With a whole big discussion breaking out on forums and people asking my thoughts of  ‘Lift Work’ being over used on Strictly Come Dancing,  I thought it would form the basis of my next post.

Reflecting back over my dancing career the words ‘Lift Work’ never even existed or if so were the forbidden words from ‘the dark side’…..but more importantly, I remember that to my partner, it was an instant and absolute ‘NO’ should the discussion even attempt to raise its head at training.  Lift work would never be considered within our dance performances!  My great professors and my partner were very clear that lifts were forbidden, as quite rightly, it was all about the art of Ballroom dance and not tricks… or I guess it could have been about my weight!!!

Interestingly though, during my competitive career there were one or two occasions when we did attempt to go to the dark side and include ‘a lift’ if you could call them that!  The highest I ever got was hanging down the back of my partner’s back feeling like a duck strung up in a Chinese takeaway window, being carried on to a dramatic and intense Paso Doble piece of music.  We felt it would make a greater impact to the audience by entering the floor and offering them the element of surprise (interesting eh?!) – it had become all about the surprise of the lift instead of the greatness of the dance!  There was this one other lift we did in the Rumba.  I had actually convinced my partner to let me put my left arm around his neck whilst his knees were bent and as he straightened his legs he would ‘lift’ me a whopping ½ a meter off the floor…oh and he’d turn around whilst I was up there!  And yes, that for us was a frightening and daring lift!!!  We only put it near the end of our routine in the belief that we would have wooed the public into believing our dance was so great that the lift at the end was more of an encore to demand applause especially when our goal was always to try to get a standing ovation from the Japanese audience.  The hardest and most demanding audience in the world…and up they rose like a breaching whale.

Well, you can imagine my horror when I was to join Strictly Come Dancing… welcome to lift central and so to a typical Monday morning at our professional rehearsals that would go something like this:

“You want me to be lifted….. you’re having a laugh right????” I would openly express my thoughts to all 13 other professionals.

Full of shock and horror I would continue with…

“Uh….Flavia and Lilia are surely the ones who get lifted?”

Clearly not.   Lifts were soon to be just part of my everyday life with all the Professional group dances.  I would take a journey from the sublime to the ridiculous.   Quite often I would find myself being propelled by Brendan Cole with possible brute force, not that he ever said anything except for me noticing the enormous exhale of air out of his mouth each time I was being propelled north to some landing point somewhere up round his nostrils! It would then be my turn to exhale air but mine would be vocally…

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I’M A MOTHER….. what the Dickens and Jones am I doing up here????”

“Oh my God woman just get …up….there…!!!” Brendan would politely request!!!

With my inner thighs latching on to some upper part of Brendan’s torso all that was left to do was lift my arms high and wide, with a huge great smile….dunnnaaarrrr…

I could hear a different noise this time from Brendan’s lungs this time it was an immense sigh of relief that I was actually up there.

However, once up, I felt on top of the world.  Amazing, breathtaking, just like that moment on the Pepsi Max roller coaster at Blackpool where you are at the peak and looking out over the endless sea line and the wind is gracefully blowing in your hair and for a moment you are breathless, free, and flying…

Then suddenly reality hits, as just like that roller coaster within seconds you are on your way down!!! Similarly to the release of the ring on a can of a shaken Tango drink, that instant of utter and total disorientation all around, with my legs and arms seemingly being thrown everywhere, my inner organs feeling as though they are being processed for the Sunday chicken stuffing and together with my negative thoughts of uselessness, I am soon being thrown into a frenzy of tugging, pulling, dragging, heaving, shoving and finally the graceful landing and god forbid I forget the convincing smile of ….”I DID IT”….written all over my face in the target finishing position!

