Nothing is impossible - no is not an answer.
Dancing only found ME at the age of 17.
As my mother is very religious I went every Sunday to church and a few girls my age decided to form a jazz dance group within the church facility. Then only a few months later I saw my very first Latin American dance competition on German TV.
And that was it!!!
It was love at first sight!
I had found my calling!
I joined the local amateur dance club in Pforzheim which turned out to be the famous German amateur club Schwarz-Weiss Club Pforzheim. I was super motivated and excited and just wanted to keep dancing, dancing, dancing. I was 17 years old.
In the first year only I had a total of 9 dance partners - as they chose to dance with me to date me and I only was interested to do the CHA CHA CHA!
After being without a dance partner for almost a year and my mother gently trying to hint to me that maybe due to my track record with my partners, partner sport might not be the thing for me and maybe I should change and do something which I can do by myself. But I decided to stay dedicated and practised 5 times a week in the club for 9 months, spinning, rumba walking, Cha Cha locking and samba bouncing down the room where all the others looked upon me with pity and thought why I keep doing this if I even couldn't find a dance partner to do it with. Even the club trainer told me that it was such a shame as I was a very talented girl but that I was already too 'old' and with no partner that I would never 'make it' in dancing and be successful.
However my Latin basic teacher Uwe Nagel took me under his wings, which I am very grateful and thankful for, and finally got me a 10 dance partner and put me on the road of competition dancing. He was already a A /B class dancer, so at a much higher level than me, as I never even had danced a competition yet.
So my very first competition was a Ballroom competition in A class! And I loved the competition but didn't like Ballroom dancing. We never made it to actually to compete in Latin as he was slightly afraid of me in the Latin. I wonder why?!
Finally we split up and I danced with Carsten Krause and we became the German A class champions in Latin American dancing.
We then quit Ballroom dancing altogether as at a 10 dance regional competition where we could have been Latin finalist and should have been in the 24 in Ballroom: we made the final in Ballroom and were in the 24 in the Latin. I decided then and there that I was a LATIN girl and that this was what I needed to do.
Once dancing took off in the Amateurs with Sandra Cavallini I had to tell my father the big decision that I wanted to move to London to dance. At the time I was enrolled in the university to study economics and foreign languages. I told my father that I could always go back to study but maybe I only get one chance in dancing and if I don't take it I will regret it for the rest of my life.
And the rest is history as they so poignantly say.
So my motto, my source of strength and my believe is that nothing is impossible - if you want it bad enough you will find a way to make it possible.
AND
No is not an answer - As one clearly hasn't looked deep enough, tried hard or worked hard enough or looked for ways to make it a YES.
My special 'Thank You' goes to Bryan Watson as he is not only the only partner who made it and stuck with me but also who is my match in every way!
Here are some of my achievements:
- 1991 German A class Amateur Champion with Carsten Krause
- 1994 dancing with Sandro Cavallini
- 1995 best result being 2nd at the International Championships Amateur Latin
- 1996 dancing with Allan Tornsberg
- 1997 World Professional Latin American showdance Champion with Allan Tornsberg
- 1999 dancing with Bryan Watson
- 1999 3rd place in Blackpool
- 1999 3rd place at the International Championships
- 1999 World Professional Latin American Champions aged 27 and 10 years after I started dancing
- Winning a total of
- 9 World Professional Latin American Championships
- 7 British Open Professional Latin American Championships
- 7 European Professional Latin American Championships
- 9 German Professional Latin American Championships
- 2007 retiring from competition dancing
