With all the criticism of people with previous dance training, I wondered how many of us had previous dance training? If one of us suddenly became famous overnight and was asked to go on Strictly, who would the forum members be making threads about?


What training have you had?

I did country dancing at primary school (it was compulsory).

I did ballet as a child, then as an adult have done jazz dance for >10 years + some barre classes + beginner's ballroom and latin course as a result of watching strictly.

I have done ballet, country dancing and ballroom dancing at classes.

taught dance for nearly 40 years

Did ballet, tap and modern as a kid for years. Didn't wow anyone with my immense talent I must say.

Doing latin in ballroom now (thanks strictly!) and have done so for less than a year. Whether I'm any good or not I absolutely love it. Wish I'd discovered it sooner!

Ballet and tap as a kid

Ballroom lessons now. Gold star star level. Some medallist and inter school competitions. Looking to compete in open.

I spent most of the 90s off my face on disco biscuits leaping around podiums draped in feather boas and dayglow outfits.....does that count?

How come you remember it?

Always wanted to dance but family needs never left any time for it though I did do Ice Dancing for a while.
Then when I retired from work I decided to give it a go. I have been taking dance lessons now for 9 years and have Ballroom and latin medals up to Gold Bar. I just simply love it.

The usual tap and ballet as a child, then adult tap and belly dance (for truth!).

In my teenage years I competed in disco comps - and won, on the rare occasion. When I think back to it now I could cringe myself inside out!

Did ballet, tap, modern, scottish highland and jazz from a very young age (first ballet lesson age 2!) and took up street/hip-hop, contemporary and salsa as a teen. At one point I had lessons 5 days a week and 3 lessons some days. Stopped it all when I went to uni and I miss it terribly!

Never did ballroom lessons formally but was taught how to waltz/foxtrot by my grandparents when I was little and hoping to start taking proper classes very soon!

No dance experience. I enjoyed watching people dance, but had no interest to do it myself.

Trained in ballet,tap,jazz,danced in West End productions and some TV work,no longer dance due to accident but loved every minute of it,if able and famous would do strictly like a shot and id be the biggest ringer ever and i wouldnt care a jot.

lol, I'd vote for ya!

I've been learning/dancing ballroom and latin for the past 10.5 years. I've competed on the university circuit and the medallist circuit. I have also danced once on the open circuit and once at a European university dance tournament in Germany. I currently have all my ballroom and latin at pre-bronze in the medals, but I didn't start doing medals straight away and I have not been able to take them regularly for various reasons hence the slow progress!

If I got famous and went on SCD I'd probably have my initial training time taken away and everybody would be yelling ringah...until they actually see me dance!
Last edited by Ballroom-B. : 28-09-2014 at 20:25

My mum sent me to dance classes when I was about 4 until I begged to leave because the teacher was "a rotten lady"!

Then tried ballet for a short while aged around 10. I had no talent at all, no coordination or ability to remember sequences of steps but still the teacher shoehorned me into her production and poor mum made her fingers sore sewing me a scarlet tutu. Never even took a grade exam!

I took Ballroom and Latin lessons initially then decided, when I met my partner, that Ballroom only was the way forward. Competed on the open circuit for many years, regular finalist in the UK Closed and British National Championships. Selected to dance in International Team matches, for England and represented England in 2 World Championships. Biggest honour was to lead out the English Team carrying the Union Flag.

Does winning 2 bottles of champagne for doing the Can-Can in a nightclub make me a professional dancer?

Ringah!

Had one lesson of country dancing at school. I assume that the second never happened as we were all so bad at it

My missus and I both had disco lessons in the seventies. Night Fever and all that. But not at their same place. It was out of fashion by the time we got together.

Tap
(too many years spent watching Savion Glover, Gregory Hines, Nicholas Brothers and of course Astaire and Kelly)

And far too much clubbing

10 years of ballet.

Suspect it would be more of a hindrance where latin was concerned, although I reckon it might help me pick up routines quicker, maybe?

Ballet from about 4 to 10.

I would have nice arms but otherwise no advantage. I wouldn't moan about someone with that amount of experience and I also wouldn't moan about general drama school dance training - however I do get cross when 'dancer' appears on someone's CV. I don't care if it's not specifically ballroom I do think it's ridiculous to pretend that they don't have a huge advantage.

so going on the poll, quite a few of us on DS would be dismissed as ringy ringers for having had dance training and would be slagged off on DS by some people for having an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE