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Profile
of Anthony Hurley
Having a professional dancer for a mother (Micki
Hurley), Anthony was exposed to dancing at a very early age. He
commenced dancing at the age of 7 and then took all his ISTD and
Cecchetti Junior Medals in Ballet, Tap and Ballroom. By the age
of 14 years he had reached Gold Star status in Ballroom and mere
Gold in Tap and Grade Four and Elementary in Cecchetti Ballet. At
the time he was attending Ballet Rambert.
His Ballroom efforts as a junior medallist were under the watchful
eye of his mother and Miss Maisie Harrison. The entire family visited
her Boscombe studio whenever they were in the area. Ballet and Tap
were studied at the Kate Walker School of Dancing, in Weybridge,
Surrey where his mother was teaching at the time.
At this time he decided to put all his efforts into competition
dancing, forming a junior partnership with Pamela Curtis. They won
all the major junior events including the famous Star Championships
at the Royal Empress Hall and the International at the Royal Albert
Hall, London.
Ending his junior partnership with Pamela he formed a new amateur
partnership in 1954 with Fay Saxton who was a Nottingham lass of
considerable talent, and who was a former Junior Star Champion with
her previous partner.
His amateur career at the outset was presided over by Mr Hugh Carter,
a former European Champion and respected coach of the day. Mr Carter
forecast a successful future if they were dedicated enough and were
prepared to work extremely hard. Well, they did and slowly started
to climb the long ladder.
Their first highlight was to make the semi-final of the British
Open at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool at their first attempt, a
venue that was to host many glorious moments in their career. Following
on from this success they were selected for the British team to
dance in the annual team match against Denmark in Copenhagen, with
Alex Moore as captain. Anthony says these matches were great fun
for all concerned from the time they left Liverpool Street Station.
Alex was always the life and soul of many parties that always lasted
until the early hours. Moving onto the late 1950s saw them in all
major finals both at home and in Europe.
In 1960 Anthony married Fay. They won their first British Open to
the World Championship. Over the next two years they were fortunate
to win every major title including the British for the second time,
the Star and United Kingdom, International and European Championships.
Even then dance titles came into their grasp, which meant that they
were giving a proportion of their lesson time to Latin American
dancing as well as Ballroom dancing.
Their last Amateur event was the All England Title held at the Lyceum
Ballroom in the Strand, London in March 1962. Three announcements
were made on that evening; firstly that they were the winners, secondly
that they had decided to turn professional and the third thing was
that Fay was pregnant and expecting in August. Arriving almost three
weeks late their daughter Cherrie Anne was born on 23rd August 1962.
As soon as nature allowed Fay took up the double challenge of being
a mother and a professional dancer. Studying for the professional
associate was uppermost in their minds at the time. Anthony had
taken the opportunity to study whilst Fay was awaiting the arrival
of Cherrie and successfully obtained his Associate in August. They
were anxious to feel professional and begin to understand the basics
and fundamentals of their chosen profession. Fay qualified soon
after.
They were back practicing even harder, (there was a little excess
weight to lose from both of them) and they were back on the floor
demonstrating and competing in October. Their first professional
final was the Midland Championship. Many famous names were in the
final, which was won by Benny Tolmeyer and Sylvia Sylve. To dance
in such distinguished company was just the encouragement new professionals
needed.
They soldiered on working with their team of coaches. Anthony says
‘they felt they were always trying to bring out the best of
our talents, we believed in them and hopefully they believed in
us’. Their demonstrating diary was thankfully getting busy,
this was a dimension of being professional that they enjoyed very
much and was a great learning process.
The late 1960s really saw their major triumphs begin, finishing
high in many finals. Their life’s ambition was realised when
they won the first of four British Open Professional Championships,
after a battle royal with Michael and Monica Needham. During the
period from 1969 to 1973 they won every major title available, World
European, British, United Kingdom and International. They were honoured
to receive on two occasions the coveted Carl Alan Award for outstanding
services to Ballroom dancing from HRH Princess Margaret.
