Dance whisperer’s steps to success
Emma Silke-French had a wee tear in her eye as her dancing novices took the floor at a sold-out Trafalgar Centre.
One by one they nailed their rumbas, sambas, jives, waltzes, tangos, foxtrots and cha-cha-chas in the public spotlight in the hugely successful Dancing For A Cause event on May 26.
Nine weeks earlier the eight contestants, including Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese, surgeon Ros Pochin, Victory Boxing Gym’s Paul Hampton, peanut butter king Pic Picot and chef Matt Bouterey, had first gathered at the Nelson Intermediate School hall.
A former junior national champion and professional dance teacher, Emma was asked to take on the job of getting them up to a standard to dance in public. What was she thinking on that first night?
‘‘Hmm, that it was going to be an interesting ride,’’ she says. ‘‘Let’s just say they all have come a hell of a long way since then.’’
Emma says she could tell straight away ‘‘who were going to be my problem children’’ , but the etiquette that all dancers learn stops her saying more. In the eight weeks of lessons that followed, she says, there were tears, some s...ing pants moments, physical distress and a bunch of nerves ahead of the big night.
Two of the contestants’ dance partners, including her cousin Brook Silke-Atkins, broke toes during rehearsals. The mayor also pulled a leg muscle, but she and the show went on.
It was an intense two months but beyond the occasional bout of wannabe dancer’s regret, ‘‘we had a lot of fun every night’’.
Dancing has been a part of the 36-year-old’s life since she was 6 and climbed the rickety fire escape to the Halifax St dance studio of Gaile French. Little did she know then, she was being taught by her future mother-in-law.
‘‘I loved it from the get-go,’’ she says. An energetic kid who ‘‘liked to show off’’, she says she had the knack of picking up dance steps easily.
At 17, she went to the World Youth Dance Championships.
Around the same time, her longtime dance partner gave up, and in stepped Derryn French, Gaile’s son, who had grown up around the dance classes run by his mother and father Robin.
The closeness and intensity of dance partners – ‘‘a personal bubble does not exist,’’ says Emma – saw the pair become life partners, too. ‘‘I couldn’t get away,’’ Derryn says.
They danced professionally for a number of years before turning to part-time teaching.
She and Derryn have added a third partnership to their lives, as owners of Sportswise Signs and Graphics in Stoke.
Emma says that despite ballroom dancing’s return to the limelight through the hugely popular Dancing With the Stars TV series, this has not yet translated into an increase in participants in Nelson.
But she was delighted that Dancing For A Cause raised more than $90,000 for Nelson Tasman Hospice, where friend and fellow dancer Claire Maxfield was cared for in her final days.
Emma was thrilled with how the dancers performed on the night. Would she do it next year? She gives a look as twinkling as her feet on the dance floor.
‘‘I think it’s fantastic for Nelson, but we have set the bar so high. Ask me again in a few months.’’
‘‘[The Dancing For A Cause contestants] all have come a hell of a long way.’’