European Tournament for Dancing Students


The European Tournament for Dancing Students is a biannual Ballroom and Latin-American dance competition for university students across Europe.
Established in 1989 by German university teams from Clausthal, Braunschweig, and Kiel, it brings together dancers of various skill levels for a weekend of competition, social events, and cultural exchange. The tournament is hosted by different universities each edition, rotating across European cities. While primarily an international student sporting event, the ETDS also emphasizes inclusivity, social interaction, and community-building among international student dance societies.
Since its inception, the tournament has evolved significantly, with milestones such as the introduction of the iconic Tanzmaus trophy, the establishment of multiple skill categories, and its expansion into Continental Europe. Notably, the event welcomes both Students and Alumni to participate.'' The ETDS has been mostly hosted in Germany and the Netherlands, but since the 2010's has expanded into the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and, for the first time in 2025, Switzerland.
With each edition, ETDS continues to unite dancers from diverse backgrounds, maintaining its reputation as a cornerstone of the European student dance scene.

Format

The ETDS spans four days, commencing on a Friday evening and concluding on Monday morning. While each ETDS is individual in its rules, contents and schedule, the event typically includes:Blind date program: On Friday evening, the vast majority of the Breitensport category pair up. The tournament uniquely enters most of its dancers as individuals to pair up just for the weekend, rather than couples.Competitions: Across Saturday and Sunday, participants take part in Ballroom and Latin Dancesport. This includes competing in DanceSport with their "Blind Date" partners, or "Jack and Jill" style.Social Events: Recent ETDS' have included a Themed party on Saturday and a Gala Ball on Sunday evening.Logistics: The hosting university provides sleeping accommodations and catering for participants and volunteers.
Additional events have been included to individual tournaments at the discretion of the organisers, such as the University Team Match/Varsity, Discofox, Salsa and Polka.

Organisation

Each ETDS is hosted by a different university dance association. The competition location changes biannually, primarily occurring in Germany and the Netherlands. The 2015 edition in Brno, Czech Republic, marked the first instance of the tournament being held outside these two countries. The 68th ETDS in Southampton, UK, was the first to be hosted in the United Kingdom. The 69th ETDS in Wettingen was the first in Switzerland.

History

The European Tournament for Dancing Students began as a small gathering of university dance teams from Clausthal, Braunschweig, and Kiel, who sought to connect through friendly competition. In its earliest days, the event was organized on an ad-hoc basis, with participants easily finding accommodation due to the small numbers.
A defining tradition emerged in November 1990 with the introduction of der Tanzmaus, a plush mouse awarded to the winning university, who would "host" it until the next tournament. Donated by the University of Kiel, Clausthal was the first to claim this prize. As word spread, the tournament grew. By December 1991, Berlin had joined, eventually hosting the event during Sinterklaas in 1993. The early tournaments had no separate skill divisions, and teams of all levels competed together.
Over the next few years, participation expanded. Dortmund joined in April 1992, followed later by Ulm and Marburg. By the spring of 1994, ETDS had gained momentum, with 15 German universities involved. That same year, the Netherlands entered the competition, with teams from Delft, Eindhoven, Mainz, Geisenheim, and Kaiserslautern. However, the rapid growth brought challenges. In autumn 1994, administrative issues in Kiel resulted in the university being barred from hosting for five years. The following spring, ETDS introduced skill divisions, splitting competitors into "Amateurs" and "Profis." Leipzig also joined at this time.
In the summer of 1995, ETDS reached a new milestone—it was held outside of Germany for the first time, with Eindhoven hosting in the Netherlands. The event had now evolved from an informal gathering into a biannual tradition, occurring every Pentecost and autumn at a rotating university. Groningen joined this same year. By 2004, a third skill division, "Masters," was added to the Breitensport section. At the 41st tournament in 2009 hosted in Groningen, over 500 dancers competed, leading to the creation of the "Champions" category. Just three years later, at Pentecost in 2012, ETDS welcomed 570 participants.
Expansion beyond its founding countries came in October 2015, when Brno, Czech Republic, became the first non-German or Dutch host. The international reach of ETDS continued to grow, culminating in two historic editions in the Southampton, United Kingdom and Wettingen, Switzerland, the first in both countries.The UK version welcomed British university teams on a large scale, with participants from universities including Imperial College London, University of Bath, University of Cambridge, University of London, University of Oxford, University of St Andrews and many more. This ETDS spearheaded a joint effort between the University of Bristol and the University of Southampton. The Swiss ETDS was acclaimed for its tournament quality and organisation. This also makes history as the first time two consecutive tournaments have taken place outside Germany and the Netherlands.

Competition Structure

Because the focus of each individual organization alters the balance between social orientation and competition, Each ETDS to a degree is individual. Nevertheless, participants typically expect the following rules during each tournament:

Structure

Dancers can sign up for two disciplines, Ballroom/Standard Dance and Latin-American Dance. Dancers are divided into categories based on experience:Breitensport Class: German for amateur sport, the Breitensport category hosts the majority of competitors, and begins with a qualifier to sort competitors into six categories based on level.
Past levels have been named Enthusiasts, Amateurs, Professionals, Masters, Champions and Legends. Open Class: For advanced dancers, generally equivalent to B to S class competitors in WDSF, A to S Class in the NADB, and Prechamp/Amateur in WDC.
Due to the increasing standard of University dancing, some hosting universities decide to provide another separate tournament for a class called CloseD, which consists of dancers of the class one class below Open. The name is the opposite of the Open class and also shows by the capitalized letters the DTV tournament classes assigned to the CloseD at inception. This has appeared as a separate category, a repechage or the lower result of a qualifying round which splits the Open Class.
These tournaments rules are decided by the organisers and the governing body Stichting Dansende Studenten. There are winner's certificates and medals for all participants in the finals as well as trophies for the podium finishers, in some instances organisers design their own trophies and awards.

Adjudication

The adjudicators usually are volunteers from the ETDS community. Adjudicators are selected by their adjudicator's license, by their experience adjudicating previous ETDS' or by their competitive level.

Nationalities

Every European university or student dance society can participate.
The record for the most teams participating in an ETDS was set at 68th ETDS Southampton, where 50 teams from 11 countries took part.
Society NameUniversityCountryNotes
Unitanz AachenUniversity of AachenGermany