2015 Dance Teacher of the Year Results
Last night saw the first public announcing (previous year’s have just announced the winner in the magazine) of the winner of Dance Today magazine’s 2015 Dance Teacher of the Year.
The results were announced at a special Gala Night being held at Blackpool Tower, considered by many to be the home of Ballroom Dancing.
There were four shortlisted teachers from the National competition. As many of you know, our principal and co-founder, Antony Holeksa made it onto this shortlist.
Joining Antony were Ballroom and Latin teachers Warren and Jane Bullock (pictured left), who have represented the UK in major competitions around the globe and featured in numerous British, European and World finals, run a large dance school, Zig Zag Dance Factory, in the Midlands.
Also, Strictly Come Dancing‘s assistant Charleston choreographer Scott Cupit (pictured right) moved to London in 2009 to open Swing Patrol London, which now runs classes and weekly social dances in venues all over the capital and last year received investment from Deborah Meaden on Dragons’ Den to spread the love for swing further afield.
And finally, Michelle Moss (pictured left) has run the Michelle Moss School of Performing Arts, in Stoke-on-Trent, for 14 years. She teaches ballet and tap and many of her students now train at the Royal Ballet School, the Hammond and Northern Ballet, to name but a few.
The evening kicked off with a workshop run by Warren & Jane Bullock, covering a simple but elegant line sequence for Foxtrot and a fiesty Cha Cha step. We then had general dancing first to recorded music and then later, from the iconic Ross Mitchell Orchestra.
After a cabaret from some rising stars it was time to announce the winner.
Nicola Rayner, the editor of Dance Today magazine, took to the stage and gave a brief bio of each of the shortlisted teachers before passing to Ross Mitchell to announce the winner.
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The winner of the 2015 Dance Today Dance Teacher of the Year is Scott Cupit from Swing Patrol London. You can read the full announcement on the Dance Today website.
Whilst Antony was obviously disappointed not to have won, the achievement of a second consecutive shortlisting, in such a big national competition is an amazing result and we can’t thank our student and their friends and families enough for all the votes they placed.
This was apparently the closest year of the competition and we congratulate Scott on his win. Not only is he a really great guy but Antony & Emma have been to a Swing Patrol workshop a few years ago (back when they had spare time!) and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We look forward to the 2016 competition and another chance to go for the title!
