Tony Irving An Englishman in Sweden

For the last 27 of my life I have been a full time dance teacher,coach and competitive Ballroom and Latin American dancer.

Now you will notice that I use the term "Competitive dancer"  NOT "Sports dancers"

For those of you that are not involved in these kinds of dancing ,you might think that there is not a big difference in the terminology.

But to me its the difference between night and day.

As a sports dancer the emphasis is on designing everything around your dancing to win. The focus is on results.Not necessarily the dancing.

As a competitive dancer the focus is on the improvement of the quality of your dancing and the end result is that you compete.

You might say that there is no difference in these 2 approaches . But there is. Its very subtly, but it creates a huge difference in the way we teach,train or dance.

The discussion around different approaches has been in and around the Ballroom and Latin American dance world for longer than I have been active. No doubt it will be there for longer than I will be alive.

For the last decades there has been a large swing towards the Sports Dance approach and since before I started dancing there has been a drive to get Ballroom and Latin American dancing in to the olympics. 

There are other dance forms that have joined on this band wagon i.e  Disco,Freestyle and Street dance.

Unfortunately this drive for the Olympics is part of the problem.

The dream of this level of recognition internationally for our forms of dancing has pushed us closer and closer toward the Sports dance form and farther and farther away from the competitive/artistic style.

The end result of this is that at some competitions you can see fantastic physical dancing. But the winner can actually dance one of the dances. i.e Jive OFF TIME in the music.

Now in any other dance form that dancer would more than likely be at the bottom of the class ,if they couldn't dance as a part of the music.

Due to the tv entertainment programmes like "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Dancing with the Stars",Ballroom and Latin American dancing has been thrust in to the general publics eye in a huge way

But a result of this is that more and more people are starting to see our dance form as an artisitic/ entertainment/ social form and less as a sports form. This means that there is an increase of people that are dancing, there is an increase of people watching dancing.

But what is it they want to see?

Is our dance world trying  to get in the Olympics to develop sports dance the wrong way to go.?

All I know is that every time there is an Olympics we all sit and wait in anticipation to here if Ballroom and Latin American will be involved in some" off to the side way".

Well it might be time to re-think

The Olympics have said no to Sports dance in the 2020 Olympics.

That means that the earliest we could possibily be involved is 2024.

In 17 years. 

No offence meant but by that time I will have retired..... and hopefully living out my life with other pensioners on a beach in Spain.

We haven't made the Olympics for the last 30 years and it looks like we won't make it for the next 30 years. So I wonder what would happen if we took the Olympics out of the dance equation.

In what direction would we then develop.

I mean lets face it . The competitors that will compete in 2024 havent even started dancing yet!

Since I stopped dancing myself in 2005 I haven't trained ,exercised or moved very much. With the exception of a little demonstration here and there when I am am on the road .

And as most of you saw in Lets Dance earlier this year ,I'd become a real little fatty.

But as you know I started training with Cecilia Ehrling in May to get ready for a new cabaret show.

So we've been training Mondays to Fridays and then I've been going to the Gymn.

I can honestly say that I am really enjoying myself.

Yesterday we had a colleague of mine work with us for 4 hours. Then I taught for 3 hours. When the day was over I was on cloud 9. 

I woke up this morning and had to roll myself out of bed.

Every muscle in my body ached.

Its hilarious !

I feel as though I've been run over by a tractor. 

I had a great practice with Cecilia today.

We focused mainly on the Tango . God I feel so sexy! 

I haven't felt like this for years.

And no, I'm not going straight.

It's just the music ,the body ,the feeling.

This is why I love dancing so much...

Now it's time for the new term to start and finally everything is in place. The schedule is up for the Academy in Stockholm. The licensed schools in Ronneby,Karlskrona and Nyköping are all up and running.

So now its just to hold the refresher courses for the teachers and everything is ready to go.

We have a training camp for the competitive dancers starting on Friday ( Sorry but I still don't like calling  calling it Sports dance!)

Its going to be one hell of a kick off. We have 2 guest teachers coming from London Pam Mcgill and Carol Powell.

Angelina Loberg is holding the floor barre and Ballet classes.

Niklas Aleryd is teaching the Disco/Freestyle.

I'll be doing some of the classes.

We have a great sports coach coming in to work with the dancers each day.

For those of you that are not competitors we have the social dance camp the week after. Go in to the webside and check it out

www.tidance.se

There is nothing worse than looking in the mirror and saying thats not my body.

Well unfortunately Thats where I ended up.

Who would have thought it? After a life time as a dancer and being always so aware of my body.

I became the little fat ,middle aged man with love handles.

The realisation sat in when I saw my self dance with the other judges in this seasons Lets Dance.

Oh my God! We danced a Samba and I had great rythmn. My body never stopped moving. Regretably it wasn't due to the dancing just that I kept wobbling.

So when the season stopped I whent on an intensive training programme. 

I have now gone down 6 kilos. Training regularly and eating Healthy.

Sounds great, Feels great .But Its so boring I really miss my Chocolate...

There is another reason for me to also get back in shape . In september I will be dancing again . I will be doing a new cabarét show with Cecilia Ehrling.

So wish me luck and I will keep you updated 

Well the 6th season of The Swedish version of Strictly Come Dancing is over and the winner was the amazing Jessica Anderson.

As usual it all came down to the last dance. The show number and she was just a little bit better than her opponent Frank.

It's been a good season and I have to admit that in general we have had a year with quite good dancing.

The program seems to have found stable ground and it really has been a pleasure working with it.

