Rhodes dancers shine

Despite sending a number of inexperienced dancers to the Arnold Classic Games in Johannesburg (5-7 May), Rhodes DanceSport shone, claiming four podium finishes and 13 call-backs to the finals.

The club took seven couples who competed in levels ranging from one to four for both Standard Ballroom and Latin, while also entering two couples in the dress-section Novice Ballroom division.

The dress-section couples entered in the open Ballroom section, which allows Novice, Pre-Champ, and Championship couples to compete together.

The Damon Hook & Zinhle Mavuso and Jomiro Eming & Tasmin Randall pairs picked up podium finishes for level 3 ballroom, finishing second and third respectively. Amy Bailey & Khaka Mpofu picked up a second place finish in the Novice Ballroom competition, while Sanele Windvoel & Tshepiso Manaka finished third in the All Girls ballroom.

Eming, the media representative for Rhodes DanceSport, expressed delight not only with his performance, but with the club as a whole.

He said: "The drive was tough and we knew we were crazy for travelling so far in order to dance for about 7 minutes each in total, but even despite being so tired, I was ecstatic that my new partner and I managed to place so well in a new, higher level. The same goes for our couples in general, most of whom were either in new levels, with new partners, or a combination of the two."

Having lived up to expectations at this national competition, the club is now preparing for their next one - July’s University Sport South Africa (USSA) games in East London. Having sent out a strong statement of intent, they are looking to follow it up with yet more medals.