DANCE PASSION

Brad Rathbone. It's a long time since I first took a dance step, something like 33 years, that is an awful lot of steps and I have had many very enjoyable times with all that stepping. My beginning with dance was an outing with my mother and father. In sparsely populated rural Australia it was very common for the people who lived far apart on their farms to come together on a Saturday night to socialise and dance. It was in this atmosphere of needed friendship and family togetherness that I came to know dance. There were kids running and sliding on the floor, a three piece band on the stage, lots of progressive dances where everybody dances the same short routine and then moves on to the next partner, a great way to meet everyone in one short dance bracket.

The country dance was a great social event but the three piece band was a bit short on Cha Cha Cha so I ended up at a local dance school with a mixture of fun, technique and new friends.

 

Dance had started to take me. I remember so much fun doing medals and dancing in the studio team at inter-club nights and fancy dress balls. The focus was heavy on fun and light on quality a fact I became aware of when on the outskirts of Melbourne at a special event I saw a dance show by a British Professional couple-John and Betty Westley. This event kindled an interest in quality and performance and competition dance. This new interest was to become a rival to my studies. As an undergraduate studying Civil Engineering and encouraged by my parents to do both I discovered how to share my time and have both. Looking back it was (and still is) a good blend; work behind a desk and exercise with a competitive motivation. So l progressed with both engineering and dance. I left my first dance school to learn from a recently returned professional from England and found an interested young lady called Margaret with whom 1 competed in all three dance styles (Standard, Latin and Australian New Vogue).

 

We enjoyed a fair degree of success winning many grade events and rising to the top class in all three dance styles. In 1975 graduating as a Bachelor of Engineering I started to work in my chosen profession, married my dance partner and continued to mix work and my maturing dance passion. But then disaster struck; My wife had enough, she could not cope with the dedication needed for high level competition. My life was at a cross road of limited choice. I mistakenly stayed with my wife and although became-, a father  of  two  wonderful girls, a better Engineer, and a home owner. I was a bit empty. For 10 years not a step. The end of this dark age came in divorce and a late chance to dance once more. I returned to my coach Don McRobert in Melbourne and worked out with a couple of girls as I regained my spirit and passion. Now working for a Swiss based Engineering firm I was offered a position in Sydney which I took. Dancing is everywhere and I soon integrated into the Sydney dance scene. This was a great time to be in dance in Australia. Jason Gilkison and Peta Roby had won the world Ten Dance Amateur Title and a television show called  That's Dancin" was in production. This television show had a series of weekly heats culminating in two semi-finals and a final. Each dance couple perform a solo show-dance and competed against each other in the three styles. The dance school atmosphere was great during the preparation for the show with practise competitions and presentation of the show-dances for the schools social dancers, I really enjoyed being a part of that television show and dancing against Paul Green - Karren Rufus and Craig Wilson to mention only a few. The dance scene in Sydney was going strong but the economic outlook was not good and when an engineering position in Switzerland was offered I said a very-slow-controlled-slowfox-type YES!
So it was that a third generation Australian of English decent returned to Europe and a new chapter in my life began. Australia is a great place when it comes to freedoms and enormous unspoiled open wilderness which I often enjoyed but it is a long way from everything and not so many Australians ever get a chance of an extended stay or even a holiday in Europe.

 

The workday was a joy, very international, ten different nationalities in the head office, and a pride in the world projects and international corporate network that the Swiss had created. Unfortunately a spirit that was soon to be lost following a corporate takeover. The corporate down turn was no match for a waltz swing as I found my way to Bern's Turnier Tanz Klub Bern. Do you believe in fate? Generally I would say no, but what do you make of this? Shortly after arriving in Bern I found my way to a competition in Bern at the Kursaal and was delighted to see a lively energetic atmosphere and one I wanted to share. I enjoyed the afternoon not knowing anybody. It became clear that the afternoon was about to end and I had no real idea who I should speak too. I ventured forward without any real intentions and happened to cross the path of one of the judges coming off the floor. Well she should be able to help, I thought. So the first person I spoke to after three hours of just watching was Rita Pauli who eventually became my companion, my dance partner and my wife.
We have had so far a very pleasing and often successful dance partnership. A challenge when you think she had only danced Latin, but I could and do see her passion for dance.