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E
– What was your first dancing experience?
R – My first dancing experience was when,
with my family, I went to The Spencer Dance
Centre, which is run by Peggy Spencer MBE, and
did Ballroom and Latin dancing, I was 12 and
have been dancing ever since. I absolutely love
it; I wouldn’t want to do anything else.
E
– What is your most memorable dance moment?
R – Memorable, wow, there are many, I
guess the performances; when I was 12 I danced
at the Royal Albert Hall, for Peggy, in an opening
number for the professional Latin championships,
which was televised in those days. That was
my first biggie, since then I’ve been
fortunate enough to be in movies and pop videos,
on TV and on stage.
E – Do you have a large measure of natural
talent then?
R – I’ve always been fortunate enough
to have had a good ear for music and since I
was a child I have had the natural ability to
play a variety of musical instruments by ear.
I wasn’t the best dancer as a child, but
found it easy to connect well with the music.
E
– What is your favourite dance and why?
R – I have a particular passion for Latin
music and dance. Salsa is a particular favourite
as it gives me the opportunity to express the
music fully. But then again, I love Jazz and
Swing and Hip Hop – As long as it sets
me alight, it becomes my favourite that day.
E
– What makes you keep dancing/teaching/choreographing?
R – For me it is an absolute need, if
I didn’t do it I would cease to exist.
I have always had a strong artistic desire to
create. When I see a performance that I like,
it totally fills me up with energy and inspires
me to work even harder to achieve my goals.
E
– What process do you go through when
choreographing?
R
– There are two elements. One is when
someone asks me to choreograph something and
I’ve not necessarily chosen the music,
so I have to listen to the music a lot and try
to structure the choreography to suit the performance,
whether it is for stage or TV or cabaret. Otherwise,
I sometimes hear a piece of music that inspires
me and I have an immediate vision of what I
want to do to it. Then I try to find an opportunity
to perform it. I have a whole file of music
on my computer that I want to choreograph.
E
– What dance achievement are you most
proud of?
R – There are several achievements that
I’m proud of, obviously the Strictly Come
Dancing thing was quite a big achievement and
then being asked to choreograph Happy Birthday
Brucie for the BBC off the back of that. But
I was also very proud when I was awarded the
ISTD Imperial Dance Sport Award in 2005.
E
– What attributes and characteristics
make a good dancer?
R – When I am teaching dancers, in training
and vocational colleges, the ones that stand
out to me are the ones who are truly passionate
about it, they may not be as technically able
as some of the others, but the ones who are
truly passionate and work hard tend to turn
out the best performances.
E
– What was it like working on Strictly
Come Dancing?
R – It was great, I loved it. I loved
watching the production side, seeing the way
these things are made. It was a challenge in
some ways, with the schedule and working with
a lot of different personalities, and egos,
but all in all it was a fantastic opportunity
and experience.
E
– What were the challenges of working
with celebrities?
R – One of the challenges is that you’ve
got celebs who have no dance experience and
you’ve got to choose the right moves and
the right structure to make it easy enough for
them to achieve but also to get the best effect
on the TV, that’s quite a challenge in
itself, and one that I relished.
E
– What, do you think, was the best dance
of the last series?
R – I’ll go with the audience reaction
and the audience seemed to react very well to
the Dirty Dancing group dance and to some of
my numbers, which were the Salsas and the show
dances. In particular, Matt & Flavia’s
because we took it up a peg and put some interesting
lifts in and did something a bit different and
the audience seemed to react very well to that.
E
– What was your role on the Happy Birthday
Brucie show?
R – I was choreographer and I did staging
too. They asked me if I could stage Liza Minnelli,
John Colsure, Billy Elliot and various other
artists. Then I got very busy with the choreography
so I ended up hanging around on recording days
and generally being on hand to make sure that
people were in the right place at the right
time. I loved it and I would love to do it again.
E
– How has the ISTD helped you in your
career?
R – The ISTD helps me to keep in touch
with the teaching and technical side of my career.
I get to meet lots of other technicians and
dance teachers, not just people who are performers
or choreographers. It also gives me exposure
and an outlet to share my knowledge; through
lecturing, teaching and writing syllabi.
E
– What tips would you give to dance teachers
just starting out?
R – Learn as much as you can especially
in this day and age. Learn as many dance styles
as you can and immerse yourself in the technical
side to start with. But also be aware of the
psychological exchanges required when teaching.
Teaching isn’t just about what you know,
it’s how you get the information across
to your students; I feel that is sometimes overlooked
by people training to become teachers because
they think purely about the technical knowledge
rather than learning how to communicate, and
good communication is vital.
E
– What is your favourite thing about teaching?
R – My favourite thing is the satisfaction
I gain from watching people achieve, especially
if they want to learn and they are really interested
in dancing, whether they are a beginner or a
vocational student. I enjoy giving the information
and watching them dance.
E
– What is your least favourite thing about
teaching?
R – Sometimes it’s the sheer number
of hours involved when you are taking a whole
day out to teach classes.
E
– What projects are you currently involved
with?
R – I am involved in a project for the
English National Ballet, called Summertime,
which looks to be very exciting (see page 28
– 29). I’ve just come to the end
of long run of work so am looking forward to
taking a little breather for a while. I haven’t
been on holiday for about two years, but I do
travel for my work a lot, so I tend to combine
the two.
E
– In 1997 you went to Havana to work on
a dance project for Salsa World magazine, what
was that like?
R – Going to Havana was dream come true.
I got to paid to go to Cuba and work with professional
Cuban dancers for two weeks on a video project.
It was the biggest Latin education of my life
so far. I learnt so much, not only about the
dance steps but the music, culture and the emotions
and the feeling and the people and absolutely
everything. I use that knowledge in my work
all the time.
E
– Do you still dance professionally?
R – I rarely dance these days; I prefer
to create, stand back and watch. I only dance
when I absolutely must.
E
– If you were stranded on a desert Island
where there was only one style or form of dance,
which would you choose?
R – It would have to be Salsa.
E
– What has been your favourite location
to dance in?
R – I don’t know about location,
but my favourite ever place where I danced was
in the centre of Havana, in the square; we were
filming and the CD player broke, we were surrounded
by your everyday Havana people and they decided
to make the music for us, singing and clapping
and tapping their feet and chanting. So we carried
on filming and that was the best place I ever
danced.
E
– What aspirations do you have for your
future career?
R – To continue developing my skills in
choreography and production and hopefully to
be admired by my peers.
E
– What do you find most challenging about
your professional life?
R – The most challenging thing is managing
my time well enough to achieve all the things
I wish to accomplish. Although there have been
the odd sacrifices, in terms of time and finances
along the way, I still feel I have the best
job in the world.
E
– Using only one sentence, how would you
sum up what dance means to you?
R – Dance is a freedom to express yourself
without having to speak. That means a lot to
me because I feel it; I feel I express a lot
that way, perhaps better than I can speak. |
