Our dancing has not gone unnoticed Ballroom dancing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t realise just how important it would become in shaping my future until I had to take the place of one of my bosses following an accident. Dancing Queen A novel by Louise Anne Smithson Copyright © 2013 Louise Anne Smithson All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 29 Interesting propositions

I slept through Sunday morning and when I did eventually emerge from my room I was pleased to find that Mum limited her enquiries about the previous night to whether or not I’d had a good time. I was however a little apprehensive about how Richard and I would react to one another when we met the following morning and whether this might affect our working relationship. On the other hand, I had no regrets about the previous evening. I suspected that it had been an important milestone in my life although I was still not sure about the full implications of what had happened.

Rob asked whether he might have a word with me in the back office as soon as I arrived at work on Monday morning. I was quite happy to do so as Richard had not yet arrived at work and I still wasn’t sure how I was going to react when I saw him. The only contact we’d had by then was a brief exchange of text messages the previous evening.

‘First of all let me congratulate you on how well you did on Saturday afternoon, Michelle,’ said Rob.

‘Thanks, but I think we all did quite well,’ I responded.

‘I know that you, in particular, did most of the work for the Charleston, and yet the rest of us received all of the applause and congratulations on your behalf. I was hoping to say something to you at the time, but you were whisked off to get ready for your next dance. Then your Tango was absolutely wonderful – so sensual and flirtatious. Once again, I was planning to say something but I was buttonholed by a couple of guys who’d come up from London specifically to see you two dance together. By the time I’d finished with them you’d already left.’

‘Thanks, Sarah helped me to get ready for my two dances,’ I said.

‘Yes, I know. Thanks for that, she seems a little happier now but can’t wait to get back to dancing.’

‘It won’t be long now,’ I said and was about to get up to leave, but he hadn’t finished with me.

‘Those two guys from London came up with a very interesting proposition for the club and I think we’re going to need to organise a special committee meeting to discuss it. Will you arrange it for me?’

‘Yes, of course, when do you have in mind?’ I asked.

‘They want me to attend a meeting at their offices on 3rd November, and I’ll need to know everyone’s opinions before then.’

‘In that case we’d better try to meet sometime this week. If you have no objection to my doing so at work, I’ll ring round the other members of the committee to see if they can stay behind after our practice session tomorrow evening.’

‘Yes, please go ahead and do so, and you’d better invite Alan to come along as well, as the proposal is likely to involve him.’

‘Alright.’

‘Once you’ve fixed a date, would you mind drawing up a brief agenda and circulating this document, which they emailed to me yesterday.’

‘Yes, of course. As it is in machine-readable form I can email it to members of the committee to save time.’

The document which Rob passed to me was marked ‘draft’ and written in legal terminology. It proved to be a proposal for a collaboration between the Videotraining Production Company and the Luton and District Ballroom Dancing Society. The company proposed to make a series of twenty-four half hour training/demonstration videos covering the principal ballroom dances. Each one would include two demonstration dances of three to four minutes, sandwiching a series of more detailed instructions. One of the demonstration dances would also appear free on ‘YouTube’ for publicity purposes together with links to enable the purchase of the whole video either as a download or on DVD. The videos were to be produced and issued at monthly intervals throughout 2009 and 2010. The Society would provide suitably qualified members (to be agreed by both parties) who would write the scripts, choreograph the dances and appear in the videos. The company would meet all production costs and provide a flat fee to all those members who had been involved (£500 per video for the performers and £300 for the scriptwriter and choreographer). The Society would also endorse the productions and receive a 35% commission on any sales that it made to its own members. It would also receive a 5% royalty on any profits made by the videos once all the production and distribution costs had been met.

All in all it seemed to be an interesting and potentially profitable collaboration for all concerned.

By the time I’d emerged from my discussion with Rob, Richard had been in to the office and then gone out again on a job. I was not too sorry because whilst I’d had a great time with him, I didn’t want our relationship to turn into the office soap opera. On the other hand I wanted some re-assurance that things were still alright between us and that he hadn’t been having second thoughts . Thus I was quite pleased when he texted me later that morning.

Hi Michelle,
Sorry to have missed you this morning but I had a 9.30 appointment. Are you free for lunch tomorrow and also for clubbing next Saturday?
Love, Richard. Xx

I thought carefully before responding.

Hi Richard,
Sorry, but I’ve already arranged to have lunch with Helen tomorrow.
Maybe it would best if we kept our friendship outside of work hours and didn’t have lunch together? Let me know what you think. However, regarding your second invitation; on the basis of my experiences last Saturday night (and of course Sunday morning ;-)), I’d love to go!
Love, Michelle. xx.

He seemed to get the message, as he texted me back a little later.

OK, we’ll keep things cool at work and save the passion till Saturday night, Rob.

I therefore allowed myself a little levity in my reply.

Roll on Saturday night! M. xx

After that I knew that I would be able to cope with the competing demands of work and my social life – at least so long as I continued as Michelle.

Helen and I had lunch together as arranged and compared notes about our previous weekends, but she did not probe too far, realising that I did not wish to go into too much detail regarding my relationship with Richard.

‘Are you going out with him again this weekend?’

‘Yes, and I’m soon going to need a new outfit, I can’t keep wearing the same dress every week.’

‘If you want to go out clothes shopping again one weekend, just let me know,’ she said.

‘Thanks,’ I replied. ‘I may take you up on that sometime.’

