TUD dance crew’s big day

TUD have won the Hip Hop Intervarsity Dance Competition 2024 which took place in The Helix in DCU.

Preparation began in September for the competition between all colleges across Ireland that chose to enter.

“It is really difficult but so rewarding”, dancer Hayley Hughes told me.

“It is not just about where we come in the competition but also all the friends I have made and it is so fun to be able to show off our skills to all the other colleges,” Hayley told me before the competition.

This is the fifth time since 2018 that TUD has won the annual competition.

This win included a perfect score from one of the judges, something that Hayley said was “virtually impossible” when talking to the dancer.

TUD contemporary team also did very well, coming third which is their best-ever finish.

The hip-hop dance crew is versed in multiple styles of dancing.

Afro, vogueing, krump and house are just some of the different styles the TUD dancers have mastered over the five months together.

Choreographers include Ailis O’Connor, Liam Stuart, Saoirse Fitzgerald, Kessiena Unuakpor, and Stuart Burke.

Despite just being students, this team of choreographers won the prestigious Best Choreography Award.

This is a massive feat as most dance crews around the country would have experts come in from leading dance studios.

“I can’t praise them highly enough, without them we wouldn’t have had a hope of winning,” a delighted Hayley Hughes told me after TUD were announced as winners.

TUD holds dance classes outside of their crew training sessions that members of the public can go to in Lower House on the TUD Grangegorman campus.

Here is the link for these classes. https://www.eventbrite.ie/o/tu-dublin-city-campus-dance-society-19157727892

Featured image photo credit: TUD Dance Society