please help me! im new to the world of ballroom dancing and i would like to know some famous dancers.

Anonymous. To answere your question it is necessary to know which style and what era. Take way back to just after World War 1. when dancers like Josephine Bradley Victor Silvester and a few others even had to combat the church as well as the media. The Modern Waltz was disgusting so they said. This was in the UK. My choice would be Victor Sivester for many reasons , too many to go into here.

So true Don and can't we go on about the greats, the likes of which we will never see again. Anthony Hurley and Fay Saxton. Peter Eggleton and Brenda Winslade. Bill and Bobbie Irvine. And my favorites, Harry Smith Hampshire and Doreen Casey, no one will ever again light up a floor like Doreen could.

Troy. If you wonder where Anthony and Fay Hurley live. It's on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Still teaching.

(besides those previously mentioned)Donnie Burns, Gaynor Fairweather, Bryan Watson, Carmen Vincelj, Karen Hardy, Allan Tornsberg, Serena Lecca, Paul Killick, Hanna Kartunnen, Alan and Hazel Fletcher- those are latin dancers. And for standard- Marcus and Karen Hilton, Luca and Lorainne Barrichi, Jonathan Wilkins, Katusha Demidova, Mirko Gozzoli, Alessia Betti, Massiamo Giorgianni, Massimo Giorgianni, Alessia Manfredini, Christopher Hawkins, Hazel Newberry- just to name a few

Hanz Galke,Bianka Sraiber,Colin James,Lene James,Victor Nikobskii,Larisa Davydova,Franco Formika,Oxana Nikiforova,Espen Salsberg,

The list is endless in both styles. But who contributed to the advancement of Ballroom dancing the most.Not only did Victor Sivester become World Champion but also intoduced the Waltz Natural Turn as we know it today. Then running a studio with his sister. The recordings at that time were played by orchestras belonging to swank hotels like the Astoria and so on. That is where the biggest ballrooms were. On a label would be The Palm Court Orchestra Playing. There were at that time some crazy dances in vogue, and the music not suitable for our type of dancing. Victor Siverster gathered a group of musicians together and cut his own strict tempo records for his own studio. Thats where he took off and for the next 40 years or so used to play and sell world wide. He had the longest running spell with the radio in the UK which will never be equalled.Also I believe the first ever anywhere in the world TV series, which aso ran for several years.My fondest memory of Victor was all the way through World War 11 you could be sure that his weekly program would be on.

I'm sure I'll take some heat for this one, but I like to watch Victor Veyrasset and Heather Smith. As I watch them dance, even on their instructional videos they remind me a lot of Torvill and Dean. I think they are great examples of two dancers moving as one unit around the floor.

Just my humble opinion.

Since we're talking about famous dancers does anybody know anything about Linda Dean?

Re: famous dancers
Posted by rkonert
1/30/2006 12:16:00 PM

Reply
Since we're talking about famous dancers does anybody know anything about Linda Dean?
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Well this question is over ten years old and nobody's answered it yet, so I will.

Linda Dean has been a very popular coach specializing in Theater Arts/Cabaret, and a ubiquitous judge on the NDCA circuit for over thirty years. She achieved fame and her national titles as partner to George Hendricks in 1971, when they were the American Style Champions, and then to Vernon Brock, with whom she was the United States National Professional Latin American Champion from 1975-78. (source:NDCA.org)

She also partnered World Exhibition Champion and United States Latin American Champion Rufus Dustin, though I don't know if they held any titles together.

Linda suffered from knee problems following her years as champion, a consequence, she said, of the athleticism and strenuous limits to which Vernon's choreography pushed her. Even so, she continued coaching and judging nonstop, a testament to her determination and work ethic.


She has a Facebook page, though it hasn't been posted to in almost a year: https://www.facebook.com/linda.dean4/ I realize as I write this that I haven't seen her recently, so I hope she's well.