The Blackpool Lecture

With an All Star Cast of Ballroom Champions

In 2011, at the legendary Blackpool Dance Festival, Brigitt Mayer delivered a lecture unlike any other ~ a living history of ballroom dancing told not just through words, but through music and movement.

This lecture traces the roots of ballroom from its earliest beginnings in European courts, through the age of the waltz, and across the Atlantic into the vibrant rhythms of the Americas. It is a story of migration and fusion ~ African syncopation blending with European forms, Ragtime giving way to Jazz, the Charleston igniting the Roaring Twenties, and Cuban Contradanza evolving into Tango, Milonga, and Son.

But what makes this Blackpool lecture truly special is the way history was brought to life. Instead of a textbook recital, the narrative unfolded with the help of an all-star cast of ballroom champions, who danced each step of history onto the stage. The audience didn’t just hear about dance ~ they saw it, felt it, and lived it.

The result is both a celebration and a reminder: ballroom dancing is not frozen in time. It is a constantly evolving art form, shaped by cultural exchange, social change, and above all, music.

Thanks go to my wonderful and enthusiastic cast that made this once in a lifetime History Show-Experience possible!

Order of appearance

Opening number dance: Allemande   

Maurizio Veskovo and Andra Vaidilaite

Francis Lafrenier and Claudia Primeau

Kamil Studenny and Katya Trubina-Maganova

Artur Adamski and Karolina Paliwoda 

Beginning: The distant past and the roots

1  Valera Musuc &  Nina Trautz                           (dance: Ländler)

2  Bryan Watson & Carmen Vincelj                        (dance: Charleston)

3  Kamil Studenny & Katya Trubina-Maganova     (dance: Lindy-Hop)

4  Wendy Johnson & Igor Suvorov                          (dance: Argentine T.)

5  Jukka Happalainen & Sirpa Suutari-Jääskö        (dance: Son/Mambo)

6  Rudi Homm & Viktorija Triscuka                           (dance: Milonga)

7  Allan Tornsberg & Vibeke Toft                             (dance: Maxixe)

Middle: Establishment of competitive concept

8   Peter Eggleton & Loraine Barry                            (dance: old Slowfox)

9   Lorraine & Neil Jones                                           (dance: mid 60s Cha-Cha)

10  Evelyn Haedrich-Hoermann (Opitz) & Bernd Hoermann (dance: 1962 Square Rumba)

11  Rudi Trautz & Nina Trautz                           (dance: 1968   Cha-cha-Cha)

12  Jurij Batagelj & Jagoda Strukelj  (Mick and Lorna impersonation) (dance: 1972 Paso Doble)

13  Maurizio Veskovo & Andra Vaidilaite  (Alan & Hazel impersonation)    (dance: 1981 Jive)

14  Kenny & Marion Welsh                                                     (dance:mid 80s Tango)