The Team - John Phillips
My Dancing career has had a very chequered 37 years. I have appeared on British TV, represented the United Kingdom at the World Latin American Team Championships, appeared in POP videos, failed my Silver Juvenile Ballroom Examination etc. to name a few.
Well that is a quick synopsis of the past years since the late 1960s when I persuaded my Mother that I wanted to start dancing, just like my younger sister ‘Lynette’. I did NOT want to go to the same class as she did, since it was full of GIRLS! I wanted her to teach me at home, since she was currently studying for her Professional examination, therefore I must have been her first pupil, and the first time I danced on a proper dance floor must have been when I took my first examination with the ‘Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing’ (I. S. T. D.) at ‘Cecil Sharp House’ in London!
For those of you that are NOT already bored in reading my dancing history you may now leave, the rest is even more boring!
I took my first examination, a Juvenile Bronze Ballroom exam, and I continued take regular exams with the I.S.T.D. in Ballroom and latterly in ‘Latin American’ until 1981 when I passed my ‘Alex Moore Award’, a ten dance examination over the five Latin dances, four Ballroom, and the ‘Viennese Waltz’ to make the ten. This was the highest examination available for an Amateur dancer, and still remains so today, as far as I am aware!
Having finished, and passed all my standard examinations available, I still had a hunger to Dance, although I had NOT told any friends etc. of my Dancing hobby!!!
I had been watching ‘Come Dancing’ on the BBC, late of the evening and I thought this looks fun, I would not mind having a go, however I needed to find a partner that was as keen as I was, and there was no one really available in, Mums Dancing School, they were all too young, since in the dancing world you are considered an Adult from the age of 16!
I therefore, with Mums assistance, went looking for a local dance partner in the Chelmsford, Essex area. We found one that was tall and lived very near to my home in Springfield, Chelmsford area. For the next two years, we went from the ‘Beginners’ grade through Novice to Intermediate rankings, and then following my ‘A’ Level exams, I was off to University.
Bristol University - Studying Chemistry.
When the Students Union sent out their introductory ‘blurb’ detailing all of the societies that were part of the Students Union I was very surprised to that there was a ‘Ballroom Dancing Society’ and mum suggested that I joined it. I pooh-poohed the idea saying it would be a group of half a dozen young girls that had a desire to dance, how wrong was I the weekly beginner’s class had around 300 members and split 50/50 between boys and girls! This was a pleasant shock, and when the boys were asked why they wanted to learn to dance the majority said they did not want to be embarrassed when their boss asked them for a dance, and they had to decline since they could not Ballroom Dance!
- Southern University Ball
- Inter University Ball
Penge Latin American Formation Team
- Closed British Championships Blackpool, Winter Gardens
- Open British Championships – Blackpool, Winter Gardens
- Come Dancing in Blackpool Tower Ballroom and Bournemouth International Centre
- Royal Command Performance – Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
- Record Breakers
- Generation Game
- Pet Shop Boys Feature Film – It Couldn’t Happen Hear It Couldn’t Happen Here
- Fairground Attraction – Find My Love - Pop Video.
- Represented UK at the World and European Formation Championships in Germany and Holland.
- Toured the USA for the ‘European and &UK Dance Tour’ to Provo, Utah and San Hose, California.
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Various Shows:
- Water Rats at the Grosvenor House Hotel
- Bromley Constitutional Club
- Hilton, London
And then...
Retired from Amature Dancing and started training for my Professional Dance Teacher with Mum, and took and passed the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing Examination.
