| Simon
Cruwys chats to Karen Hardy
Part 1
To
read part 2 of this interview click here>>
Karen
Hardy, former UK, International, World Masters and British
National Championship winner.
When
and where did you start dancing Karen?
I was born and raised in Bournemouth on the South Coast of
England and started my dancing career at the age of 5. The
two schools I joined were the Gayety School of Dancing and
the Nice and Easy Dance Studio run by Lynette Boyce.
What made you take it up in the first place?
Basically my dancing career started every Saturday just as
fun with my friends whilst my Mother was given free time to
do her grocery shopping without her children. Very early on
I enjoyed the fun of wearing make up and the different costumes
I got to wear with all the shiny sequins and then I got addicted
to winning medals.
Where has your competitive dancing taken you?
Travelling even to this present day has played a large role
in my life. From a very young age my Mum would drive me all
over the United Kingdom. It was a customary procedure to prepare
everything for the weekend after school on a Friday, jump
in the car on the Saturday or Sunday and be back to school
for the Monday after having travelled several hundred miles
over the weekend. At 18 I was dancing and representing America
and became the East and West Coast Amateur Latin American
Champion, this was my first overseas experience and it gave
me the opportunity to fly to many cities within the US.
I
then teamed up with a partner already established as a rising
star of Latin American Dancing who regularly appeared in semi
finals of all major championships. After six months together
we appeared in our first amateur Latin American international
final which opened up our opportunities to start travelling
extensively throughout Europe, countries such as Germany,
France, Italy, the Scandinavian countries and many, many more.
After four years together, we were recognised as major Amateur
finalists in World, European, International, British and United
Kingdom events all over the world.
In
August 1994 I teamed up with a highly respected South African
dancer, Bryan Watson. Our partnership was an overnight success,
which once again opened up the world even more to me and I
soon found myself in many far away countries such as the Americas,
Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Africa,
demonstrating, lecturing, teaching and of course competing
in all major championships.
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Karen
Hardy & Bryan Watson
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Were
there any noticeable differences in these other countries
in the way you were treated by the general press etc?
Yes, depending on which country we were in. In some countries
we were treated like Hollywood superstars, we would be picked
up by private limousines at the airport with police escorts,
taken into five star hotels where we would have interviews
with the media. For some world events we had a full press
conference where there would be many people with their cameras
representing, radio, television and newspapers, all wanting
to capture our emotions after the event to broadcast to their
country.
The
greatest difference that you see in a lot of these countries
is the television coverage and it seems that once you have
this it brings in the general press interest.
Thank
you Karen
Simon
Cruwys
Photograph: Ron Self
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