Strictly for real: The resurgance of ballroom dancing

TV has revived ballroom dancing – but for some who take to the dance floor it is much more than just the music and passing fashion, discovers Claire Black

• Jennifer McMillan and Colin Bell. Picture: Neil Hanna

THE buzz of conversation swells as the doors to the ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in Glasgow swing open for waitresses to file in and out. Glasses clink and laughter and chat waft on the air. Outside, at the bar, where drinks are loaded on to trays, the atmosphere is all together different. There's no laughter. Not yet anyway.

Men in high-waisted trousers, white bow-ties and braces bob around in their patent shoes. Women in dresses sparkling with sequins and diamante, shimmering with feathers and ruffles, stretch their feet and make last minute adjustments to their make-up.

Welcome to the world of competitive ballroom dancing, where smiles are beaming, clothes are made to measure and footwork that looks effortless is achieved through hours of dedicated training each week.

At the Scottish Closed Championships 2010, Scotland's national ballroom dance competition, eight couples have come from all over the country to compete for the title of national champion. As the soles of shoes are scored for extra grip and numbers are pinned onto the back of suit jackets, the tension crackles in the air.

Bobbing on the balls of his feet, Alex Hamilton looks a little nervous. His hair is perfectly combed, his beard immaculately trimmed and although on the dance floor his smile will be perfectly in place, out here he looks pensive. His wife and dance partner, Audrey, is fingering the hem of her tangerine and diamante dress, looking for a catch that's going to be nipped off with a pair of nail scissors.

"I'm not organised today," she says, rummaging in a pull along case that contains bananas and crisps as well as bits of clothing and spare shoes. "I've got the hair up and the eyes on, but that's about it." She feeds the fabric through her fingers looking for the tear. "I'm a bit annoyed about this because it'll pull."

The Hamiltons met at a salsa class in Aberdeen. Audrey has been ballroom dancing for 10 years, Alex for 16. Together, they've been competing for the last six years, travelling to Edinburgh for lessons every week and practicing most days.

It's the couple's fourth time competing in the Scottish Closed, but their first year at senior level. Dancing at the level just below – pre-champ – they've won the trophy for the last three years. But tonight they're taking nothing for granted.

"You just go and do what you can," Audrey says. "You just dance. You can go on and it can be absolutely wonderful or it can be a disaster.

"It can happen."

Strictly Come Dancing may have kick-started a ballroom dance renaissance in the UK, but it's clear, looking around the packed ballroom, under the gleam of the glitterball, that for many dancing never lost its shine. Dancesport Scotland, which organises the Scottish Closed, was set up in 1945 to encourage amateur dancing in Scotland, both socially and competitively. Now in its 65th year, its remit remains the same.

The PA system crackles into life and the first announcement of the evening is made – it's time for the Grand March. The eight couples – women on the outside – enter the ballroom and take a turn around the floor. The audience claps and people whisper about the dresses. "Ooh, lovely. I like the feathers on that one", "Don't they look gorgeous?"

Cameras flash, video cameras bleep and supporters shout out the numbers of the couples, "Come on 111", "Go for it 102".

As the competitors leave the room for a few last minutes of preening and preparation, the crowd get a chance to take to the floor. As Andy Williams urges everyone to Try to Remember, the floor fills up in seconds. Timid beginners count out their steps, while elderly couples, their steps honed through years of practice, glide around the floor.

People laugh and chat as they spot old pals, but more than a few obviously take their dancing seriously, swaying and weaving around the floor.

Social dancing over, the competition can begin. Chairs are turned from tables to face the dance floor, the line of faces intent on studying every step, looking for any mistake. The five competition judges take their places at key positions around the dance floor, notebooks and pens in hands. The first round won't be marked – it's just a run through – but that doesn't mean that the dancers won't be pulling out all the stops.

As the five couples move around the floor, the crowd is silent, watching every move. As they pivot and chassis, the smiles are in place but there's no mistaking the concentration. The couples run through the waltz, the tango, the foxtrot and the quickstep. One minute and 45 seconds of each.

It doesn't sound like long, but the effort is clear. As they weave expertly between each other, there's the odd near-miss, but no crashes. The audience cheers, shouting out the numbers of the couples they want to win. The women's costumes catch the light and sway as they turn around the floor.

It's all over in a matter of minutes. The couples leave the floor, bowing and curtsying, graciously accepting the applause. Not more than a minute later, back outside, they look quite different, some slumped on sofas, brows being mopped with hankies, high energy drinks being sipped and chocolate nibbled.

Julia and Ewan Wallace from Aberdeen are trying to catch their breath. The couple, who have been dancing together for 15 years, have won the competition twice before and they'd love to win it again.

