Mum and Dad have always danced ballroom for fun and are pretty good (they still dance sequence dancing now in their 80s!) and passed on their ability to me. When I was a pre-teen a dance teacher said I had great dance timing and had potential and offered dance training but they and I didn't take them up on it. I've always preferred dancing for fun. Mum, Dad and I did go to a ballroom and Latin dancing class for a few years though. So, I suppose I would be considered a filthy ringah!

Oh I hadn't realised that. Such a shame, though to be honest I couldn't see them ever getting past Y&R and J&M.

Yes, I agree with you. They had their final comp at the Open in May, very emotional for them of course, but good time to bow out when they are possibly at the best position that they can be.

I'm a professional dancer. You see, i'm really James Jordan undercover of my rosco2010 pseudonym.

"No, I have had no dance training" 44 39.64% (as at 30/9/14 17:34 )

And why not? Come on in. The dance water is lovely.

I used to salsa several times a week until 20 years ago and for the last year I have been doing AT now three times a week. I am going to add Balboa Swing soon.

I'd say my AT classes were inspired by SCD's Vincent and Flavia. But I find my teachers are even better than them at AT.

So use SCD as a stepping stone to you yourself on the dance floor.

As another poster said, I wouldn't be silly enough to try doing pointe work randomly out of the blue, I'd have to get into full time ballet again to re-adapt my body beforehand to that way of being again, my stamina, flexibility, and core strength would need prob a full year to get back to the way it was (maybe more), not to mention shed the bulk load of weight acquired over the years of gorging on takeaway at Uni and even the years post it. I'm leaving my 20s so it's not like I could suddenly snap back physically, and then remembering everything again (steps, timing, technique and doing that all to music) would be hard, despite in my head still being able to visualise the steps/movements and sequences of some of the dances and excercies.

This sounds sad, but when I stopped ballet training (and all the other dancing) for good I carried on doing some of the bar work (from ballet) in my home just to keep in shape. I used the top of furniture as my bar and did it because I was paranoid about loosing my figure that I had taken for granted having out of doing years worth of dancing several hours every week. So during that period, I would have still been able to practise everything perfectly at home as I was doing it all the time and therefore it was still coming naturally without having to think about it. When you practise for years, it doesn't go away straight away, but nowadays, I would prob need to attend classes again just to jog my memory, but of course you can't just walk back into a class at my age and you can't just do ballet for the hell of it (it was hard enough when doing it seriously).

So my memory can still visualise dancing it, but whether what I think in my head would translate through my body (now) again "just like that" may prob (in reality) be a different story. I wish I could just pick it up, but then that would make ballet easy for everyone if past dancers and amateurs could just start doing it willy nilly, which you just can't for something so difficult and disciplined that really needs to be engrained ideally from a very young age. Muscle memory my come easier if you're still in the ballet world post nit dancing it, but if you're completed removed from the scene as well as training, more difficult. They say a ballet dancer never looses their posture, I think that's one aspect I've kept (naturally without reminding, my body just dies and I just notice at times it's the case).

Apart from my stint with Saddlers Wells and the Bolshoi none.

BIB : I agree with this insofar as serious or ex-seriously trained ballet dancers are concerned, but there are places now that run ballet classes for adults (my friend attends one specifically for over-50s) as an alternative to other dance-related fitness classes (no pointe work obviously!) and very good they are too.

I agree with all else you say - especially posture. As I said in another post, a lot of serious Latin dancers take ballet classes to improve posture and core strength.

Really, I don't think I've ever heard of ballet being done for people beyond the training/professional sense. That's really interesting and quite nice to hear actually, as some people may have not ever done ballet at all, so a very nice opportunity to get a feel for it even at a later age.

Ballet from the age of 5 to 17. Qualitified to teach ballet too. Ran away from ballet school at one stage though - much to my parents delight. They wanted me to study fine art and not dance!

Studied flamenco then for about 6 years and eventually got a call from the Arthur Murray Dance Studio USA bunch to come and teach for them. They trained me in everything from Waltz to Rumba to Foxtrot, and American Smooth to West Coast Swing. I loved it.

I also loved the fact that the Arthur Murray style was far more relaxed than the rigid English ballroom style - which I tend to think is very stuff and articifical - sorry guys! Iveta has the same training as me and I can still see her Arthur Murray 'style' when she dances. I have worked as a performer but happily never had to do competitions. Really don;t see the point, It's hard enough doing all the ballet exams as a child!

I also learned Cali salsa from Colombians and Cuban salsa (in Cuba) simply because I loved the music.

And now I do AT - the real one. Have danced AT for about 9 years. My teachers have all been Argentinian and most of them are performers as well. No, it's nothing like what they do on SCD, but who cares! Non-AT people don't so I have stopped explaining now