What with the necessity to gain Fellowship status plus the possibility
of opening their own studio, bringing up an eleven year old, lucrative
overseas demonstrations and teaching/lecturing contracts coming
their way, they decided to retire from competitive dancing. Having
taught for ten years at his mother’s studio they opened their
first studio in Guildford. The experience gained in class teaching,
single private lessons and training with Elizabeth Romain was invaluable
in organizing the studio.
In 1974, Anthony was taken by surprise and was persuaded by the
late Josephine Bradley and Phyllis Haylor to stand for election
to the Modern Ballroom Committee. His first reaction was one of
complete shock and amazement, to think he was being asked by two
of our greatest professional ladies and pioneers of our technique
to join them with all the other peers of the Society. Anthony did
not refuse!
Anthony will never forget his first meeting at the old headquarters
in Gloucester Place, London. With Alex Moore in the Chair and all
those committee personalities, whom they lived in awe of when trying
so hard as a struggling amateur and a novice professional. It still
sends a cold shiver down his spine.
As Anthony says he need not have worried. By the end of the meeting
they made him feel quite at home and in the ensuing years he learnt
so much from everyone. Some were so clever on committee affairs.
Anthony feels their influence and advice helped mould him into a
possible candidate for the chairmanship. In becoming Chairman Anthony
felt an immediate responsibility to the Society and he says all
the committee and HQ staff were totally supportive.
One of Anthony’s highlights at this time was the mammoth task
taken on by the Ballroom Committee in updating the Revised Technique
by Alex Moore. A sub-committee was formed to represent social dance,
medal test and competitive dance, plus the all important and respected
technical teachers. A formidable committee indeed who did a great
job, which took about two years to produce into book form and with
the kind permission of Pat Moore was renamed the Technique of the
Imperial Society.
Having served the Society and represented them for sometime at the
British Dance Council, Anthony became aware that his involvement
in Society affairs was suffering due to his allegiance to the competitive
arena and especially the Ballroom Dancers Federation (BDF). Anthony
felt it best that he should stand down. This was not an easy decision
but one that he felt was best for the Society.
Anthony and Fay were also responsible for the organising of the
Imperial Championships for the years 1977 - 1988 at the Civic Hall,
Guildford. These are one of the most respected championships in
the competitive dance calendar. All Anthony’s energies were
now directed to coaching at home and abroad and their second studio
at Guildford. Fay and Anthony were teaching nine or ten hours a
day.
The BDF was about to undergo changes at the helm. Sonny Binnick
the chairman decided to retire and Bob Burgess took over for one
year. Anthony then stood for the Chair and took over in 1993.
Anthony felt proud and enjoyed the success of the BDF and Ballroom
Dancers Federation International (BDFI). In the year 2000 he decided
it was time, after almost thirty years of committee work, to once
again step down and retire. Retire this time meaning RETIRE.
The most gratifying awards to receive are presented by one’s
fellow professional. Anthony treasures the various BDF and Carl
Alan Awards and La Classique Danse Awards received over the years.
The most recent honour for both Fay and Anthony was to receive the
Prince Mikasa award for outstanding achievements to ballroom dancing
presented to them in person by HRH in Tokyo in 2004
Now a life member of the BDC, President of the BDF and BDFI, not
to mention a member of the ISTD Grand Council, Anthony feels his
years in the dance profession have been rewarding, gratifying and
to a degree challenging. Its not often the Society gets a mother
and a son as life members! This was the case until Anthony’s
Mum (Mrs Micki Hurley) passed away last year aged 95.
Anthony and Fay retired to Australia just over four years ago and
they have been made to feel very welcome by many of their old Australian
friends and pupils. With sixty years of dance memories, successes,
a few heartbreaks and a lot of hard work, a wonderful wife who has
always been 100% behind him on the competitive floor and in his
admistrative roles, Anthony considers himself fortunate.
For Anthony, any of his personal awards he has received for services
to dancing always included Fay, for without her his successes may
have been minimal. Anthony is blessed with a wonderful family, daughter
Cherrie, son in law Grant and granddaughter Natasha. They all live
in Australia.
We wish them every happiness and thank them for all they have done
for dancing and the ISTD.
Theresa Jordan
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