Making the grand finals with Mark Ramprakash on Strictly Come Dancing and can you believe this … I now felt I wanted to be the first to bring some of the biggest lifts yet seen on Strictly Come Dancing – I had crossed to ‘the Dark Side’.  That year I knew I was going up against Matt Dawson and Lilia and where Lilia had won Strictly the previous year with Darren Gough and really pulled out such amazing lift work, I knew these lifts had to be A-MAZ-ING…

Not believing I would ever be able to do any of them but knowing how close to winning that trophy we could be, I had to be sure I could convince you all that our show dance would be the one that would make you pick that phone up and vote for us one last time.  So our lift work had to be incredible and I would do whatever it would take!  I called a good friend of mine, who had initially been one of my competitors when I was in the competitive circuit, Hannah Karttunen and Victor Da Silva.  Hannah having given up her competitive career and gone into ‘show work’ were rapidly becoming ‘THE’ couple, bringing to our world of dance, incredible, mind blowing lifts and ones that they would also invite to perform live on Strictly.

“Hannah and Victor, I need three of the biggest lifts that you think we could handle…”  Did I actually say that, the mother who was being lumped around not long before by Brendan Cole… what had I just said!!!

“No problem said the gorgeous voice of Victor with muscles positively popping out of every orifice of his Popeye T-shirt.  There was such a calm and ease about Victor, one that made me feel I wasn’t about to board the Pepsi Max but rather ‘The Cinderella’ ride at Disney.

“Ok Karen just keep your core strong.  I will place my hand under your coaxes and up you’ll go”

“Oh Yes Victor no problem”  I could hear myself saying

“Anything you say”

“OK are you ready?” said Victor

“Woah,  stop wait, that is it, just keep my core strong?…. Hang on a second Victor… are you serious?… Oh my god you are… NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!”

And there I was up in the air just sitting on ‘ONE’ of Victor’s hands up above his head…. yes UP ABOVE HIS HEAD on just ONE of his hands!

I was in fear of breathing, I daren’t move but a single eyelash for fear of rocking ‘my core’ and I come tumbling down like a deck of cards.  Time stood still for a second and just one second later I was back on the floor.  Speechless, blushing, shocked and literally dumbfounded…

What had just happened?  Of course it was a walk in the park, something I do regularly, just being lifted up into the air by my crutch with one hand!  (Actually slightly distracting from my story… just think how easy it must be for Victor and Hannah to springclean cobwebs in their home…)

Anyway back to my story…

Now it was the turn of Mark and I and I hate to say it but somehow I didn’t have the exact same faith in my celebrity partner who was slowly dwindling away from the long weeks of training.  Also Mark’s arm muscles, even though he could whack a ball 70 meters into a crowded stadium, looked like he needed a ton of spinach before I would go anywhere… just how the dickens was he going to get me up in the air… with ‘ONE’ hand??

I was instantly demanding…

“Mats. Mats I need crash mats and lots of them!! Valium and a great deal of prayers please”

SO we were now in position, come on…. the instructions were easy, I just had to control my core and Mark just had to put his hand under my coaxes and up…. up… errrr… UP, Mark… COME ON UP, PUSH for God’s sake…. heave …. what… hadn’t he had his Shreddies for breakfast?

So it didn’t quite go as easy as it had seemed with Victor and I could see the camera crew first in fear then in utter hysterics!  Talk about Brendan exhaling a gasp of air when he was lifting me, Mark let out a bloody great fog horn making it apparently clear that this was not an easy lift.  So like lifting Bambi, with legs and arms going everywhere, it was part hilarious and part frightening as Mark attempted to raise the Titanic … again…. and again….. and again!!

For the sake of you all falling asleep, as I had meant to keep this blog short, I eventually made it up there and we even mastered two more death defying lifts.  If you get a chance go and look at Youtube you will see our final showcase dance to Shout by the amazing Lulu, currently dancing on Strictly now.  They weren’t the most graceful of lifts but let me tell you the adrenalin rush of that show was second to none. Mark and I couldn’t talk to anyone and we even had to ask production not to let us see the final story line they had prepared of our long journey together on Strictly, as I knew I would get all emotional and upset and if I went onto that stage crying from all the amazing ups and downs I had enjoyed with Mark during the show, I would never be able to handle the opening lift of our final dance together.

With the dreaded ONE handed lift being so hard I had choreographed it to be right at the beginning of the showcase dance and therefore also allowing Mark to have maximum energy to get me up there!  We were also to start up on the stage right in front of the band, so this now meant the feeling for me was even worse as I was now seemingly even higher in the air and… this time – no crash mats!  I think in the entire week leading up to that final night, we had only managed to get it right 8 times in total, as we were also having to rehearse four other dances for that grand final.

