Being part of Strictly (well, by association!)

Can't believe it's more than a month since my dance lesson with Camilla Dallerup - former winner of Strictly Come Dancing (Strictly Come Dancing). I spent about three hours getting to the lesson, in Sunbury Upon Thames, but it was so worth the trip. We spent the time working on my rumba action, which was a bit lame as I wasn't using my legs properly - not straightening them enough or using my muscles correctly. After half an hour I could already feel my limbs aching! And rumba is the slowest dance too.

STRICTLY PALS: With Camilla Dallerup-Sacre, former winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2008 and now not only a dance teacher but an NLP master! 

It was great to see Camilla again. She writes for Bodyfit, but I met her a few years back interviewing her for Soul&Spirit magazine, which I edited for five years (Camilla is into all the same spiritual stuff as me, i.e. crystals, law of attraction, that kinda thing. In fact, she has launched her new website camillasacredallerup.com all about her life coaching/NLP work - check it out!). And the lesson taught me so much - I never knew rumba was quite so technical! Just listening to the music and dancing around the studio felt so great. I litereally come alive when I'm dancing, though I still feel a bit shy in front of others, and only really let loose the real me when prancing in front of my bedroom mirror. I don't know why that is: fear of looking silly, perhaps, or not being good enough (yes, that's prob it, me and my perfectionist tendencies).

SPIRITUAL CONNECTIONS: Meeting Camilla for the first time at the Hay House I Can Do It event in 2011 in London

Since the lesson I've been practicing my rumba walks as often as possible, including that same day as I went to a salsa night and must have looked rather odd to all the other dancers as I kept sashaying across the carpet at the front of the room on my own, doing a very non-salsa dance. I did some more on stage at a salsa night the other week, while waiting for the DJ to change tracks and then come dance cha cha with me - which is just a faster version of rumba anyway). And I also practised them at the launch of Flavia and Russell Grant's Zalsa Fitness DVD (zalzafitness.com) at Pineapple studios (pineapple.uk.com), as they did a short class to introduce a group of journos to the DVD routines, one of which was rumba.

Strictly dreams...
Ever since watching the first episode of Strictly back in 2004, I've always said I wanted to be on the show, but not being a celeb or a pro dancer was going to make it tricky! Unless I got the job presenting It Take's Two.. Now there's a thought. But then the other day it occured to me that between my self and the two deputy editor's I've worked with on Soul&Spirit and Bodyfit, we've interviewed most of the pros and a fair number of the celebs too! I met Anton when he was holding auditions for members of the public to be in a dance event at Trafalgar square back in 2006, I think; I interviewed Darren Bennett and his wife Lilia for the EADT newspaper where I used to work (and Darren's brother Dale used to dance with a girl from my old school too). I have a pic of me with them somewhere, just can't find it; I've interviewed and met Flavia and her former celeb partner Russell Grant ...

GETTING ZALZA FIT! With Russell and Flavia at the launch of their Zalsa Fitness DVD at Pineapple studios, London, early March

KEEEEP DANCING! With Karen Hardy at her studios in Imperial Wharf, London, where I did a workshop and later a private lesson - more rumba to practise what I'd learned with Camilla weeks earlier

... Karen Hardy last December when I interviewed her for Bodyfit and did her dance workshop (karenhardystudios.com); I met Andrew Cuerden, who was in the first series, at a salsa holiday weekend in Suffolk many moons ago, I interviewed Kristina Rihanoff over the phone, and we've got Natalie Lowe going into the mag in a month or so. And I also interviewed Robin Windsor for my local rag, when he was first in Burn the Floor, before Striclty, and had dance lessons with his dad in a village hall in Suffolk for a few months!!! (by the way, Burn the Floor is on again in the West End and I'm so excited and will def be going at some point (burnthefloor.com)
On the celeb side there's Lynda Bellingham, Gabby Logan and, of course, Russell, who I've already mentioned. I'm sure there are more and I just can't remember right now.
I also used to dance at the same school as Crystal Main (who was one of the group dancers on Stricly and went on to be in Brendan Cole's show). So, I reckon I HAVE been part of Stricly by association! Well, that's what I like to think anyway :-)
For now, I'm hooked on ballroom and Latin again I want to do a ProAm competition (where you compete with a professional), and also take part in the showcase coming up at Karen Hardy's Studio at the end of April... watch this space!
As Camilla says on her coaching website, you have to 'Dream, Act, Believe', so perhaps if I focus enough positive intentions on my dancing dreams, I might just turn them into a reality. Life has a funny way of manifesting what you want when you relax and get out of your own way :-) Fingers crossed!

