Reminiscing…
For those who have only been with us a short amount of time, it is safe to say we have a very colourful background, a tremendously efficient and proficient staff (this does not include me… especially efficient) and a reputation second to none for producing not just excellent medallists but also some of the Worlds’ leading dance champions of the current era.
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We still have some of the pupils who started with us, at the Bank Hotel, Knowle over 24 years ago, lots of the children who started with us 22 years ago in a wooden hut, including two of our current teachers Sarah and Claire, and many of the competitive pupils who trained with us over 25 years ago in Sparkhill of all places, one of whom, Jacqui who incidentally went on to be British Champion at all ages including Amateur and Professional champion, is now another of our very valued teachers. Elaine (and you all know Elaine) walked through the doors of what was originally known as MCC Dance and Leisure Centre on the second week we opened (she got lost the first week, she said it was foggy…. I think she was drunk) and has been with us ever since, seeing all of the changes, laid countless dance floors, drank millions of mugs of tea and taught a countless number of children many of whom went on to become Juvenile and Junior competitive champions.
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We started teaching Social Classes at the Bank Hotel, Ballroom one night a week (we were still competing ourselves at this stage and travelling all over the world teaching, demonstrating and competing) which was at the suggestion of our Bank Manager, who is still a very valued pupil and close friend. I would like to say, a brilliant dancer, but some develop slower than others… We then went on to buy a wooden hut in a field, not the most salubrious way to start but we were very proud of The MCC Dance and Leisure Centre, which lasted approximately two years before it became too small and with the help of Solihull Council and my friend the Bank Manager, demolished the shed to build a beautiful new ballroom… still in a field but now a slightly larger brick built shed which was to be called Encore (the place that gives you more… corny huh!).
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Three horses, a very noisy donkey, a family of foxes (that were continually turning the outside lights on and off), lots of sheep (who very often strolled into the studio to see what was going on, chased by an enthusiastic barking border collie), a herd of cows (that seemed to spend more time in our car park than in the field) and a Bull, who fortunately never broke through the fence, made up our neighbours. It would be very interesting to find out what the pupils who travelled from all over the world to visit Encore, made of the location, but we loved it…… well for three years, then it became too small again, so we bought another small piece of land from the council and extended into the paddock of the resident horses. They didn’t seem to mind too much after all an ever increasing number of children spent more time outside feeding them with carrots than taking notice of my teaching (nothing changes) and this form of bribery always seems to work with animals.
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So we now had a very large dance studio, mainly teaching competitors with a few social classes thrown in for good measure, and the location now seemed to be attracting more and more people wanting to use the studio for their wedding reception and guess what…. yup, it became too small and we needed to build another extension for a bar and reception area. For animal lovers, do not despair, we now encroached onto the car park area and bought a little piece of land that had a couple of years earlier been vacated by the Bull… so no displacement of livestock, although the foxes left at this stage, probably a little ‘pissed off’ with continually being disturbed by diggers and workmen, and the now increasing number of pupils walking (unbeknown to them) within a few yards of the lair. I personally missed the foxes because I had become good friends with the annual litter of cubs playing at night times on the car park when I left.
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And then, in 1999 the chance of a lifetime, TWO even bigger sheds in a bigger field not too far away, the owner keen to sell (so he said)and the council saying yes, meant another change. So reluctantly after seeing the new millennium in (and what we thought would be a new era) with hundreds of fireworks, we sold Encore in the firm knowledge that we would have an even better place within six months, BUT a little thing called a public enquiry initiated by the secretary of state, put the brakes on, good and proper. A six month nomadic dance life turned into a three year disaster. Numerous halls on varying and irregular nights lost almost three quarters of our pupils. A lack of suitably sized places in suitable locations meant we were unable to get a permanent home until following lots of wrangling with Solihull Council, we were given a special licence for one year to stay where we are today…. that was seven years ago. A small industrial unit that had probably had a condemned notice in 2003 became our ‘temporary home’.
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So now we are almost up to date, almost, because you nor I know what the next year will bring…. our dreamt of utopian ballroom in a big field which now has the backing of the government, council and Uncle Tom Cobly has found its way into court…. and we are not counting ours or anybody else’s chickens.
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The story continues, probably into the next few month’s newsletters…. we have a series already.