dance school's 1950's-60's

[katyp]

i am interested to here from anyone who attended dupont dance school in these years. or remembers a dance teacher called beezy? beasy? not sure of spelling.or the name angela parr. or a dance school located at the new walk about this time. any info would be gratefull about dance in leic around this time. (use family history project only)   thank you.

[Chrisabelle]

It is an old post but, I attended a ballet school in the 1950's my teacher was Marie Bici, I beleive it was on High Street.

[jazzaroo]

Dancing never interested me but when i was a teenager in the late 50s i was dragged to a dance school to learn ballroom dancing as this was still a regular activity at the palais de dance on humberstone gate,we were getting left behind in the girl stakes as we just stood like wallflowers whilst the other lads waltzed off with the local talent literally, my friend insisted that we took dance lessons and we duly enrolled at a dance school that was run from a private house on the Hinckley Road /Fosse road junction, the lady instructor was adamant that we should always look her in the eyes whilst dancing the quickstep, the lady was quite tall and my mate was about 5ft 2" so he had problems looking up at her face, i was almost six foot and was able to look directly into her eyes, my mate was lucky as her breath smelt like a Saffron estate postmans socks on giro day, she had bad breath that could have stripped wallpaper , it was that pungent it  would have made a gorillas armpit smell like perfume, i had to keep turning my head away to stop myself throwing up and she was becoming really agitated about this as she had no idea what the problem was, needless to say neither did my pal and he was annoyed that i refused to return to the dance class,we never did go back to the school but the twist and shaking it about dancing took over from ballroom so the problem was ok ,I suppose the moral of this story is that there are times when its an advantage to suffer with dwarf syndrome. very pc i don't think !!

[Johned]

Jazaroo I sympathise with your predicament all those years ago with your halitosis inflicted lady instructor but, at least, you tried.  I used to be a reasonable piano player, appreciated jazz and the big bands (still do) and always wanted to dance "properly" but arriving at a "jazzer" always espied unsavoury friends propping up the bar and gravitated to their libatudinous influences, only making, I am sure, unwelcome and unsteady approaches towards a particular young lady when the last waltz loomed up!  My eldest son and daughter were both quite gifted dancers and my son and his partner went many years ago on an all expenses paid trip with an English amateur team dancing against teams from Denmark.  I recall, on his return home, his shock and that of the other English male team members when they danced at a city called Onze, at the lack of decorum of the Danish young ladies who openly undressed and changed in the male facility before their very eyes, so to speak.  "What did you do?"  I ernestly enquired, the answer came back "next night, the boys arrived at the venue, good and early!".    

[jazzaroo]

Hi Johned, interesting to know that you played jazz piano, i happen to be a jazz drummer and for years i have been playng with an awsome jazz pianist who is now in his 84th year and has only recently called it a day on the gig scene, this guy can write,arrange,sing and is a real pro in every sense of the word and was best known for his work with the Hedley Ward Trio if you remember them from the radio and early tv days, he taught me to play keyboards many years ago and together with the drums that is how i make a living these days, piano player i am not but i get by ok, small world eh !

[Johned]

Very interesting about your life as a jazz afficianado Jazaroo and your gifted 84 year old musician colleague.  In the fifties I was part of a long haired combo of little ability but unbounded enthusiasm.  However we possessed a clarinettist who could improvise for literally hours doing his own thing and had to be brought back to reality by the rest of the group.  He was self taught in his teens who previously had shown no musical ability; in fact he was electrically minded.  After National Service he got into the Guildhall School of Music where he was taught "properly" and subsequently played for a number of top orchestras.
I still fiddle about on my keyboard but my finger joints ache along with most of my other extremities!  Good luck to you Jazaroo and keep on trucking!  

[jazzaroo]

Johned, I played and ran a dixieland (trad) jazz band for about twenty years and we went all over the place,getting into places that i would not normally be invited to. good fun but the jazz piano based quartet was probably the best thing that i acheived musically, we even got to to work with people like Barney Kessel on his last UK tour. I've gone back to where i started now and i have formed a fifties R'n roll band playing all the classics, you can check me out on my website and there is a couple of clips of the band aptly named the rockin'dinosaurs and loads of info about the jazz bands, there should be some audio clips of the quartet and the trad band,if not let me know and I'll send you a cd if you want web addy is www.roylowemusic.co.uk

[Johned]

Brilliant Roy, many thanks - will check out your website today?