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01-01-09 | 07:24 am

Blackpool Gazette

From taboo to tangos

GLAMOUR, Movement, Fascination. Or, as playwright George Bernard Shaw once described it: A very crude attempt to get into the rhythm of life. We’re talking about ballroom dancing and there’s plenty of it going on until Friday at the 84th annual Blackpool Dance Festival.

From social taboo to social activity and Olympic sport, its metamorphosis has taken 100 years – little of which has been recorded. Until now. Who were the people who moved this field of dance to where it is today, loved by millions? This is the central question of a £105 a time coffee table book – Ballroom Icons – which Canada-based German-born dance teacher/coach and adjudicator Brigitt Mayer-Karakis has been working on for the last seven years.

The book, about people and their enthusiasm and tenacious love for ballroom dancing, was finally unveiled at the festival in the Winter Gardens last night at a glittering reception when the guest speaker was British Dance Council president Bryan Allen.

Described as a journey through the lives of dancers, doers and devotees of the ballroom world, this limited luxury edition of 2,500 books, no doubt soon to become a collector’s item, comes in a beautiful dark linen box with embossed print. There is a fold out with over 200 vintage pictures from the icons in action in their time, dating back to 1910, with testimonies from former world champions about their favourite icons.

Brigitt says: “Living in this field of dance for so long, it was my vision to create a book that through its format is a piece of art, and through its content a true and intriguing documentation of ballroom dance history. I hope that it is also a pleasure to read.”

A familiar local face in the book is Gill MacKenzie, who joined the Blackpool Tower Company publicity department in 1973 and, worked for successive owners Trusthouse Forte Leisure, First Leisure and Leisure Parcs.

Organiser of the Blackpool Dance Festival organiser from 1981 until her retirement in 2004, Gill is featured in pictures and words over four pages as the story of the festival unfolds, from its early years as very much a north of England championship to its world status today. This year’s event sees a total of 122 British couples and 1,685 foreign couples from a total of 58 countries taking part in the various Amateur, Senior and Professional Ballroom and Latin events.

07-07-07 | 10:35 am

A word from the Author

The desire to move graciously on the floor seems synonymous with the way we want to move through life.

Still a relatively young form of physical activity, ballroom dancing has developed through many stages to its present day resurgent popularity. From socially unacceptable, to social activity, as an Olympic sport, or as an art form, its transformation has taken over 100 years, very little of which has been documented….until now.

Who were the people who moved this field of dance to where it is today, loved by millions? What are their stories? Who were their mentors and what inspired them? What is their essence? These are some of the questions I will answer in my book entitled, BALLROOM ICONS.

Since 1976 I have been actively involved in ballroom dancing as a participant, coach and judge. It was my vision to create a book that is through its format, a piece of art, and through its content, a true and intriguing documentation of ballroom history. The people who ‘speak’ have influenced ballroom dancing, and its various facets. The early pioneers have passed away and we lose more and more of those who remember the ‘roots’ of this elegant craft. I want to record the knowledge of those great masters before it is lost forever. This is the central theme of the book project I have been working on since 2002.

Until today, a book as comprehensive and poignant on this topic has not been available in any language; most literature is of a technical nature.

Now it is here! I am happy to announce, that Ballroom Icons has been launched in Blackpool, May 25, 2009!

We produced a Limited Luxury Collectors Edition of 2500 books which come in a beautiful dark linen box with embossed print and have the following special features (printed in Germany):

• numbered
• thread bound
• 296 pages
• 64 featured artists/icons
• two dance-history parts
• Römerturm-transparent pages overlaying art photography
• fold out of 200 vintage pictures from the icons in action in their time, dating back to 1910 -’20
• testimonies from former World champions about their favourite icons
• including four (4) random art prints of different icons on special photo-art paper, suitable for framing
• some more special features

Thank you and enjoy,

12-31-69 | 04:00 pm

A Word from the editor

Ballroom dancing has its roots in the first decade of the 20th century, one of the most accelerated in history. Ballroom’s longevity and resurgent popularity in the 21st century is owed to men and women who, were and are, passionate, talented, benevolent and clever.

Ballroom’s nature is perennial. It carried on during the Great Depression with paying clients, survived in the ‘psychedelic’ 70’s and the disco craze and has given us scores of gifted people with fascinating and often funny stories. Throughout the world today, millions of enthusiasts experience the joy of ballroom dancing.

But who are the men and women who brought this about? Who are the icons of ballroom dancing? What are their stories? We lose more and more of those who remember the roots of ballroom dancing with its emotional, colorful and almost hedonistic nature.

Brigitt Mayer, the author of Ballroom Icons, has been intrigued and passionate about preserving and recording the history of ballroom dancing before it is lost forever. Born and educated in the Rhineland, Germany’s dancing ‘hub’, she began her career at age 16. Due to her innovative and creative approach to ballroom dancing, she received an invitation to perform at Britain’s prestigious Albert Hall. She lives in Canada, teaches and adjudicates worldwide, and had the opportunity and the skill to research and write Ballroom Icons.

Her book, Ballroom Icons with its archival and exquisite original photographs, documents the lives of the men and women who personify ballroom dancing.