I was born in Africa (Rhodesia) to be exact, now known as Zimbabwe.  Life there was simple yet full of adventure and excitement,  as you can expect when living in the African bush.  My father was a British Ex-pat who moved to Africa to join the British South African Police Force where he met my mother. My mom was a fantastic women who was not afraid to turn her hand to anything, hence she could do just about anything including looking after me and my much elder brother and sister. I was the baby of the family with an older sister of 13 years and an older brother of 9 years. As a family we enjoyed a very happy and comfortable life style until I was 5 when we had to leave everything behind us in Zimbabwe and move to South Africa and start from scratch.

 

Although my parents never had much money they were rich in culture and morals which I have always appreciated. They both worked very hard to support us and devoted their lives to us kids. As a result our childhoods were on a whole very happy and contented.

 

My early childhood “pre-dancing” was spent, like most South African kids, happily playing in the bush, swimming in rivers, climbing trees, riding bicycles and getting and….getting under my brothers feet! However my mom and sister were both music crazy. They both played the piano very well. My mum sang for a Philharmonic Choir and my sister in a band. So as a result I was brought up with all different types of music  and musicals, from Mozart to Grease and everything in between. We used to have wonderful family singing sessions around the piano after dinner. Not that I am claiming to be any good at singing but I enjoyed joining in.  My life was never without music whether it was going to sleep whilst listening to mom playing on the piano or being abruptly woken up by my sister blasting ABBA out from her record player!  So it was during these years that I found my love of music and dance.

 

I will never forget the first time I stepped onto a dance floor! It was my sister’s  21st Birthday party and I was 8. We had a DJ, lights and everything…as you do in SA! As a kid I was painfully shy, self conscious and would not talk to anyone. So when it came to dancing, wild horses could not have pulled me onto the dance floor. Even though my feet could not stop tapping underneath the table.  But then along comes the party animal of the family, my sister, to drag me kicking and screaming on to the dance floor in front of everyone! Well, she proceeded to give me my first informal dance lesson which I can remember to this day. Needless to say I then proceeded to ask everyone at the party to dance and did not stop until 4am! A sign of things to come I am sure!!

 

2 years later at the age of 10 “Dirty Dancing” hit the screens and everyone started going to dancing lessons. But in South Africa for boys to dance was not really the done thing, even though Mr Swayze had made it look so cool and macho!  Anyhow I heard some guys in my class had started Ballroom and Latin American Dance lessons and so I asked my mom if I could go. Well, once I had been and seen the ratio of girls to boys, the decision was quite easy really as girls where just starting to become rather interesting as well as annoying!

 

Since then I have never looked back. My early teen years were probably the hardest time of my childhood, as I very shy and chubby and for this reason got bullied at school so to mention that I went dancing was out of the question. However as the years went by and I continued to take part in other sports such as swimming, rugby etc. I made good friends and I my love of dancing grew stronger I did not care what other people thought. In my later teens, it proved very useful as my girlfriends used to come and watch my rugby matches on Saturdays and all my team mates soon got jealous that I was getting the girlfriends and they weren’t.  My later teenage years were great. Although I was becoming much more serious about my dancing I still had a great social life of pool parties, barbeques (braais) clubbing, girlfriends etc. I got quite fit as I used to walk to school, play rugby or swim after school until 5pm and then run to dancing, dance for an hour or so and then walk home. In the final years of school I decided that my dancing was more important to me than rugby and if I wanted to see my 21st birthday I should give up rugby for dancing.

 

I competed for 7 years in South Africa, dancing both Ballroom and Latin and made the top 12 in the country. My dance teacher used to get friends in England to record the Original Come Dancing and UK Championships from their TV and it was from these tapes that we used to get our choreographical ideas from. Every year we used to look forward with such excitement to a Professional couple coming over from England to demonstrate, judge and teach for us.  It was these overseas couple‘s shows that  gave me the inspiration to continue my dancing career and come to England once I left school.

 

Since coming to England in 1996, I suppose I have made a lot of good decisions and some bad ones but overall I think I have done ok. I was lucky enough to work for DSI which are a dancewear retailer company and they very kindly sponsored me during my employment of 7 years with them. However after 7 years of battling to hold a full-time responsible job and pursue my dancing career I decided that it would be fairer on everyone including myself if I was to get a part-time job and really pursue the career of my choice. Perhaps it was my lack of confidence that had kept me from going for it earlier or probably that and financial restraints.

 

Anyway the rest is history as they say!

 

My amateur career culminated with reaching 4th place in the English rankings with my current partner Hanna Haarala. Since we turned professional in Feb 05 we have been extremely lucky to get some fantastic opportunities. The biggest one of course being chosen to as two of the professional dancers on “Strictly Come Dancing” in 2005!

This exposure has been a great learning curve and has given us both such fantastic opportunities and experiences that we might never have had.

 

As a professional dancer I would like to continue to compete and perform until the time comes when I feel that my body can no longer improve and it is time to let the brain take over. Whilst still dancing I endeavour to gain as much experience and knowledge as possible in all aspects of dance. I have become very interested in sports psychology due to my struggle to be mentally stronger and more confident in order to compete in the dance world. My aim as dance teacher is to be respected and liked and offer not only the technical and choreographical aspects of dance but the mental/life skills in order my students to succeed. I care about people and enjoy helping those who have the goals and work ethic to make them happen.

 

Andrew