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When Victor Victoria first came out to dance, 12 years ago, they weren't the first people to run same-sex ballroom dancing in Yorkshire. But as their latest outing, the FireBall, showed, they certainly took it to a new level.
The event, which attracted almost 400 people including visitors from across the UK and beyond, was the team’s last ball, and it didn’t disappoint. There were pyrotechnics on the doorstep, flames all over the place, Blackpool Tower’s resident Empress Dance Band, costumes galore, and of course, lots of dancing.
‘We’ve come a long way in 12 years,’ said a spokesperson, ‘especially since we moved to Leeds Town Hall 10 years ago, for what we think was their first ever lesbian and gay event hosted there. Back in the early days we used to run tea dances in Saltaire and spent most of our time making sandwiches and cakes and persuading our friends to spend all afternoon washing up.’
‘We owe a huge thank you to lots of people - far too many to mention - but especially to all our guests who’ve kept coming year after year.’
Perhaps the biggest thank-yous, however, need to be reserved for the team behind Victor Victoria. The group - none of whose members were paid - established one of the longest running - and most exciting - events in Yorkshire’s queer calendar.
Is this the end??‘We really hope,’ they say, ‘that someone will take up the challenge and run something to replace the balls. We don’t know if that’ll be smaller scale, or bigger and glitzier than our events - but either way it will be good to have something different and some new enthusiasm, energy and ideas.’
For more pictures, visit the Victor victoria website (see below)
End of an era? Probably not...
So there I was. The end of the last ever amazing Victor Victoria ball, and it’s time for the DJ to say goodnight and set everybody smooching – it’s the one dance everybody can do! I was all ready to thank the team who’ve made Leeds’ biggest and most glam event run like clockwork all these years. But on my way to the front of the stage, I spotted Harvey and suddenly knew I had to say something else.
You see, about twenty years ago Harvey Huckerby had this off the wall idea. He wanted to hire the old Astoria ballroom for an afternoon tea dance, call it Big Nancys, and invite lots of queers along for something a bit different. A nice cup of tea or a gin and tonic, a nibble, and some easy ballroom dancing or just a bit of a gossip. He knew I had a few Glen Miller and Harry Roy LPs; so we borrowed more vinyl from the library, unplugged the stereo from my front room, and I became the unlikeliest DJ you ever saw.
The same-sex ballroom dancing of Big Nancys was groundbreaking and a great success, but the venue closed and the only other places in Leeds became too expensive. My partner Iain picked up the baton and took the dances to Bradford, but that venue closed too and everything went quiet for a while. Then a new and more ambitious group asked us how to go about organising a dance, started out at Saltaire, and scaled up to Leeds Town Hall almost a decade ago.
Ooh, things have changed since then. No more Victor Silvester: you get cutting edge Hugo Strasser, Max Raabe and even Gotan Project while my youthful assistant Andy plays Grace Jones and Will Young. The crowd’s different, and the whole event’s bigger and more professional than those early days, but then you can say the same thing about the commercial scene too.
And that’s why I’m not too upset about the last ever Victor Victoria’s. The team are absolutely right to call it a day before they burn out. The dances have given a great deal of pleasure to a lot of people, and they’ll evolve again into something else. Somebody will start something small and sociable, or something even bigger and glitzier than the Fire Ball. Whichever way it goes, I hope I’ll have the chance to share all my favourite music again and get the best view in the house from up on the DJ stand.
Henry Tickner
Web: victorvictoria.co.uk/fireball
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