BIG BAND MEDLEY - HOOKED ON SWING!
QUICK LINKS
1967 2007
Hi everyone...my name is Gordon - I'm married to Glenys (for over 40 years now) our 40th Anniversary was back in October 2007. We live in an extensively modernised! late Victorian town house in the Old Town part of Swindon Wiltshire England UK and hence the title of the site I'm known in local Line Dancing circles as the "Rhinestone Cowboy" because I design and pattern all my own shirts covered in diamante and rhinestones! I use the shirt designing as a relaxing diversion from my working life!
I have been dancing (and playing) to all sorts of music for most of my adult life, I learnt to dance at a very early age , my Mother was a brilliant dancer and she taught me the rudiments of ballroom dancing when I was in my teens, about the age of 14 I think?. I grew up with the Big Band sound and I still love the big brassy sound o four trumpets, four trombones and five saxes! I learnt to dance in my early teens to all the big bands of that era and loved every minute of it!
My mother was also an accomplished pianist who played and sung at concerts quite often to entertain the troops during the Second World War. It is from her that I have inherited (if any!) my dancing and musical talents. It also passed down through me into her grandchildren as both our grown up children Kate and Richard are musicians. Kate has played both Flute and Guitar and was once a leading member of the Swindon Youth Orchestra, Richard played the Trumpet and Cornet in a Silver Band until his lip split and he gave it all up for health reasons. Glenys also went to Guitar lessons and played a combination of Folk and Blues. We still have in our music room the Yamaha flute, her acoustic guitar and my two keyboards.
FORTY
YEARS ON...
1966 2006
1967 - OUR FIRST XMAS
TOGETHER... AT
THE PIANO - FAMILY XMAS PARTY
I met Glen early in 1966 when I was working in the motor trade and she was working as a bank clerk at the District Bank (later changed it's name to NatWest). After the children were born she gave up work completely for a few years...and when they were at school worked as a school secretary part-time in between the school hours timetable. She then took some exams in accountancy to try and get back in to the banking profession. Later on when the kids were old enough to be left alone...she went to work for an accountancy firm to gain more experience. A few jobs later in 1989 she decided to go self-employed and for 12 years ran a very successful business doing accountancy services for small business...at one time had seven companies to organise at one time! In 2002...One of her clients offered her a full-time post as company accountant where she has been ever since...2006 is her retirement year but she intends to carry on part-time for a while afterwards. Apart from the obvious dancing hobbies...her other interest is in Patchwork and Quilting in which she has designed and made several quilts to be entered in exhibitions...and also taught workshops in various forms of quilting. Quite a clever lady in fact and I am very proud of her indeed.
Glen and I have now been married for nearly 42 years! So I reckon I made the right choice... That was it then, no more playing at anything! That was the 1966 World Cup year!! Sitting on her sofa watching the matches through to the final I have NEVER regretted saying if England win the World Cup I'll ask you to marry me!
We were at Wembley Stadium to see the final!!
We got engaged on her birthday 9th October 1966! Married on 14th October 1967...
For well over twenty five years I ran a driving school business full time and that was my main source of income as a self -employed DSA Approved Driving Instructor...although I started my career as a motor mechanic for Fourteen long years! After I had the heart attack in 1998 my outlook on life changed dramatically...I sat and passed all the IT exams for Oxbridge and City and Guilds in ten months and I then worked part-time as an IT teacher for the Swindon College annexe of the University of West of England...and also the University of Bath Oakfield Campus. In May 2006 I decided to take semi-retirement and now I design webs sites as a sideline...keeping this one updated is more than a a weekly task! I now also do all the PC support work for Glenys' company! Of course once every two months or so I manage to sit down (well stand up actually!) and choreograph a new dance....that's something else that keeps me busy!!
Sometimes I wonder how I ever found time to go to work?
DANCE MUSIC DANCE MUSIC DANCE MUSIC DANCE MUSIC
BACK ON OUR TV SCREENS NOW!...
