Memory Lane
By Craig Fleming
From taboo to tangos
GLAMOUR, Movement, Fascination. Or, as playwright George Bernard Shaw once described it: A very crude attempt to get into the rhythm of life. We’re talking about ballroom dancing and there’s plenty of it going on until Friday at the 84th annual Blackpool Dance Festival.
From social taboo to social activity and Olympic sport, its metamorphosis has taken 100 years – little of which has been recorded. Until now. Who were the people who moved this field of dance to where it is today, loved by millions? This is the central question of a £105 a time coffee table book – Ballroom Icons – which Canada-based German-born dance teacher/coach and adjudicator Brigitt Mayer-Karakis has been working on for the last seven years.
The book, about people and their enthusiasm and tenacious love for ballroom dancing, was finally unveiled at the festival in the Winter Gardens last night at a glittering reception when the guest speaker was British Dance Council president Bryan Allen.
Described as a journey through the lives of dancers, doers and devotees of the ballroom world, this limited luxury edition of 2,500 books, no doubt soon to become a collector’s item, comes in a beautiful dark linen box with embossed print. There is a fold out with over 200 vintage pictures from the icons in action in their time, dating back to 1910, with testimonies from former world champions about their favourite icons.
Brigitt says: “Living in this field of dance for so long, it was my vision to create a book that through its format is a piece of art, and through its content a true and intriguing documentation of ballroom dance history. I hope that it is also a pleasure to read.”
A familiar local face in the book is Gill MacKenzie, who joined the Blackpool Tower Company publicity department in 1973 and, worked for successive owners Trusthouse Forte Leisure, First Leisure and Leisure Parcs.
Organiser of the Blackpool Dance Festival organiser from 1981 until her retirement in 2004, Gill is featured in pictures and words over four pages as the story of the festival unfolds, from its early years as very much a north of England championship to its world status today. This year’s event sees a total of 122 British couples and 1,685 foreign couples from a total of 58 countries taking part in the various Amateur, Senior and Professional Ballroom and Latin events.
Craig Fleming, The Blackpool Gazette
See the article from The Blackpool Gazette (345Kb PDF file)
