Our blokes would love ballroom if they gave it half a cha-cha-chance
World champion urges boys and men to take first step and start classes
It’s fun, sexy, exciting… and one of the biggest things on British TV with a worldwide audience in the hundreds of millions.
Ballroom dancing is undisputably massive across the globe. Except, it seems, for viewers in Scotland.
As men across Europe and Asia cha cha their way to glamour, glory and perfect 10s, there is such a dearth here that our top woman can’t find a homegrown partner. When Heather McNellis took the top prize at a World Cup Pro- Am World Championships last month in Dublin, she was dancing in the arms of her coach Bas Willems. Heather lost her last dance partner, Saulius Motuzis, who is Lithuanian, 12 months ago after he left Scotland to take up a new job in London. Dance coaches across the country say there are hardly any Scots trying to emulate 2017 Strictly Come Dancing winner Joe McFadden. Heather, 26, of Uddingston, Lanarkshire, said: “Ballroom dancing is huge among boys in countries across Europe where they teach it in schools, so there is no stigma attached when it comes to boys dancing – it’s even seen as cool. “But in this country, sadly, things aren’t the same. The only dancing most boys do at school is Scottish country dancing and that’s only usually before their Christmas dance.
“Strictly has such a huge fan base among both women and men but, somewhere along the way, boys aren’t seeing ballroom dancing as an activity for them as they go through their teens and into their 20s and 30s. “Quite a few attend ballroom dancing classes before their wedding and they take it up then socially. But there aren’t enough dancing professionally and we need to do more to change that.”
Former BBritish senior ballroom champion champi Alan Millar, who runs ddance studios across Scotland Scot with wife and dance dan partner Norma, said: sai “We have a number of young ladies who dance da at a very high level who wh we can’t find suitable male mal dance partners for.
“WWe even sent one of our ta lented young dancersdancer down to a coach iin LiverpLiverpool in the hope they could find a ppartner for her but, as yetyet, she still has no ppartner.
“Finding young men in this country who are willing to put in the time and effort needed in their late teens and early 20s to compete at a high level is a real problem.” Kevin Lafferty, who runs First 2 Dance, a Latin and ballroom school with classes across Lanarkshire, said: “In countries like Romania and Slovenia, ballroom dancing is held in high esteem, and it’s massive in places like China and Japan.
“But in this country our boys seem to take a little stick or ribbing about dancing. There is a fair bit of peer pressure to give up – from people who don’t get the physicality and athleticism involved.
“The only way we are going to turn that attitude around and show people how enjoyable and physically challenging ballroom and Latin dancing can be is through introducing it into schools, not just in terms of being an extracurricular activity but by making it part of the physical education programme.
“It should be an elective both girls and boys can take throughout their years at high school.
“And it’s not just a discipline that is good for your physical fitness, strength and flexibility but learning routines is good for cognitive function, memory and coordination too.”
Heather, whose husband Paul doesn’t dance, took up ballroom dancing after falling in love with the routines she watched on Strictly.
She said: “I always used to watch the show with my gran, who used to tell me stories about the days when she used to jive.
“Growing up, I always did dancing – mainly tap, ballet and disco – but there weren’t any ballroom dancing classes around where I
There is often peer pressure on boys to give up dancing
lived so, while I wanted to take up ballroom, there was no opportunity.” there was no opportunity.” there was no opportunity.” ballroom dancing society. She discovered she had a f lair for the discipline and began dancing in competitions. Just three years after taking up the hobby, she and Saulius became vicechampions at the Scottish Closed Championships. But t he i r success at the compet it ion was bit ter - sweet as Saulius quit as her dance partner the next day. Heather said: “It was tough to lose someone I was so u sed to dancing with but Saulius was moving to London because of his work. Thankfully, when one door closed, another opened, and I am now dancing with my dance coach.” Heather and Bas, who is from the Netherlands, took part in the Arthur Murray Worlld Cup Pro- Am World Championships, which were held on December 8 in Dublin. As amateur Heath her was dancing with professional dancer Bas, only her dancing skills were judged. She was crowned world champion at the event.
When Heather returned to Scotland, she celebrated her win with her gran May Gordon, 78, who inspired her love of dance.
Heather said: “Sadly, my gran was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease in her 60s and lives in a care home now but she still loves to dance.
“Every time I go and visit, we put the music on and she gets up and we have a wee shuffle about – that’s our thing together.”
Heather balances her love of ballroom and Latin dancing with her job as an accountant and running her own party business, Wish Upon a Star Entertainment, which sees her attend children’s parties dressed as Belle or Snow White.
The company has a team of artists who dress up as magical characters ranging from princesses to superheroes.
Heather got to feel like a real- l ife princess two years ago when she married her chemical engineer husband Paul on the same day Prince Harry married Meghan Markle.
She said: “We got married at Glasgow University and the BBC got in touch and asked if they could come along and film us since we were getting married on the same day as the Royal wedding.
“By the time a lot of our guests arrived at our evening reception, they had already seen our wedding on
the news.”