CHECK OUT ALL THE CELEBRITY PAIRINGS ON THE WEBSITE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedancing
I ALSO MET ANGELA RIPPON
AT ONE OF BBC's "COME DANCING" SOUTH-WEST HEATS!
I started dancing ballroom seriously way back in 1958 when I was 19 years old... In 1962...dancing with a lady called Pauline Richards I came third in the West-Of-England all comers championship which was held at the "Glen" in Bristol (proper name Locarno). Pauline went on to become one of the West's well known dance teachers...for the next four years I was competing at high level with various dance partners in competitions all over the country. The combination of trying to juggle my job of work and the dancing... it was just too much to handle in the end. I couldn't get the dance practice each week I needed to retain the level so I stopped competitions in 1966. Also I had met Glen by then I had to keep her happy by not going off all over the place dancing with other females!! We started social dancing together early in 1967...and we've been together ever since.
After a lapse from competitions of about 15 years... when the kids had grown up a bit... we started doing Ballroom again seriously in 1983! We even went back to 'proper' classes for a year or so to get back to medal standard!
When I first met Glenys in 1966 I immediately introduced her to ballroom dancing! I taught Glen to dance (properly) in her front room to a range of LP's of Count Basie to Ted Heath and Victor Sylvester on an old Dansette record player. Before then her knowledge was limited to the barn dance at the school socials! Glenys and I have been dancing around the country to "big bands" for donkeys years doing Modern Ballroom and Latin American. As a coincidence one of our favourite ballroom dancing venues was the Cheltenham Town Hall with the Gordon Talbot Orchestra- as most of you know Cheltenham is the home of Heroes and Villains. We danced all over the country in famous places like the Lyceum in the Strand, the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, the Hammersmith Palais and most of the Mecca Dancing Circuit at some time or other.
For those who still go ballroom dancing as well as line dancing (like us!) let me tell you about our exploits in this field.
When you get to Bronze Medal standard you have to compete in five disciplines: Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Tango and one 'Latin' dance of your choice. Normally, most couples also add the choice of the Jive! Add two more extra dances to that lot in the shape off more 'Latin' options from a choice of Rhumba, Samba, or Cha-Cha you then add the Viennese Waltz and you are now up to Silver level. Add the Paso Doble as well to the remaining dances left on the list and you have reached Gold. Ten dances in all!
MY FAVOURITE BALLROOM DANCE IS THE FOXTROT - MY FAVOURITE LATIN DANCE IS THE SAMBA.
ITS ALL BALL GOWNS AND BOWTIES IN BALLROOM...
I FEEL MORE AT HOME IN A TUXEDO THAN A STETSON!
DANCE SHOES
BY
MY DANCE PARTNER IS A LOVELY LADY NAMED SYLVIA HUTT
CIRCA: 1964 - McILROYS BALLROOM- SWINDON
WEST OF ENGLAND JIVE COMPETITION
3RD PLACE...
A CHANGE OF STEP AND A CHANGE OF TEMPO
Most of my Line Dancing friends know that I had a heart attack in August 1998, as a result I suffered in consequence with unstable angina for over six months which eventually brought about me having to undergo a triple cardiac heart by-pass operation in March 1999! My heart problems curtailed my socialising a little bit for a while! I gave up ALL dancing for nearly a year ( a bit of a wrench!) whilst receiving rehabilitation from the heart attack and the surgery! Now due to the increase in exercise I'm healthier and a lot fitter now physically and mentally than I have been for years and years.
For the most of the Winter of 2005/6 I had been on medication for an enlarged Prostate gland...and it was getting worse by the minute! During one of our many weekends away in 2006...in March actually at Linda Brooks weekend in Dawlish Warren where I did the guest choreography spot the bladder seized up completely and I was rushed in an ambulance to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. Catheterisation was the only option and I spent the next three months waiting for the full TURPS operation which was performed in July...there was a growth which turned out to be benign thank God. So that's about it...I'm a survivor!!
....and I really do enjoy my Line Dancing!
NO MORE OVERWEIGHT!
