24 Hour Foxtrot Marathon
Our Principal instructor, Adrian, loves the Slow Foxtrot.
He's been a bit silly in the past and said things like 'I could dance the Foxtrot all day'.
So we called his bluff and challenged him to a 24 hour uninterrupted Foxtrot, and as a reason for indulging this folly, we raised funds for the East Anglian Children's Hospice Treehouse Appeal.
The dance kicked off at 10.00 am on Tuesday 10th August 2010 and finished at 10.00 am on Tuesday 11th, and yes, the official verdict is that, with a real carnival atmosphere over the 24 hours, and with a hall full of people at the end, he proved that
Yes, he can dance the Foxtrot all day !
So, here are some fascinating statistics:-
- He danced 24 hours non-stop Foxtrot (following Guinness guidelines) from 10am on Tuesday to 10am on Wednesday
- We played 576 tracks of Foxtrot, on an IPOD loop lasting 4 hours 26 minutes, repeating just over 5 times
- Adrian danced with 29 female partners and 5 male partners, rotating partners every 30 minutes
- Adrian's youngest partners were his daughters Charlotte (4) and Elizabeth (6), his eldest were in their 70's
- Three lady partners had never danced Foxtrot before their allotted time
- Adrian danced a guesstimated around 5,000 circuits of Old Newton Village Hall
- Adrian consumed 10 bananas, and far too many cans of Lucozade, Red Bull and Mars Bars to count, provided by Sue and Rod at Bacton Stores (thanks very much)
- Adrian wore only one pair of shoes - (for those interested, one of our new range Red & Black ones worn for a few weeks beforehand)
- Whilst continuing to dance, Adrian had three live radio interviews with BBC Radio Suffolk.
Most important of all, we raised £3,080, which Adrian presented to BBC Radio Suffolk on air on the Mark Murphy Breakfast Show whilst dressed in a competition Latin catsuit. To prove his insanity he drove to Ipswich dressed in it.
We've put together a slideshow of photos at
www.ballroomexperiences.co.uk/page12.html
(If you are having problems with internet speed or with your application blocking the sound file, try the following page which appears without sound)
www.ballroomexperiences.co.uk/page20.html
The music, assuming you can hear it, is 'Smile' (now renamed by Adrian as 'Grimace') and appears courtesy of Ross Mitchell.
Further details about the Treehouse Appeal can be found on
Media - find out what is being said and written about us
Our history - it's been a fun journey so far, find out about it here.
Giving Something Back - read about our contribution to the 'Big Society'
Styles - find out about the different styles of dancing that we teach