas, choreographing, injured dancers, organising, rehearsing into the early hours many a night, not to mention cage building...yes, a cage, Dance UL showed on the day that a bit of hard work pays off well in the end. Having only been registered as a club for four months this time last year, Dance UL entered the Overall Category at last year’s Intervarsity held in DCU with a raunchy “ballet tango” encorporating hiphop, salsa and breakdancing. President Jennifer Brown made damn sure that UL would make their mark on the map first time round by winning the Overall category and raising the bar for all participants. The club then
Tuesday| 13 April 2010 | An Focal
went on to increasing their success when they won “Best New Club” in UL 2009. This year the pressure was on as the bar had been raised last year, and so must be raised further. Dance UL entered a squad in each category in the competition this year and really showed that they have the highest level of talent at Intervarsities once again. As guessed the standard was raised and it has to be said that all 6 colleges put on a great performance. Dance Captains; Jennifer Brown (Mixed), Rita Mc Donnell (Hiphop), Christelle Olivier-Dussault (Overalljazz) and Ciara Faber (Irish dance) made sure their squads brought everything to the table on the day. With a mixture of choreography from both captains and dancers on the squads the standard of these dances were outstanding to watch and partake in. But the results were in...Winning 1st place in the Irish dance, Overall (jazz) and Hiphop categories and a 3rd in the Mixed category, the sultry James Bond side to our native dance style, sexy, jazziness of the 1940s, badass girl street image and fantastically wild craziness that is the circus wowed the judges and brought the entire arena to a standing ovation
Members of UL Dance who cleaned up at the recent Intervarsities
at the end of UL’s final performance in the Mixed category. Carlow IT then hosted a great night out in the Foundry club where our very own lil hip-hopper Rachel Sheil, made it to the final of a dance battle running up against two b-boys from Carlow.
Exhausted, excited, a bit sore, but triumphant, the squads packed up their trophies, bags and cage and shipped themselves back home to Limerick to a warm bed for a great night’s sleep. All in all a worthwhile bit of work for a much
deserved result! Congratulations to all the dancers and a big thanks to our friends who pitched in helping prepare for the day. Dance UL can proudly sum themselves up in one word this year, unstoppable!
Short Skirts On Carrauntoohill
By Keith Young
On Sunday March 21 70 members of the OPC climbed Carrauntoohill in aid of the Irish Cancer Society. What set this apart from most charity hikes however was that it was completed in Drag by some members of the OPC. Leaving at 8am in the morning we all arrived in Killarney around 10am at which point most people bought their lunches while the rest decided to get pretty little outfits on. Items of clothing included a Skort (shorts and skirt, yes they actually do that), mini skirt, blonde wig and a charming baby blue blouse. Once everyone was kitted we made our way to the starting point of the hike and after a very motivational speech by leaders the group set off on the day ahead. I was quite honestly surprised with how people could take our leaders so seriously while we were standing in very short skirts, which they could see up if we were on higher ground, but they all managed to after a few giggles. After some spectacular ridge walks
and views the group summated the mountain in beautiful sunshine along with a refreshing breeze blowing up our skirts. We all then had lunch on the highest point in Ireland before taking a few photos to first show the achievement of everyone who made it to the top, but also to prove that we did climb it in Drag for all our wonderful sponsors. Descending everyone was hit with heavy rain and strong winds, so at this point it was time to put the skirts away and get into our rain gear to the dismay of most as I know everyone had enjoyed my unbelievably white legs. Everyone got back down safely however and in high spirits thanks to all our dedicated and able leaders without whom nothing in the OPC would be possible. The members themselves can’t be forgotten as without them there would be no OPC, no entertainment and everything would be a lot more boring in general. The entire day was a great success for the club having raised an estimated €2,500 for the Irish Cancer Society.
The brave members of OPC a top Carrauntoohill