Welcome to my brand new blog. Naturally most of you who will read this blog post in the beginning, will be people who know me. But, on the off chance that you have stumbled across my site and are wondering “who the hell is this guy?” Allow me to tell you a little bit about myself.
About me
Hi, my name is Stephen Vincent and I am a professional dancer born in Manchester, UK. I have been a professional dancer for the past 17 years and I have had the privilege of performing all over the world. I have been a part of some incredible stage shows and TV shows.
Most of my career has been with the world class ballroom and latin show ‘Burn The Floor.’ Which also happened to be my first ever job! (I know, crazy.) Also, over the last 3 years I have been a professional dancer on Ireland’s ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I have many interests and questions/ideas that float around in my head, so I thought starting a blog to spark a conversation and connect with more people who ‘like what I like’ or ‘think what I think’ would be a cool thing to do. So let’s get this going…
MY INTRODUCTION TO DANCE
My first introduction to dance was when I was about 6 years old. During the school summer holidays I would be looked after by my grandparents. One day my cousin, auntie and grandma decided I should come along to a ballroom dance class. I was reluctant at first but I didn’t really have a choice, so I obliged. If I remember correctly I only agreed to come along and not participate, but before I knew it I was up there dancing with the rest of the class. I was the only boy, in fact I was the the only male.
The class was in what I think was a pensioners home, maybe I’m wrong but I just remember a lot of senior citizens sat around the floor watching as if the class was there for their entertainment. Nevertheless the class began and I was now a student. As the class went on I remember that I got quite a lot of attention and I was dancing with everybody! I thought, ‘umm this is fun, I’m popular, haha.’ So I began to take it a bit more seriously and started my journey.
The syllabus consisted of what they called ‘medal tests’ which got more and more advanced as you went on. I started off with my rosettes which were these ornate badges that were pinned to a purple sash. Slowly but surely I filled my sash and I enjoy this feeling of accomplishment and of course attention. Once the sash was full, I moved onto my Bronze, Silver and Gold awards. This was a similar process, the steps were more complex, the expectation was higher and the examiner was watching more and more closely. Still I made it though and completed Ballroom and Latin dance initiation. I was hooked…but where do I go from here?
THE COMPETITION WORLD
At some point my grandma and auntie decided it would be better to move to a more serious dance school which would take things to the next level. My auntie became a teacher at the new school and was brilliant. The school was more local to me and was my first introduction to the competitive dance world.
I started to attend the classes as I had at the previous school then a suggestion was made that I be partnered up with a girl and look into competing. I was taught routines that I practiced with my partner and had private lessons to prepare. Competitions were held on Sundays and they were all over the UK. We started off with local ones at first but in no time we were travelling the length and breadth of the UK week after week.
At this point my weeks were very different to those of my school friends, I would finish school and often head to the dance school to have lessons or practice. Weekends were now consumed with practice sessions, lessons and competitions. When I think back, it was so full on but I loved it.
The competition world was intense. The nerves on a Sunday morning whilst travelling in the car or when getting into my outfit whilst my mum pinned a number on my back were addictive. The thrill of waiting for the results and then rushing to see what judge marked you where, became my life.
As time went by I had a few dance partners and the competitions got bigger, the pressure grew and the competition world became more and more important. I started to win big competitions and got the privilege to represent England at the world championships overseas.
There were now major moments in the year such as Blackpool dance festival and the UK open championships that were bigger than Christmas, it literally consumed my teenage years.
But then a new opportunity presented itself and this would introduce me to a world that’s even bigger…
PERFORMING ARTS
At the age of 16, I left high school. I was competing at a high level and this had been my life for most of my school years but something was about to change. My mum somehow came up with the idea of going to a performing arts school and had come across Italia Conti in London. I applied to audition and was told to prepare a dance piece, and acting piece (like a monologue or something…) and a song.
I hadn’t really done much acting or singing before but I did my best to put something together. I remember walking into the room, standing in front of the panel and doing my thing. I honestly can’t remember what it was like or how I felt it went, I just remember feeling like this is way out of my comfort zone. A bit of time went by and then the news came…I had been offered a 1 year scholarship to attend the school! I was thrilled and I was about to be exposed to a whole new world.
My experience at Italia Conti was mad. My days were filled with Ballet, Jazz, Singing, Acting, and Contemporary classes and so on… instead of Maths, Science and English. The corridors were buzzing with people singing, dancing and acting as they moved from class to class. It was like being in the movie ‘Fame.’ In order to attend the school I had to move to London.
I was living on my own for the very first time. It was such a good experience but the biggest change was that I wasn’t dancing as much Ballroom or Latin anymore. It was really strange not having that routine of doing competitions on Sundays and practicing through the week at my local dance school, but being at performing arts college consumed my time even more.