FIT AS A BUTCHERS DOG!
So what made me take up line dancing? Good question? After the heart problems I had to take a lot of exercise and as the autumn and winter set in of that year i didn't fancy walking much in the rain and snow and ice!! Glen had been line dancing ever since we (I) stopped dancing ballroom...so she had a head start on me and eventually twisted my arm to go with her to a class just to see if I would like it? At that time Glen had been Line Dancing for over a year! It was her that encouraged me to try out Line Dancing to increase my exercise! I actually only started Line Dancing regularly and seriously back in December 2001. I turned up at the Heroes and Villains New Years Party 2001 in Swindon to video the evening and did a couple of dances!
I managed to struggle through Electric Slide and Black Coffee with a bit of help from Glen....and a few glasses of Dutch courage, - er that's why the video is shaky Anne! All lot of people have told me that I have come a long way in a very short time, I can only say that if this is the case it's all down having the best teachers and a lot of support from Glen and all the other Heroes and Villains and Di'Mond Spurs dancers.
My first proper class was on a Monday evening in Gorse Hill Community Centre - Swindon in January 2002! Having danced for most of my adult life it didn't take me too long to progress through the beginners class into the improvers level of dances, and then a few months later on to intermediates!
I would like take the opportunity to say special thanks to Anne and Steve, Diane Sykes, Sue Szulc, Pat Norwood, Ron and Sheila Waterfall, Carol Hyland and Amanda McGilligan, Helen Morris and anybody else I have forgotten for all their help and encouragement.
Glen and I now go Line Dancing (including our class) on average about three or four times a week to all the club disco/socials in the region and we practice the steps at home whenever we have some spare time! In the last three years we have completed two 24 Hour Line Dance Marathons, two 12 hour ones... and umpteen weekends away dancing all over the UK...and this year (2008) we have seven weekends booked for away trips dancing in Dawlish Warren (Twice), Bideford, Torquay (Twice), Cornwall (Twice) and the Island of Jersey ...busy year! Somewhere in amongst all that we have to fit in our annual holidays in May...we are heading for Italy again... also heading west again to spend a week with Glen's Auntie in the the town of Danbury Conn.USA...in September.
WE LIKE DRESSING UP AND PLAYING THE FOOL - TOO!
IN OCTOBER 2003 - AFTER BEING PUSHED INTO IT BY A FEW OF OUR DANCERS!
I did eventually get around to choreography at long last...
So that's about it really, the shirts and rhinestones came as an afterthought.
Once I had taken up Line Dancing seriously I wanted my dancewear to be individual to me, so it all started with a plain black shirt from Debenhams and a couple of strips of diamante. Next in line was the flared studded trousers glitter socks and shoes! The western boots came along later! Glen now has almost the same amount of black and diamante glitter tops as I have - if you can't beat 'em then join 'em.
A couple of old sparklers together - eh?
I have now got SIX sets of black and silver dancewear! Plus a bright red shirt with Eagles on it for Cornwall!
For dance classes and socials I wear a pair of ballroom Latin dance shoes... that have now done a few miles! The shoes are the same style and type used to be worn by Donnie Burns the ex -World Ballroom and Latin Champion! I have emptied all the steps out of the western style boots into my dancing shoes so I can remember how to do the dances! The problem is I'm mixing up my Foxtrots with my Fenua and my Shania's Moments with my Samba's!!
Some people have made comments about this...that I always dance like that anyway!
I have now bought myself another brand new pair of "Latin" Oxfords by Capezio - a lovely fit just like wearing slippers and lovely to dance with...I'm now using them as "posh shoes" and more recently I bought another pair of FREED Latinos in black nubuck for wearing at the 'really posh' disco's etc....and the many weekends away that we have.
The western style boots have been discarded (except for shows/demos and country and western evenings anyway!)
Oh yes...before you ask? Yes I do still have lots of my ballroom shoes as well!
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© 2007 RHINESTONE COWBOY LINE DANCING
© 2007 DI'MOND SPURS LINE DANCERS