Well, the history books have been written, as soon our last dance of the Strictly season was over.  The audience were up on their feet screaming and cheering (and from memory – so too were the judges).  History books had once again proven… leaving the best to last, with the element of shock and surprise the addition of three great lifts would get people on their feet.  I had always thought that pleasing my Japanese market had been the hardest thing to do.  Yet years later pleasing you all at home and getting twelve million people jumping out of their seats, the day before Christmas Eve, would prove to be so so so much harder to achieve and… to me personally it proved that greatness still comes from the dancing but with an icing of lifts at the right place and at the right time the performance will be complete and the artist will have carried his role once again.

The morning of a major championships!  And this one I am no stranger to, having competed there since a very young age…it’s October the weather has changed to a colder feel and that always means the season of the International Championships at the Royal Albert Hall, London.  The sheer grandeur of this immense building itself is enough to set precedence to the level of dance you are expected to deliver – so no pressure then!  No matter how much you love dance it is safe to say the greater the prestige of the event the greater the pressure to raise your game and any real dancer will thrive for that pressure …especially me!

Waking on the morning of an event such as this was always strange for me, as now being seeded top in the world we were under immense pressure to raise our game every time and I repeat ‘every time’ we stepped out onto the floor.  On this occasion back in 1998, this would be a special day as the reigning 9 times International title holder had finally hung his shoes up in 1996 and even though we had not taken the title that following year (as the Finnish couple had pipped us at the post), we had soon after won some major World grand slam titles following that, thus meaning that this title was standing there for anyone to take!

Of course, I’d had an entire year to prepare for this major ballroom dance calendar event in the year however, travelling worldwide performing, coaching extensively and training for other major events, always resulted in something being not quite ready!  On this occasion it would be my dress.  I guess it comes with the game that being a perfectionist and wanting to win – everything had to be perfect.  My Polish dress designers had already been working for weeks on my dress for the International and I think two dresses had already ended up in the bin as the look wasn’t quite right!  Back then the dress making companies were not easy to come by and you definitely didn’t have sponsorship, so this would also mean a costly personal expense to me every time something was “not quite right”!

Basically, with all the travelling and training, I had not had enough time to get to the dressmakers for enough fittings and consequently the dress would now not arrive until I was in the changing areas on the day of the International Championships!

This was a major ‘no’ for a top professional dancer as one of the biggest things we always used as a weapon against our competitors (and still to this day) was the element of surprise in the ‘unveiling of THE dress’ for the night’s performance.  Always kept under the highest of confidentiality amongst the dressmakers nothing would be leaked out as – get it wrong and you could even set yourself up to lose a major title simply by getting the dress wrong!!  You have to imagine this is no longer a small Sunday competition in a church hall out in the backs of Dagenham somewhere, this was a battle for a World title.  This meant going into the history books, this meant leaving a message for every great dancer that will follow in your steps over decades and generations to come.   So pressures and demands had to be high.

As always the changing areas were packed and this night was no exception, down in the facilities under the great dance ballroom of the Royal Albert Hall.  Those couples that had qualified a few days earlier would now join us, the seeded couples and the great International Championships would begin.  Every nationality possible, from Europeans, to Scandinavians, the Eastern Block countries to the Australasia’s would be contesting as every country wants those rare grand titles to be brought home to their country (just as they do the Wimbledon title for tennis or the Olympic title for Athletics).

I remember adding a last layer of tan to my legs not only to be sure the definition of my leg action could be clearly seen or that it would make my white dress look even more spectacular but on this night it was to keep my mind busy as with 30mins to go before the first rounds started, my dress was still not here.  Bryan was really on edge now and so was I, where was my dress?  I did have a second dress hanging up on standby but this was one I had already been seen in earlier in the year and if you were a top champion you never came out in the same dress twice!  Looking at my dress hanging there in the changing room and willing this not to be the one I would wear, I could feel the hype was really building up around me as each of the couple’s adrenalin began to kick in.  The smell of all their tan was overpowering and combined with the Bostik glue we used to stick our earrings on with or any part of fabric, hair or item that could move during a dance and distract our lines soon started to bring an ill feeling over me!!  Still no dress and my heart was really pounding now.  We had trained so hard and the possibility of taking this grand title tonight could be within our reach.  But where was this bl**dy dress.  I could really feel Bryan starting to get angry now and I could see him walking towards me and I was dreading and actually fearing what he was going to say…suddenly I saw my dressmakers, pushing their way through all the couples who were well into their warm up routines by now!!!  They were here, they had my dress…

