Het NTDS is een jaarlijks weekend evenement vol dansen, een toernooi, feesten, socializen, een show en veel meer. Het duurt van vrijdagavond tot zondag namiddag. Je kan het hele weekend op de locatie verblijven, waar eten en slaapplek wordt verzorgd.
Every year the NTDS has a new theme. This year the theme is Pajama party.
You'll find everything you need in our interactive packing list.
You can find the address here: Location.
Teams often discuss how they travel to the location. Ask in the group what the plans are or who has a seat available in their car. Or offer seats in your own car! Keep in mind that you'll be bringing a lot of stuff, especially if you sleep at the venue. Reserve enough space in your car and try packing as compactly as you can (e.g. with vaccuum bags).
Keep an eye on the page Location in the weeks before the NTDS. Here more information will be posted about parking facilities and public transport options.
The entire programme of the NTDS weekend can be found here.
You will arrive on Friday. You check in at the entrance and unpack your stuff at the sleeping hall. We recommend you make your bed now, rather than late at night. You go to the big hall, where all the dancing will be taking place. Are you blinddating? Make sure to be ready in time. Are you not blinddating? Then you can take your time, get settled and dance when the floor is available to everyone. After blinddating you can dance until late at night, or go to bed in time and be fully rested for your first competition day.
On Saturday you get up early, you have breakfast, pack your stuff (the sleeping halls need to be empty by 10:00) and get ready for the competition (e.g. clothing, hair, makeup, warming up). The competition will start at 9 a.m., but there will be time to get a few warm up dances in before that. The competition will take the entire morning and afternoon. Since there are multiple classes, you will have plenty of time to eat and rest inbetween dances. In the evening there will be a big theme dance party.
Sunday morning and afternoon are the same as Saturday. At the end of the competition we will end together and around 6 P.M. it's time to go home.
If you're not dancing on both days, you can make your own plans. Cheer on your team mates, or discover the city. Rotterdam has plenty to offer!
During the team presentation, every participating team will have the chance to do a short dance performance. What exactly you will do, will be discussed within your team.
Do you wish yo invite family or friends to come watch you during the day, or join the dancing during the party on Saturday night? We are still looking into the possibilities, but we're striving to welcome visitors both during the day and in the evening. More information about this will shortly be announced here: About.
During the event, food and drinks will be facilitated for all participants during the main meals. On Saturday, breakfast, lunch and dinner will be facilitated, and on Sunday, breakfast and lunch will be facilitated. We do advise you to bring some snacks as well.
At breakfast and lunch, coffee, tea, milk and juice will be available. During the evenings, the bar will be opened, where you can buy drinks. Naturally, water can be refilled infinitely.
Note: bring your own plate, cutlery and cup.
Allergies and dietary wishes will be taken into account, as long as our caterer can handle it. There will also be special food for vegetarians and vegans. This has to be mentioned during registration, as we need to communicate this with the caterer.
If you booked a sleeping spot when registering, you will have a sleeping spot in one of the three sleeping halls at the venue. These sleeping halls are in the same building, on crawling distance from the dance hall, but on different floors. As such, you will not have to worry about noise from the dance hall.
Every team will have an assigned area, so you will surely be with people you know. Do bring your own air mattress, pump, blanket and pillow.
As we have a limited number of sleeping spots and might have to reject people because of this, please let us know if you're not sleeping at the venue. You can report this to your team captain, so we can give your sleeping spot to someone else. This will have no effect on your registration. Due to administrative reasons, we can't offer discount to people who don't use the sleeping facilities.
There will be sufficient changing rooms with showers booked for the event. In addition to men's and women's changing rooms, there will be at least one gender-neutral changing room available as well.
The most important thing is for you to feel comfortable in your outfit. There are some standard types of outfits (see below), that you can use for inspiration, but this is not mandatory. However, it is important your outfit complies with a few rules. You will find these rules in the Clothing regulations.
Generally, the clothing as written below are worn during competitions.
Ballroom:
Leader: dance trousers and shirt, optionally with a waistcoat or jacket.
Follower: long dress or skirt with top/body
Latin:
Leader: dance trousers and plain shirt (often black)
Follower: short dress or skirt with top/body (as long as it complies to the clothing regulations)
As mentioned, the most important is for you to feel comfortable. As such, there are also many followers dancing in comfortable dance trousers.
During the NTDS, there will be 3 different main classes. At registration, you will be registered with one of these classes based on your experience:
More information about in which class you will end up, can be found here.
The Breitensport is a very big class. As such, it will start with a selection round, after which you will classify for one of four subclasses:
In this class, you will then compete against couples of similar level.
How the rounds work, depends on your class.
If you're in the Beginners class, you will start with a General Look. This round is meant for you to get familiar with the feeling of being on a competition floor. During this round, you will not be judged.
If you're in the Breitensport, you will start with a classification round. Based on the classification, you will be divided in one of four subclasses: Amateurs, Professionals, Masters, and Champions.
From this point, all the rounds are the same, and you will be competing with couples from similar levels. You start with a first round, after which you -either dance the re-dance, or are directly places through to the next round. So you will always dance at least twice in your class (or three times in the Beginners class). After the re-dance, some couples will be placed through to the next round and others will be eliminated. This repeats every round, until only the best couples of the class make it to the final, where they compete for a spot on the podium.
During the event, there will be a live timetable where you can see how many rounds there are.
Which dances you do, depends on your class and the specific round. The overview of dances per class and round you will find here.
No problem! On Friday night you will have the chance to find a partner (or two!) during blinddating. During blinddating, you will have 30 seconds to dance with someone, after which you switch to the next. This way you continue until you found yourself someone you'd like to dance the competition with. You can have different partners for Ballroom and Latin.
Many participants join the blinddating event. We make sure to maintain the lead/follow ratio, so that everyone can find themselves a partner. Although, due to last-minute cancellations, the ratio can not be fully guaranteed, we will do everything in our power to find everyone a dance partner, so no need to worry.
Here you can find the rules on blinddating.
Please find below all items that were lost & found at the NTDS 2024.
If you recognise any item as yours, please fill in here: https://bit.ly/NTDS2024LostFound
In addition, join the following NTDS2024-community Whatsapp group for delivery specifics: https://chat.whatsapp.com/BEkriM7xlel3rPRUXTcXTT
In the same way, we will try to finish all subsequent Merchandise deliveries.
We will have at least the following opportunities to deliver your items:
1. The Wubda gala (Saturday 23 March)
2. ODK (Open Drienerloos Kampioenschap, Saturday 6 April)
3. ETDS Enschede 2024 (17-20 May)
4. Pick-up in Delft
5. Make a different appointment
In order to make it even cozier in the home of this NTDS, we offer a selection of fun, home-designed merchandise. You can order them by logging into the portal with your participant account. Deadline: February 25
* The final result might deviate slightly from the pictures.
These pictures are the front and back of the same mug. Design: Elizabeta Koritnik.
This adorable sheep with shirt with NTDS logo is indispensable at every pajama party.
English (UK) 
Nederlands