The Tower Ballroom 11 October 2014

The Tower Ballroom has always been a favourite for dancers. Now that Strictly is a viewing essential the hype surrounding that ballroom has grown and the first gathering of Argentine tango dancers was a sell out. It was an exciting prospect as Maggie, Graeme, Regina and I travelled to Blackpool, with Graeme doing all the driving which was such a generous gesture as I was too tired to have contemplated that journey home.

But what of Blackpool? It has earned its reputation and crawling in with all the traffic passing numerous car parks and past hundreds of coaches, all of which would have deposited their content, desperate to get to the Pleasure Beach, was not a pleasant experience! But we turned North of the Tower to the Hilton. Good clean rooms, a view over the beach to the sea, lots of food for breakfast - perfect for our needs. The 20 minute walk to the Tower was a delight, hardly anybody about and amazingly warm for October. At the Tower and all points South, Blackpool, as we had feared it, began and we did not set a foot there. We found a good Bistro, Phil joined us, and we sat drinking a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and watching the sun set out out of a blue sky down into a calm sea. Was this Blackpool or a Mediterranean resort. Back to the Hilton for fish and chips, made sophisticated by a bottle of Proseco! We changed into our glad rags and we were ready for the Tower Ballroom.

It exceeded expectations! More grand than it appears on TV and the floor was a delight! We had great seats near the floor, thanks to Rosanna and Chris arriving early. A great vantage point for the entire evening. So the venue did it all for us! We found plenty of good partners to dance with, even though the overall standard of dancing was not high. Surprisingly the floor was never really crowded so it was easy to move around even if the floor craft was a bit dodgy! The demonstration dance did not have any "wow" factor and the live band were a little weak. 

The following day we drove along the coast again in glorious spring-like weather for the tea dance at Fleetwood's Marine Hall. What a splendid venue with a stained glass dome directly above the dance floor. Immediately the atmosphere said tango and was so different to Saturday night. It was as good as it gets and part of that was due to Beth-Anne, the most exuberant of DJs.

We all had some great dances and I was thrilled dancing with a girl from Dumfries when at the end of the first track, she said "where have you been all my life"! We had floated round the floor and the connection was great. We had never danced before and it illustrated what tango is about. It is a universal body language and the near perfect dance can be achieved with a complete stranger. At the end of the afternoon, Regina and I descended into the dark side with open embrace, dynamic nuevo moves which were a thrill for us but probably frightened all the purists dancing sedately!

Strangely we said we would not go again but there is no way we could top this weekend!