Alan and I started practising the routines that I’d devised for the Jive and the Jitterbug demonstrations during the Tuesday evening club practice. I was suggesting ‘Brown eyed girl,’ by Van Morrison for The Jive and ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ by Toploader for The Jitterbug. As usual, Alan was happy to go along with my suggestions, but made several useful suggestions for improvement during the first rehearsal. We made a good team dancing together – all the better because there was no question of any physical attraction, just a mutual enjoyment of the dance. Costume was not going to be a problem for me on this occasion. I knew that Mum had a vintage fifties-style swing dress in turquoise with a black trim and buttons, which would serve for both dances. It had a heart-shaped bust, ruched short sleeves and a wide flared skirt section. I’d tried it on already and found that it fitted me well and was extremely comfortable for dancing. It would require me wearing a billowy flared petticoat to get the full effect.

After our practice Alan and I joined the others for the special committee meeting that I’d arranged, and for once I’d managed to assemble the full complement of members, which together with Alan made eight of us. The others were all quite used to dealing with me as Michelle by this time.

‘There is only one item on the agenda, the draft proposal from Videotraining Productions. I take it that everyone has now had a chance to read the document; can I ask for any reactions?’ asked Rob.

‘Any contributions to our funds would be most welcome, and I’m sure the publicity would be good for recruitment purposes. If these videos were successful, it could make a dramatic difference to the running of the club,’ said Jack, who was our treasurer.’

‘But why did they choose our Society to collaborate with?’ asked Lucy.

‘Apparently they were most impressed by the videos of this year’s demonstrations that my colleague Richard has been putting on to ‘YouTube’. They’d been planning a series of training videos and so decided to investigate further. Richard’s only an amateur cameraman but if the scheme gets off the ground they may well offer him the opportunity to join their team of cameramen, although of course they will also provide their own professionals as well.’

‘But there aren’t twenty four dances in the official ballroom canon, are there?’ asked Joe.

‘No there are only ten in the International Standard and International Latin lists but there are many other dances in each category that are sometimes classified as ballroom, such as the Hustle, the Lindy Hop as well as the more specialised Latin dances such as the Merengue or the Argentine tango.'

‘There will be quite a lot of work involved in learning some of those less popular dances and all for a single flat payment,’ commented Lucy.

‘Yes, but if the series of videos were to be successful it would generate a lot of invitations for other work for those involved,’ said Alan. ‘In fact it might even enable them to turn professional.’

In that case you will have to find yourself another partner as there will be no way that I’ll be giving up my job,’ I thought to myself, but didn’t say anything as I was too busy taking down the minutes.

‘But do we have enough suitably qualified members to fulfil our part of the bargain?’ asked Joan.

Rob now looked less confident.

‘That could be an issue, I think they are assuming that we will have both Alan and Michelle available as our principal dancers, and as you all know Michelle won’t be around after the end of the year, although I take it we will still have Mike available for the choreography, as before.’

This last comment was clearly addressed towards me, who had otherwise expressed no opinion during the meeting.

‘Yes, of course,’ I said, colouring a little. ‘But even if I’m not available as the lead dancer there are plenty of other ladies that could do so. Sarah will be recovered by then, and Sonia has come on in leaps and bounds over the last few weeks.’

‘We’ll just have to see what they have to say when I go to meet with them next week,’ said Rob. ‘Is everyone in favour of the Society becoming involved?’

There were various murmurs of assent around the table; no-one seemed to be against the idea.

‘I suggest that you don’t go on your own, but take someone else from the Committee with you for moral support,’ suggested Jack. ‘I’m sorry but I am already committed on that day, but maybe someone else could go?’

‘Are there any volunteers?’ asked Rob.

‘I could go, if you like,’ suggested Alan. ‘I could represent the interests of the dancers.’

‘The only trouble is that you are not an elected Committee Member,’ pointed out Sarah. ‘I’d offer to go myself except that my leg is still in plaster. What about taking Michelle, she is, after all, the Club Secretary, and she could speak up for the interests of both the dancers and the ladies in the society.’

My blush grew a little deeper to be discussed in this way. As the youngest person on the Committee I hadn’t dreamed of volunteering to go along to this high-powered meeting.

‘Would you be willing to come with me next week, Michelle?’ Rob asked.

‘Yes, I suppose so, if you don’t mind me being away from work for the day,’ I replied.

‘I am sure we will be able to arrange things,’ said Sarah.

‘That’s settled then. Michelle and I will attend the meeting and report back. Of course we’ll consult you all before we sign anything, but I trust we have the authority of the other members of the Committee to negotiate on your behalf.’

The others all agreed to leave things in our hands and the meeting broke up. The only trouble was that I now had the financial future of our society resting on my shoulders, not to mention a most interesting opportunity for my new boyfriend.

All in all I had a lot to think about over the next few days which somewhat diverted me from thinking too much about my long term future, but I was not in the mood to discuss it with anyone else. I didn’t say too much to Mum about the proposal as I didn’t want to get in to a detailed discussion as to who would do the dancing and the extent of my own contribution if I could avoid it. Likewise, Alan and I didn’t discuss it when we met for our next practice on Friday night. I knew that he had ambitions of going professional one day and didn’t really enjoy his present job, but I think he probably realised that if he did so it would be without me as his partner. Last of all I didn’t say anything to Rich about the proposal when we went out again together on Saturday evening and back to his flat afterwards. I knew that he would be interested but I didn’t want to get his hopes up, especially if it was later my fault if the scheme didn’t come off. In any event we both had other things on our mind – but that’s another story.

Next time: Decision time

I have to be away for the weekend and so I am posting this a little earlier than usual. The final chapter will be published next weekend. Thanks to Bronwen for editing and to everyone else for comments and kudos which are always appreciated.
Louise