July 17th, 2017
Another full house today – Katie, the two Martins (film and voice recording), Marie, June, Doreen and I. June mentioned for the first time that her Dad was the manager of Fairlie’s Ballroom, this confused Doreen as she thought “that was where the prostitutes used to be”. Marie then said that her dad was something to do with Fairlie’s ballroom too.
We all had a good laugh, and this is a great example of what Doreen calls “the elbow system” which refers to the friendly (or not?!) rivalry and one-upmanship between the girls in the line-up. Probably a necessary tool for survival, and certainly continues to come to the fore!
We were in the Lafayette Bar today with the tap mats pushed right up against the stairs which worked. It looked good, we could use the handrails for balance if wanted, though if June had her way she’d have us tapping down the stairs, making an entrance with top hats on!
“Lovely to leave these three dancers to it and watch them improvising and bouncing off each other. Marie and Doreen did a beautiful improvised duet to ‘What a Wonderful World’ (where would we be without Louis?). June was choreographing, singing, dancing, and enjoying working away on her own. We finished with some seated dancing and Marie’s hands & arms were stunning! A couple of new tracks were mentioned including ‘Walking my Baby Back Home’ which went down well. This is all an education for Katie whose top-hit on Spotify is currently Louis Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly”. – Janice Parker
An Audience With... 