Glitter, Dunncing & Santa Claus – the Dunn School celebrates Christmas!
Students and staff members of the Dunn School celebrated the festive season with the annual Christmas Party, which took place on Friday 8th December 2017. Over 250 workers and relatives enjoyed an evening of fun, in a party organised by the James, Sattentau and Norbury labs that included activities for all ages.
The Dunn School library was turned into a children’s entertainment room, delivering crafty activities, a kid’s movie and a special visit from Father Christmas (a true Free-man!). For the adults, music and mulled wine kick-started the evening, and dishes brought by attendees provided food for everyone. Angela Moncada, Clemence Levet, Kyo Ikeda and Rita Richards won cooking books as prizes for best fish, meat, vegetarian/vegan and sweet dishes, respectively.
Like every year, the Dunn School Christmas Charity Raffle was a great success; this time raising a record £1900 to champion the work of Homeless Oxfordshire, a charity that helps rough sleepers from across the county by providing them with accommodation and support.
The brand-new activity of the party was a “Strictly Come Dunncing” competition, featuring 12 couples (from different labs and offices within the Dunn School), who had prepared either a tango or a salsa routine. A judging panel, led by Dr Martin Reichhardt –former Danish Professional Champion (no less than 7 times) and Postdoctoral Scientist in the Lea lab– crowned the couple formed by graduate student Lucia Rampazzo and electrical facilities manager Wayne Swan as overall winners, after a captivating dance-off.
“The Dunncing competition was a great idea to involve different people of the department. I believe that our “personal interpretation” of salsa charmed the judges and everyone around!” said winner Lucia Rampazzo. “It’s fair to say that I enjoyed the evening and being crowned champion was great; something to tell my grandchildren in years to come” added her partner Wayne Swan.
“I was so happy to see how much the dancers managed to learn in such a short space of time. They were on point and I really enjoyed the fact that they put on a good SHOW, especially the winners! It was clearly appreciated by the audience –the atmosphere was boiling” Dr Martin Reichhardt said.
Those with a sporty spirit also had a chance to dazzle attendees with great rallies in table tennis –with graduate student Ben Nilsson finally winning the tournament. To end the evening, live music came from the hands of Dunn School-resident band “DunnPlugged”, who covered crowd-pleasing songs and got everybody dancing.
Anna Caballe (@caballe_anna)
