Sunday, 9 December 2007 - 1:07 PM GMT

Name: "kermitthefrog20"

 2007-12-09 13:00:10

Gary’s tale.
I st. round
My introduction to the Ballroom world was when a when a young girl asked me to dance at a wedding, being able to do anything as I could at the age of 10 I said yes and promptly fell all over her during my rendition of the Waltz. Most upset I slinked back to my seat, sipped a little of mums Guinness, it was for the iron you know, and resolved to go to Victor Sylvester’s Saturday morning at the Liverpool Odeon to make sure it never happened again. Lousy dancers didn’t pull in those days, the close together thing always gave you away so a few months went by and I graduated to Alan Jolliffe’s proper school of dance in East Prescot Road, Old Swan, Liverpool, I think it’s a Chinese restaurant now.
Humble beginnings took me to the British Ballroom Championships at Blackpool where one recall was considered brilliant, you couldn’t miss me really a small fat cherub travelling at 90mph round the tower to the strains of Charlie Barlow’s orchestra playing this could be the start of something big, little did I know.Then I met the man himself.
The real intro to the Danceworld was when I was brought to Eric, Lashy as they called him, never found out why. You were selected for lessons if deemed talented enough, thus started a love hate relationship with a business ( Hobby ?) which at best has you at number one, loved and revered by all, and hated by even more than all, at worst cramped muscles, left out of the invites, and harassed by your main rivals mothers, god rest them in a hole. But the love of it wins out as nothing can buy or equal the highs and experiences at such an early age, of accomplishments a lot of people will enjoy in a lifetime. This also develops a sense of competition and creates an inner drive which you apply to everything, especially when battling with your friends and foes on a regular basis. You become very focused on being the best, and even more focused on their female partners, as some of the guys were a bit slow off the mark and others were looking at each other, this aspect always added a bit more spice to it, and usually cost me a few placings on the odd occasion when caught out with a famous adjudicators daughter. ( This was all before Brendan Cole)
My second year at Blackpool was a different story, reaching 2nd place in the North of England Junior Championships, and making 3rd place in the British to Kenny Welsh’s 1st . This was the first real high of my budding dance career, returning the next year to try and win was a combination of the two as the excitement and strain of the final Tango was too much for my partner’s neck and it did a semi-excorcist in the Tango. Aided and repaired by  Major Hancox, a man I really enjoyed not being happy with, we returned to the floor and took first place in the N.O.E. even though his partner who was judging managed to award virtually all fifth placings to our performance, so the paradox began.
The theory was you carried on to win the British Open a couple of days later, but this was not to be, the twisted neck, or the fact that we just weren’t good enough, made a third place the position awarded. As a low it was one of the first, biggest, and probably the most difficult to accept, there were plenty of twisted  muscles, straight spirits, and commiserating with my mate yooeew that night.          

 

Tales of Eric to Follow