Hi Brigitt

Your beautiful book arrived this week. I can not wait to have time to read it. It is so well designed and your dad s photos are beautiful.

Congratulations on your work.

Bonita Brockert, USA

The books have arrived!

Thank you. I am already enjoying my copy. The recipient of the 2nd copy was truly amazed, surprised and delighted. I am impressed with the quality of paper, binding, packaging, etc. You did a tremendous job.

Again, many thanks for all your hard work on the book and assistance getting my copies to me. It was well worth the wait.

Sharon Gorrell, USA

Brigitt

Just got the book today.

FANTASTIC !!!!

Thanks for the history I sure look forward to your next edition

SEE YA

Roger van Buren, USA

Dear Brigitt

What a wonderful,wonderful book !!!

My wife and I have often heard during our lessons, about Jo Bradley, Henry Jacques, Scriv, Benny, Peter, Dennis Udell [from whom we had lessons].

What a magnificent job you have done in reminding all of us of our beautiful world of Ballroom dancing and the heart and souls of all the Icons, that we should never ever forget!!!

Well Done and Thank You.

God Bless

Dennis & Joanne Tierney, USA

Hello Brigitt

Your beautiful book has arrived in pristine condition thank you so much.

I know we will have many many hours of pleasure delving into it.

With our very best wishes!

Hazel Wilson, Australia

From Dance Today magazine:

When Brigitt Mayer’s son turned to her and asked: “What is more important, your book or me?”, she knew that her desire to capture the stories of ballroom’s greatest names had taken over her life. Now, seven years after beginning Ballroom Icons, the completed work – 294 pages, 64 icons, two sections of dance history and 200 vintage photos – is published, but she admits it still feels “unfinished”. “It could have gone on forever. Every interview revealed something new, someone else I could have spoken to or something else to research. I just had to say, ‘this is it’ and get it printed,” she says.

The great names, those responsible for crafting ballroom dancing and evolving it into what we know today, are documented in words and pictures – from Victor Silvester and Josephine Bradley to Richard Gleave and Espen Salberg. Brigitt is the first to acknowledge that her readers will no doubt find “omissions”.

“When I started, I had a core group in mind and they were the key players I knew through my own experience as a dancer, but there were others I did not know about so the group grew as a result of those initial interviews. Bill and Bobbie Irvine were among those. I met them with my ideas for the book and how I envisaged its structure and they suggested many people that they thought I should include.”

Alison Gallagher-Hughes, Dance Today

Read the full article in Dance Today magazine (1Mb PDF file)

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)

Dear Brigitt

The book is fab! We wish you all the success; you deserve it. Its such a well produced memento of dance history and we are very proud to have been included. Thank you Love Mick and Lorna

Mick Stylianos and Lorna Lee

Liebe Brigitt

Vielen Dank für deine Mail und den Versand der Bücher. In ca. 4 Wochen haben wir eine interne Schulung und eine Tanzlehrerin soll über das Buch referieren, damit wir alle davon profitieren! Ich freue mich auch schon sehr, es meiner Mutter zu schenken.

Sagitta Renz, 2nd generation dance teacher