"We went on a cruise," says Ewan explaining, over the buzz of the electric fan Julia uses to cool her face and save her make-up, how they started dancing.

"There was a dance teacher and so we joined the class. We liked it and so when we came home we joined a club in Aberdeen. We started competing a few years later. We got the bug and we were hooked."

The couple, like all of their competitors, trains four or five days a week and travel for coaching. It's a huge commitment in their lives.

It's a similar story for the defending champions, Jim and Laura Carroll. Laura, in a white dress adorned with black feathers, Jim in a perfectly tailored tail suit, his white bib dazzling white, started dancing 25 years ago.

"We'd just got married and we couldn't dance," says Laura. "We were invited to lots of other weddings and I wanted us to be able to do a waltz and a quickstep. I didn't know that the man I had married was very competitive."

"We've danced for Scotland about seven times in the world championships," beams Jim. The couple used to drive from their home in Perth to London for coaching but now with their coach in Pitlochry, there's less travel, if no less commitment.

"It's expensive because you've got all your suits and dresses, your lessons and practice," says Laura. "But some people go out and have a meal…"

"We don't go out for meals, we don't go to the pub," says Jim. "We don't do the things that other people spend money on. We spend our money on dancing."

Jennifer McMillan, 22, and Colin Bell, 21, taking part in the amateur part of the competition against reigning champions Tibor Pot and Hilary Mouat, have only been dancing together for two-and-a-half years.

Jennifer started learning to ballroom dance only a year before that although Craig has been dancing since the junior level.

"I started dancing because of Strictly," Jennifer says, looking embarrassed. "I was already at dance classes but it was tap and ballet. When I saw it on the telly I decided I wanted to try the ballroom stuff. I found a social class and went there for a year. Then I wanted to see competition so I went along to one of the Scottish competitions and that was it. That's how I got here." She smiles.

"I went through a spell with some bad partnerships and I really started losing interest," Craig says. "Then I managed to get a perfect partner in Jennifer and so I got my interest back pretty quick."

So has it lived up to the expectations Jennifer had from watching Strictly? "It's better," she says. "I've done better than I thought I ever would."

While a demonstration is given by professional dancers Ben Hardwick and Lucy Jones who wriggle and writhe across the floor doing latin dances that get the audience to their feet, the competitors hover at the door. There's nothing more they can do.

While raffle prizes are picked and announcements of forthcoming competitions made, the two silver trophies glint on a table at the front of the hall. At last, the results are in. A ripple goes around the room and people shout out the numbers of the couples they support in a last ditch attempt to influence the results.

It's the seniors first. In first place: Ewan and Julia Wallace. In second Jim and Laura Carroll. The couples sweep through the doors, smiles fixed, to receive their prizes. Alex and Audrey come fourth. It's handshakes and kisses all round as the audience applaudes.

The couples line up for photographs and then they're gone, leaving it now to the amateurs. The young couples stand close to their families and supporters, looking nervous. First place goes to Tibor Pot and Hilary Mouat in both the Latin and Ballroom competitions. Jennifer and Craig come third.

It's nearly midnight and the queue for the cloakroom snakes along the bar, where a few hours before the dancers were pinning on their numbers and smoothing their hair. But Hilary Mouat and Tibor Pot are buzzing with energy.

Carrying their enormous silver trophies around with them, the pair are being kissed on the cheeks and slapped on the backs by their supporters.

"I'm really, really chuffed," says Hilary.

"She was screaming," adds Tibor.

"I didn't really realise I was, but I was."

DANCE CRAZY

• Strictly Come Dancing – The Live Tour is at Glasgow SECC tonight. For tickets call 0844 395 4000. Dancesport Scotland's next competition is on 3 April at Grangemouth Town Hall. For more information log on to www.dancesportscotland.co.uk

• According to Dance UK, the umbrella group for dance acts and centres across the country, dance is the fastest-growing artform, with more than 13 per cent of the population now attending dance performances.

• The figures for BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing are proof alone: last year it reported its highest audience figures ever with 14.5 million tuning in to see the final.

• Meanwhile, Britain's Got Talent has repeatedly seen dance acts receiving the public vote, with George Sampson and Diversity winning in consecutive years. The latter has gone on to release their own best-selling work-out DVD.

• Diversity's success in 2009 saw the famous Pineapple Studios in London report that an additional 850 boys and men a month were signing up for lessons, with ballet, ballroom, street and contemporary dance are seeing an increase in interest.

• In fact, the latest figures suggest that in the region of five million people are engaged in various kinds of community dancing. Increas-ingly, too, dance has become a part of the education system.

• The numbers studying some form of it for GCSE have increased from 2,752 in 1990 to 17,855 in 2008.