It’ s been an amazing week. On Thursday five of my wonderful dance teachers performed at an event organised by Credit Suisse to raise money for Place2B, a charity supporting children facing emotional trauma. Our dancers trained five directors of the bank over a period of a month and then they performed in a “Strictly” style competition. The transformation of these people who had never danced any ballroom or Latin steps before was remarkable.
I was one of the judges and took the Arlene Phillips role, due to my experience of dancing. My team and their partners were so brilliant and I was extremely proud of everyone who took part. The event raised over £65,000 via sponsorship and we are intending to offer this to other charities – perhaps getting some of the other banks to compete against each other.
On Friday my sister Karen and I went to a social dance. We watched performances from some of the top competitors from the previous night’s International Dance Competition at the Royal Albert Hall which were spectacular. Then we had the opportunity of dancing with our wonderful partners who are professional dancers. I was lucky enough to be dancing with Josh Keefe, who has become a very good friend. The previous night he and his partner Sara made the semi final in the Latin Professional section at the Albert Hall and they came fourth in the Latin Rising Star section. Imagine my delight to be able to spend the entire evening dancing with him. Karen was partnered by Rafal, one of our fabulous teachers.
There were times when we were the only people on the floor and I think we did Simply Dancing Partners proud. For us it is like waking up in the middle of a dream, and we hope it never ends.