But now its time to get back to reality.

The victory celebration for Jessica  was held at the 0pera house in Stockholm. And I m sure the party went on untill the early hours of the morning.

I was a little bit boring and left early as I have a show today in Västerås with David and Malin Watson. Then its a Disco Freestyle competition and all the dancers from my dance school are competing so I think I will go and watch.

Tomorrow I will be in Linköping with the Sports dance club giving a 3 hour workshop on Bugg and Swing. 

Yep ! There is no rest for the wicked .

Back to the real world.

But the thing I will remember most from this season is Frank Anderson. When alls said and done. His story and participation have made this season what it has been.

Lets dance at its best!

It never ceases to amaze me that people always assume that i get so much more pleasure from my job than they do.Just because dancing is my "Hobby"

And you know what they say when you "assume" something.

You make an "ASS" out of "U" and "ME"

Ok! I am lucky that dancing is my hobby and my passion so in reality I work with something that started out as my interest . But the reality is today that its my job.

I run a dance school.

i deal with Staffing problems, cleaning problems,problems with the students. problems with the parents. Problems with the building.

and all the other normal mundane day today situations that everybody else has to deal with at work,or running your own business.

I deal with diva's that can only see themselves. Parents who think their kids walk on water and dancers that think they are the next Fred Astaire.

So I can guarantee you that my job is no different to anyone elses.

With only one exception . It started out as a hobby and became my life. And I wouldn't change it for any thing else.

During the last couple of weeks I decided to try a new way of marketing the classes at the dance school.

For the last couple of seasons I have to admit I've been a bit vain . "My name is Tony Irving and people will come to my school anyway" .

Great attitude and actually things have been ticking over and the student base has grown.

But ! One of my students informed me of an on-line sales side which could revolutionise how I market the school. At first I was extremely skeptical.

We are in the middle of a dance explosion in Sweden. More and More people want to dance in all forms and thanks to the fact that I am in the middle of a TV show which is the largest in Sweden .Most people know that if they live in Stockholm and want to learn to dance then they can come to my dance school.

So how much more marketing do I need?

However this web side seemed to good to be true.

Make a special offer for their members and they sell it for you?

So I tried it.

After one day of sales they had sold 300 packets of social dancing courses to adult students.

Then I tried it again and last friday they sold 240 packets of Dance Fever ( Dance work out).

Absolutely amazing!

540 new students in the school.

But now I have one huge problem. Not enough teachers!

If its not one problem its another.

The dance explosion in Sweden has created a situation were demand excedes supply.

So the next thing I am going to start is a dance teacher education.

Any body interested?

Well everybody it's now time to change the dance styles in this years Lest Dance. 

On Friday all the couples will dance 2 dances.

Bugg and Salsa.

What a combination! Bugg the only real Swedish dance that exsists. A simplified form of jitterbug which has become the Swedish national dance.

Salsa the most modern of the latin american dances which no one is quite sure where it has its origins .

Both dances have the same problem. There are so many styles of the dance that its hard to say which is the correct one.

So on friday any style goes.

If you are a Bugg officianado then you will be aware that there is the traditional round Bugg. 4 stegs or 6 stegs Bugg. Danspedagogernas Bugg. Danssportsförbunds Bugg and God help me so many other styles that if a wrote them all down it would take a week just to get through them.

If you are a Salsa dancers then its basically the same situation.

So how will we judge them.

Timing,Performance,Characterisation and personal interpretation .

These are the 4 areas that we will use to help us evaluate the couples demonstrations on Friday.

The rest is then up to how the audience will vote.'

One of the luxuries that Swedish people have is the workers rights.

Compared with the other countries that I have lived and worked in . England, America,Portugal.  The laws and attitude towards work often feel for me that having a job is something people do part time ,in comparison to how it is in other countries.

This week is the sports holidays. Yes thats right for those of you that are not from Sweden it is the time of year that Swedish children have a holiday so that they can focus on sports.

But its one of those times of year that nearly everybody wants time off from work. So in reality a lot of businesses are nearly on a stand still.

Now I know That everybody has the right to time off from work, but this is not the only time of year that everybody is free at the same time.

In a few weeks its Easter and then there is practically a 2 weeks period when everybody is off again. Then from about the 14th of June to the 6th of August the country closes down for Summer. And I mean literaly closes down. It often feels like there are more tourists in Stockholm than there are Swedes.

But it does not stop there. Then you have the Winter half term ,2 weeks at Christmas not to mention all the Bank Holidays, or as they are called in Sweden "Red Days."

So if you are like me and you work in a business which revolves around peoples social and leisure time then you can look forwards to approximately 3 months a year where you might as well not open the doors of the dance school.

Unfortunately this also has a direct affect on work ethics.Depending on how you interpret things.

Many of my students talk and dream of becoming Champions. They have ambitions to be the best in the world. Which is admirable. 

But they only want to work and train for the 9 months of the year when there are no holidays because they have to have their holidays and  when they are not on holiday they have to have their 2 days off per week.

How do you teach a child that you get out of life what you put in to it. If you work hard you have a chance to achieve your dreams .But you cann't do it part time.

I know that what I am insinuating can be seen by some to be a little radical for Sweden ,but when a system teaches children to focus on leisure/ social time and not instill in them hard work ethics. How can we motivate them to be the best?

Yesterday I saw a program on Tv that discussed the fact that 1 in 7 Swedish children play truant from school for at least 1 day a week. 

Who's fault is this? Is it the parents?The schools? or is it possibly a reflextion of a system that teaches children that work comes second to their social life.