Blackpool is a mid-sized seaside resort town in the north west of England. Its population swells in different seasonal inflection points, stag parties and hen dos descending from the end of winter for the karaoke bars and casinos, tourists bussing in for fish and chips and the Pleasure Beach's thrilling – if rickety – rollercoasters as the weather gets milder. It's in May, at the hallowed Winter Gardens venue, that a global community gathers for the world's first and foremost ballroom dance competition.
For two weeks every May since 1920 – except during wartime – ballroom dancers have landed in town for the Blackpool Dance Festival. Five significant competitions for dancesport (the name for competitive ballroom dancing) take place here through the year, but these 14 days are red-circled in any serious competitor's diary. Walk down the promenade, past the Petulengro family fortune tellers, neon-lit tableaux and ice cream vans to the Winter Gardens’ Empress Ballroom. Here, more than 2,000 couples from 50+ countries perform 3,000 dances. Early heats can see up to 20 adult couples on the floor at one time for 10 international-style ballroom dances, from a floor-sweeping Viennese waltz to a staccato-footed samba and pelvis-connecting pasodoble. Each new round means a brutal cull. Dancers forward change, fishtail and flamenco tap across the vast, caramel-coloured sprung floor in a flurry of couture-cum-swimwear attire: sequins and feathers, hot pinks and cherry reds, nude mesh inserts and silky shirts unbuttoned to the navel. Crowds cheer from the floor and two levels of ornate balconies, chandeliers shuddering overhead.
“Everyone wants to dance on that Winter Gardens floor,” says Oskar Odiakosa, 30, a professional dancer and teacher from Beckenham, south-east London. “It's our Everest summit. Dancing in the final with that live orchestra behind you is… magic. Dreams are lived and made there.”
Oskar has been competing in the south of England championships with his dance partner, Lin Guo, and today when.” He saved school lunch money and began taking lessons. Though he soon found out that lifts and acrobatic movements aren't a part of ballroom dance styles, Oskar was enamoured. He won his very first junior competition and has gone on to place in competitions from Poland to South Africa. Amid all the pageantry and glitz, ballroom is an endurance sport. Dancers will work through five routines consecutively. The standard ballroom style consists of the waltz, tango, foxtrot, quickstep and Viennese waltz, while the Latin competition comprises rhumba, samba, pasodoble, cha-cha-cha and jive. Before competing, couples like Oskar and Lin will train five to six times a week for up to four hours at a time: training camps, practice together and solo, group classes with competitors. Many have personal trainers. ‘Stamina practice’ simulates a competition final, with five dances back-to-back at two minutes each. “My body has to endure a serious amount on that huge Blackpool floor – it takes a toll,” says Oskar. At nearly 1,200 sq ft, the ballroom is one of the largest in the world. “I'll think, ‘How am I going to get through this?’ Then I get this wave of calm, my body responds, and I'm at the end of the jive.”
