Holiday and Dance at Thistle London Heathrow Hotel
By Iris Findlay

Philip Wylie and Pam Peters of Holiday and Dance organised and presented a dance weekend in conjunction with Thistle London Heathrow Hotel from February 9–10, 2008, which featured an exciting programme for dancers of all grades. From the early afternoon onwards a constant stream of dancers from all over the country, as well as many from Ireland who are regular visitors to this event, made their way to the magnificent ballroom where Pam and Philip welcomed them before the afternoon tea dance. A “learn and improve” class was included with Philip, Gary Foster, Colin Mansbridge, James and Claire Taplin on hand to help.

At six o’clock the guests gathered for a wine reception and a very good meal, before returning to the ballroom for an evening of dancing, fun and a stunning ballroom and Latin demonstration by three young Chinese couples aged between 13 and 14. They were a joy to watch and their love of dance shone through in their performance.

Sunday was the Middlesex Mini Dance Festival Open Competition Day, commencing with the first rounds of the Open Junior and Juvenile ballroom and Latin events. For residents not wishing to watch competitions, more learn and improve sessions took place in another ballroom during the morning. During the Juvenile competitions, an Irish TV crew filmed young Irish couple Ryan Sirt and Erica Kelly for a programme that is due to be televised on April 15 at 8pm, called “Diary of a Show Biz Kid”. All the children danced very well, knowing they may be on the television!
Dan Malov and Molly Ward from Horsham won both the Ballroom and Latin Middlesex Open Juvenile trophies. Long Qi Yu and Audrey Siegel from China won the Middlesex Open Junior Ballroom Trophy with George Bowyer and Charlotte Sweeney from Petts Wood runners-up. Ya Nan Qiao and Yu Ting Wang won the Middlesex Open Junior Latin Trophy and Kun Xuan and Qiong Wu were runners-up. Both couples came from China. Stephen Arnold and Charlotte Cutler from Petts Wood won the Middlesex Open Amateur Ballroom trophy in their first outing together, and Ben Taylor and Hannah Louise Annetts were runners-up. The Open Senior Ballroom Trophy winners were Robert Hall and Jennie Dewar from Reading. The Open Over 50’s trophy went to Lawrence Pearson and Irene Jolley.

The modern prize presentations were made before the Latin section started with the Youth National Selection – a very exciting competition won by Jonas Kazlauskas and Jasmine Chan from Bournemouth, with Stanislav Wakeham and Natalia Klimova from Hove runners-up. Jonas and his partner Jasmine also won the Open Middlesex Amateur trophy in what was a very good day for them. The last trophy of the day, the Middlesex Open Senior, went to Ian and Jennifer Curson from South Norwood.

Philip thanked Colin Mansbridge and Christine of Going Dancing for the lovely music played over the weekend, Joy Weller for her company and scrutineering, the adjudicators Lynn Harman, Hazel Newberry, Mark Shutlar, John Wood, John Byrnes, James and Claire Taplin and Chairman Gary Foster for their hard work. Last but not least, he thanked the sponsors of the day’s event – Dance Today, Brackley’s of London and Sparkle Design. Those of us who stayed on another night then made the most of the rest of the evening, and we all agreed it had been a very entertaining weekend.

Photographs by Morrison Findlay