The dress was here but it was now only twenty minutes until call time!  My dress would normally have been on an hour before my performance to allow not only my own body to get used to the feel and weight of the dress but also for Bryan to be prepared for whatever possible distractions there could be from all the glitter and moving fabric.  But this would not be the case on this night.  Believe it or not with most dresses the fear was always how heavy the dress would be as it would stunt the speed of your movement, but on this night that wouldn’t be the problem as I had to just get on and deal with that – actually the problem was much much worse.  As I put the dress on I could see that the huge Swarovski gems had not been individually sewn on but rather stuck with glue as the dressmakers had run out of time.  But as I put the dress on I wanted to cry.  Yes, they had been up sticking rhinestones on all night, some 8-10,000 individual stones would land on this dress, but as it had been laid down on a table the stones were fine however as soon as I put the dress on I could suddenly feel the wet glue seep onto my skin and start to burn and then I saw the huge gems start to slowly slide down the dress…as the glue had not dried!!!

What could I do now, wear my old dress that was hanging up and that I had been seen in earlier in the year or keep this amazing new white and crystal dress on and deal with the stinging of the glue on my skin and hope no one could see all the stones sliding off.  Well with only ten minutes to go now the decision was made within a minute.  The white dress it was.  As we also knew another age old hidden tradition was, a white dress for as far back as you go in the history books, always had the stamp of a champion.

Well, my mind was totally messed up as I heard the late, great Mr Bill Irvine start to announce that the competition had started.  As we came up from the changing rooms and took to the floor I could feel every eye in the room on us, looking to see what ‘the’ dress was that the possible champions were wearing.  So with that glance over within a second and if the demanding audience and adjudicators were happy, their eyes would now turn to the strength of our dancing.  However, to me it was probably the worst moment of my dancing ever.  All those hours upon hours of training and preparing for this magnitude of an event had been destroyed all because of my dress.  You see, mentally you have to be like a rock when you enter an event such as this and the traumas with my dress had really set us off on the wrong foot.  Not only was I dealing with the glue of the dress and trying to deal with how heavy all the stones were weighing down on my body, Bryan was now angry and felt we weren’t doing enough on the dance floor and I was now not only playing a battle with my mental state but also with my physical relationship with my dance partner on the floor.  As the public you may see all the glamour and smiles but when a competitor takes it’s profession seriously, tempers will  rise and it can get a little hot on the dance floor, as there were world titles at stake as well as our pride.

I don’t think things could have got any hotter as we went from dance to dance and through round to round.  Endless battles were taking place on and off the floor.  The dress was feeling terrible rather than a million dollars, my energy was slowly dropping but I had the last five dances in the final to go.  An extra banana and mars bar had to hold me through until the end now and a few words from Conrad and my coach, and mentally I would get through these last five dances if it killed me (or so I told myself)!!

It was now the last dance…the Jive, thousands of audience members were screaming, the judges were evaluating, I’m sure my mum was crying and the room knew that the last dance of the International season was coming to a close.  I could feel my legs pounding on the floor and tiring by the second, I could hear my heart beating and my breath panting, I could feel Bryan now pulling me around on the floor and the look of a scream through his eyes shouting ‘COME ON I WANT MORE’!  Come on Karen you can do it….just the last few seconds, I could feel myself saying.  I could hear the orchestra building up to the finale of the song, I was so so so exhausted, I was forcing every muscle to work just that little bit more, I was begging my smile to hold for just a moment longer and for my partner and I to hold it together for one last bar of music….

The pain was over, the battle had finished and we had survived another battle on the dance floor.  All that was left now was the results.  Sitting down, slumped over and exhausted, underneath the grand ballroom where above everyone was enjoying a glass of wine, discussing their personal views on the night that had unfolded and who would be their champion and why, comes the most nerve wracking moment of any major world title event…the wait for the results.

