York Dancesport - Ballroom and Latin Dance Society University of York Ballroom and Latin American Dance Society

Well that's it (for another year, i've heard rumours of it all happening again next autumn already). York Come Dancing closed to the backdrop of a beautiful ending sequence, a worthy winner in Peter and Abi's Jive and the wonderful news that we raised over £1,300 for RAG.

That £1,300ish isn't a confirmed total, I should add. That's a minimum total of money raised, which programme sales and pure RAG donations still to be added, so there's even more good news for the RAG beneficiary charities in that respect.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed your evening- I certainly did. Everyone gave so much to this performance and I truly appriciate the work that so many people put in to prepare every aspect of the show. From organising videos and VTs to our publicity effort to the time spent casting, rehearsing and performing the show. Everyone deserves to be proud of their performance on the night- and I hope no-one's disappointed with their result.

Before this weekend i'd just left Jane Grenville's inbox alone for a few weeks. She'd confirmed her interest in the event a month or so ago and i'm very enthusiastic to bring her in as part of the show. She's another face on campus that's recogniseable even though she's not a student. Technically, some might say it's her job to be known by the student body as her title in Heslington Hall is Pro-Vice Chancellor for students. I'd certainly heard of her, and heard many things about her, but what was I expecting when I walked into the driveway of Heslington Hall (something i'd never done before) dropping by to teach one of the most senior members of the university how to dance? To be honest, I didn't really know.

It wasn't just our York Come Dancing dancers that have been training their partners for an event- I was lucky enough to be able to take part in Dancing In Need in Bridlington for Children in Need. It was one of the many "events where you are" that the main show went to from time to time. Unfortunately the local area was Lincolnshire and Humberside, and I know no-one from that area. Still, here's the link to the BBC website that shows about 2/3 of everyone's routine.

• Watch the video

Karen and I placed joint 4th on judges scores with 4 8's (but we were on second and the alcohol level of the judges (and their scores) rose with the competition). Still, the right couple won on the night and it was a great event for everyone watching. (oh, it won't be as good as York Come Dancing though ;) find out more on the bar on the left)

Dancesport lessons are back this Saturday, and we'll be welcoming a bunch of new members to the dancefloor as well as those who took part in previous years. The system's slightly different this year- so I thought i'd explain it in a blog post to make it a bit more clear.

This term our lessons are held on either Tuesday evenings or Saturday afternoons. This allows us to be more flexible for our members- so if you're a fresher this year and you want to try out dancesport, but it happens to clash with, say, fencing on a Tuesday night- you can come to Dancesport lessons on the Saturday! We're hoping that we'll get a great turnout this year and keep improving as a society to help you all have fun learning how to dance.

Right. Here's the next step in bringing York Come Dancing from conversations and scribbles in my notepad to the event that's going to be one of the biggest events of the year on campus. If you were wondering which "Campus Celebrities" got selected to represent which areas of campus on the dancefloor, you'll find it right here after they got announced on URY earlier this evening.

We've done our best to bring you some of the biggest names on campus, put them in the room with a Dancesport member and get them to learn a 1m 30s routine in an attempt to impress you. From the YUSU office, to the sports field and from campus stages to college chairs. Don't worry if you don't know them all, you can get to know them by following our training videos and interviews that'll emerge as practice gets underway.

Is it too early to have a favourite?