By the middle of the 1960’s sequence dancing had become so popular that the ballroom associations decided to give sequence dancing  more attention.

Headlines in “Dance World” for 1965 were ”Sequence Storm brewing.”. Then “as now” sequence dancing was held in low esteem by ballroom dancers. 

A.H. Franks (1940-1945 said “Sequence dancing has really no place in the art of ballroom dancing and such dances are regarded as novelities.” on the other hand Victor Silvester in(1950) said “Sequence dancing is very easily learned……..ideal for the absolute beginner.” Dance news headline for the 10th June 1965 “Modern Sequence Dancing is Conga, Lambeth Walk………”

We will come back to the differences in approch between ballroom and sequence dancing at a later date.

It was at an Official Board Committee meeting in 1965 and under the chairmanship of Keith Jones, that produced the following recommendations.

1. That Modern Sequence Dancing be defined as a sequence based on the Modern or Latin-American syllabi of teachers’ organisations who are corporate members of the board.

2. That competitions in Modern Sequence Dancing be recognised and encouraged, but these competitions be not granted championship status.

3. That a list of dances be created for competition work, and that when this list is compiled consideration be given to recommended dances submitted by the corporate members of the Board.

4. That competitions in modern sequence dancing be judged by persons who have reached their 21st birthday and who currently hold at least the degree of associateship (by examination) in either the Modern, Latin-American or Old Time branches in an examining body represented on the Board.

5. That a new classification of dancing, Modern Sequence Dancing, be incorporated in the Official Board Rules.

A letter in the “Dance News” of 1st July,1965 has the passage, “these so-called investigating committees are on the cash in, they will try and take over our Modern Sequence.” The passage went on to suggest that  under  ”Board  Rules” Modern sequence dancing would become over-techniqued, showy and for experts and competition dancers, “In simple words they will kill it.” Thankfully it has been too sturdy a plant for that.

This item has been abridged from pages 114-115 of T.A.Whitworths Book’ A History of Sequence Dancing and Script List. published by T.A. Whitworth Chesterfield. We thank T.A. Whitworth for permission to print this material.

I will contact Roy Sharpe to see if he will tell us how Modern Sequence Dancing sits within Official Board Rules to-day. 

A personal observation is that with the demise of the regional closed dance competitions between sequence dance teachers,  the open competition  is now the home of the ex-competitor from ballroom. Like all competitive ballroom dancing it us great to watch, and I wonder if we could now  ever hope to get enough Qualified Sequence Dance Teachers together to run one let alone thirteen competitions a year.

 History of  Modern Sequence Dancing is a great book for anyone interested in the History of Sequence Dancing its popularity and problems. It is  available from Chesterfield Dance Services.

e-mail keith@chesterfielddanceservices.com. or click into the blogroll on the right.

and www.maestrorecords/books_catalogue.html  the book costs £9

Maesto records is also available to click into on our blogroll.