Bryan and I would tend to go our own ways to reflect on what had gone on on the dance floor.  Could there have been anymore we could have done, should we lose this battle how would we make a comeback and did we do our best, were just some of the thoughts that would flash through our minds.   With every muscle completely exhausted in my body, sweat pouring down my face and dripping onto my once white dress which was now sodden with tan and makeup, I sat feeling completely numb and empty on some spare bit of bench that didn’t have some item I had needed for the night just gone.  My clothes, towels, tan, spare shoes, tracksuit, bananas… you name it just got pushed to the side whilst I sat with my head hung down.  I could hear the corridor start to rumble as those competitors previously knocked out started to head our way to congratulate us on our performance, my boyfriend Conrad was there reassuring me “you did OK”, our coach arrived to give us a ‘well done’ pat on the shoulder and just to check we had held it together (had we?) …it was just a moment of noise, confusion and upheave until the huge orchestra belted out the sound that we had been waiting for …the results were in.

Quickly making our way upstairs it was the tradition of the six finalists at the Royal Albert Hall to each take up a position behind the deep and heavy velvet curtains that were at the top of each stair case leading down past the stalls and onto the dance floor.  We had run to our position behind one of the curtains with everyone wishing us good luck on the way and we were now in our holding position.  The Amateur event results had been called out so the room was already screaming for the new champions that had just been crowned in those categories, the Professional Ballroom was being announced and the Professional Latin would soon follow always being the last at any grand event in the world to be announced.  Everyone knew it to be the hardest and most gruelling event at any competitions and still to this day, as well as the most exciting and crowd appealing competition but the toll on my body and now my mind was immense and beyond words.

6th place of the Professional Latin American category had been announced and the audience was already cheering with delight, 5th, then 4th place, and so quickly onto 3rd…we were still holding strong behind the curtain…our number still having not been called, there were just two places left.  Bryan and I hadn’t spoken a word up there behind those heavy deep dark coloured velvet curtains, our minds were miles away thinking what if , what if, what if…what if what…I was asking myself, if we lost, if we won what, what oh god come on just say the results…

“and the runners up…”

Then came what seemed the longest pause ever, with the clearest aim to build the suspense in the room and to further torture us…

“ from Finland ……..”

I screamed and screamed and screamed, I jumped on Bryan and screamed again.  With the runners up being Finland, it meant England….yes that was us had taken the grand and prestigious world recognised title of the new International Professional Latin American Champions .  Bryan and I were suddenly running as fast as we could down the stairs to the sheer screams of delight from the audience, the orchestra was booming out the fan fare for the winning couple and we were stood in the middle of the floor on our own, with everyone standing in their chairs applauding,  I had launched myself onto Bryan to take the biggest hug from him whether he wanted it or not!

We were now in the history books forever as being…The International Professional Latin American Champions….

Hi everyone

Well having got the bug to want to share my fascination and personal passion with the world of dance, I have decided to start writing a blog about how dance affects my daily life!

It’s going to be as random as when I ended up teaching a group of gorgeous ladies at Eva Longoria’s birthday party last year in the toilets of the Dorchester Hotel, the simple steps of how to Salsa – to my international coaching of driving future world champions a step closer each day to achieve their goals of winning some of the biggest titles in the world.

From time to time you may hear a rant or two about my frustrations of the dance world or maybe how challenging my day is juggling eggs with appearing on the set at the BBC for Strictly Come Dancing to running back and forward supporting my students at their competitive events and having to deal with their vulnerable psychological imbalances that could make or break their performances that night.

A great deal of you may know how busy I am but even so I am still very excited to actually start this. I think it’s more for personal therapy than work, so stick with me as I may disappear for a few days during intensely busy times.

Of course I would love your feedback, views, thoughts, comments or even to share similar issues.

I really hope you will enjoy this blog and I’m planning to run it up to Christmas first and if you’re all enjoying it I’ll see if I can take you into 2012 with me, which is already booked out with lots of exciting things.

This sort of feels like I’m about to sit down to read you all a story on Jackanory (for those of you that remember that show)!

Happy reading…