Why older is better (mostly)

Just been to see Skyfall, the latest Bond film (if that's not stating the obvious - it's been impossible to ignore after all). I understand why it's being lauded so much. For a start, hats off to Javier Bardem for his eerily creepy bad guy - the blonde hair! - and for the writers staging it primarily in London and Scotland - a ploy to attract even more tourists? Or to add one more GB triumph to what has already become a truly British year all round, what with the incredible Olympics (did I mention I was in the closing ceremony? sorry, can't help bringing it up at every opportunity).

Maturing - like a fine wine
But the part of the film that most caught my attention was the theme of growing older, especially at the start, with plenty of mentions about Bond's age - DC certainly looked rather more 'weather worn' to put it politely, than in previous films. But the underlying message was that he may be older, but yet he was wiser and most certainly not out of the game. There were jibes about him being past it, only emphasised by the young new 'Q' played by a techie geek decades his junior. And though this was perhaps to be expected, what I liked were the reminders from his young female accomplice about 'old dog, new tricks' and 'old ways being the best', which emphasised that age does not stop you being the best in the world and good at your job.

Culture that values youth
I bring this up because it always saddens me when I read about people ousted from their jobs because of their age. I know this is hardly news, and has been going on since its inception, but the BBC has a reputation for firing it's older, and very accomplished, presenters. To use a dancing reference - of course, as I love it - Strictly came under fire for getting rid of Arlene as a judge. Whether she chose to go or was coerced, I guess we will never know. But ageism is rife and we all know it. Whether it's overt or not, it pervades our Western society. I get sick of the Daily Mail website for the way it constantly panders to this hegemonic belief that women are 'past it' by a certain age and ought not make themselves visible (and if they do, God forbid they wear something 'inappropriate for their age' or do something 'improper'). I avoid reading the site at all costs but sometimes can't help it when a colleague sends me a relevant fitness or spiritual news story, which I check and then inevitably get sucked into reading all the other 'non-stories' for an hour or so, often only to end up depressed. Madonna, my hero and a very spiritual lady (if anyone bothered to actually listen to what she actually says), is always lambasted on that site for behaving in a manner 'not fit for a women in her fifties' according to the site.

Age has hidden gifts
My favourite spiritaul doctor Christiane Northrup, author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (Piatkus), says in one of her lecture that as women we only really get into our stride in our sixties. That's when we really know ourselves, have decided not to put up with s**t from people anymore, and can create amazing things. Check out her work because it's truly inspiring (the talk I refer to is on the Hay House audio Inside-out Wellness with her and Dr Wayne Dyer. It's a few years old now but still good). She, or it could be Wayne, I forget, also mentions that the only reason the retirement age was brought in at 65 was because some European army general realised most of his most powerful enemies were above this age; so, by introducing the meme - a powerful, unconscious belief - that by the age of 65 you are past it, this general could stay in power. I wouldn't be surprised if this were true.

Mind = good; body, not so much 
The only thing I dislike about ageing is the fact my hair is turning grey and I'm getting lines around my eyes in such a quantity that it sometimes causes me distress. But that's just me being vain. The great thing about getting older is being able to learn from your mistakes and feeling more confident about who you are. Though I'd love to have my 20-year-old body back, I'd probably not choose to go back to that age because it would mean having to re-live the horror of my mid 20s (horror being a slight exaggeration) due to just not feeling confident about anything: my direction in life, my career, or lack thereof, my relationships - OK that last one is still a mystery a lot of the time. But still, age does bring wisdom; it brings grace, strength and depth. It should be revered, not hidden away out of sight to make way for the spring chickens all of the time.

Dancing to her own drum
I hope she won't mind me saying so, but Karen Ruimy (and I don't know her exact age) started her dance career later in life. Despite having danced as a young child, she ended up working in banking and earning mega bucks, but packed it all in to follow her calling and pursue her dream of being a poet, singer, writer and dancer on stage. Check out her website www.karenruimy.com; the blog is excellent and a must for anyone into dance, fashion, art, travel, architecture - actually she covers most things! She is just one person who is inspiring to me. Who says you have to be a certain age to do things? It's only a mindset that stops us from following our dreams. Louise Hay, a women who set up a publishing company in her 60s, says in her seminal book You Can Heal Your Life (Hay House - of course!), that a former client of hers wanted to get into commercials, and she was in her 70s. So Louise told her to go for it as there was 'no one else quite like you doing what you do' - and so the woman did get an agent and went on to successfully star in lots of TV ads.

Age not a barrier
So, let's not make age a barrier. I need to take my own advice here, for I'm often wishing I could turn back the clock and have done more dancing in my 20s, and not just consigned it to the hobby category. But I didn't. The past is gone. Nothing is stopping me from pursuing it now, especially as Karen Hardy invited me to her dance studio to have a one-to-one lesson with a pro (I actually had to go and jump up and down in the loos after the interview, as I could not contain my excitement!). All I need to do is get my achy back sorted. Well, as Bond discovers in this latest film, we may grow wiser and still 'have it' but the body does, inevitably, get a bit worn out...