Every minute of every day was related to something creative, people were discussing the latest musicals and reviewing the choreography taught in “Jane Drapers jazz class” like it was main stream news.
I was now a musical theatre nerd.
THE BEGINNING OF MY CAREER
After one year at Italia Conti, I had to re-audition for the next two years. It was very nerve racking and it was a lot of pressure. What if I didn’t make it? The life that I had come to really enjoy would be gone, then what? Fortunately for me, things worked out and I was offered a further 2 year scholarship to continue at the school. But there was an unexpected turn of events that would change everything and then some…
Unbeknownst to me, my mum had seen an advert in the Dance News (a newspaper that reports on all the events in the Ballroom and Latin dance world.) The advert was looking for dancers to join the world class dance show ‘Burn the Floor.’ Throughout my competitive years I watched Burn the Floor at my grandma’s house on a weekly basis, literally. I loved it.
It turned out that my mum had sent some videos of me competing and essentially put me forward for consideration. It’s like my mum had become my agent overnight. Well, at the end of all of this I was offered a contract with Burn the Floor to do an Australian tour. This happened to be on the exact same day as finding out that I had been granted a scholarship for Italia Conti.
Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity and within a week or so I was on my way, on my first solo international flight, to Australia. I was 17 years old and this was my first professional dancing job… with BURN THE FLOOR!
BURN THE FLOOR
Joining the Burn the Floor company proved to be a major point in my career. When I landed in Australia I remember feeling all kinds of emotions but mostly excitement followed swiftly by nerves and to be honest panic! I was staying in the Southbank area of Melbourne and the show was due to open at the Crown casino then move on to Sydney.
The first days of rehearsals were extremely nerve racking but I remember the adrenaline taking over from being surrounded by incredible performers. Everyone looked great and they really were (what has since become a tagline synonymous with the show) rebels of the ballroom.
I have really fond memories of that first tour, it even got extended to include New Zealand which was awesome. But like most contracts it eventually came to an end… although little did I know it was really only the beginning. I have been part of the show now on and off for the last 16 years and it’s taken me places
I would never have imagined. I have had the privilege to tour and perform in places like China, Japan, Korea, USA, Holland, South Africa, UK and many more. Every audience in every country on every continent allowed me to note amazing memories which I hold dearly… oh and one of the fondest memories of alI whilst performing with Burn the Floor is meeting my beautiful wife.
THIS IS WHAT I’M MEANT TO BE DOING
After I finished my first contract with Burn the Floor, I joined a show called simply ballroom which toured the UK as well as Abu Dhabi, Dubai and South Africa. Then I did a show called Latin Fever which was on the west end in London and toured the UK, then Cheek to Cheek in the west end and so on and so on… basically I became a full on working professional dancer.
It was like the two worlds I had experienced had come together at the perfect time, Ballroom and Latin and the theatre world. A lot of the shows and opportunities that were presented to me were due to the incredibly successful and popular TV shows, Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars.
Ballroom and Latin has never been more mainstream (at least in my time) and it’s created some amazing possibilities for dancers. I am very lucky and fortunate to have had such opportunities come my way.
Very quickly I realised this is what I’m meant to be doing.
dancing with the stars
Speaking of such TV shows, in 2020 I was given the opportunity to become a professional dancer on Ireland’s Dancing with the Stars. It was so cool to be part of the show and I was incredibly excited to get going. In my first season I danced with Yewande Biala who was on Love Island.
Being my first season I couldn’t wait to get going. Unfortunately we were voted out first and my experience was very short but it was really cool to observe the other couples as they went through the competition. I ended up learning a lot about what works well and this proved to be valuable for my next season. In my second season I danced with Ellen Keane a Paralympic Gold Medalist swimmer. Ellen and I made it all the way to the final, and although we didn’t win, I had a great time making it to the very end.
I got to experience choreographing a different number every week and the pressure of working through it with Ellen to make sure it was the best it could be by the live show on Sunday.
It’s been two very different experiences but equally enjoyable, I can’t wait to see what the future brings…
WHATS NEXT?
So that brings me today and to answer the question, what’s next? At the moment I find myself exploring more of the other things I am interested in, as well as continuing to dance in shows and on TV.
One major thing that I have decided to take on is to “go back to school” or rather study something that I have developed a keen interest in. I enrolled in a computer science degree offered by the University of London in October of 2022. It’s a distance learning program so it allows me to keep dancing and performing which is great.
The covid pandemic played a big part in this decision as I quickly realised that my skills were (at least on paper) very niche. So I decided to take action and do something that’s completely different to what my life’s been about for the last 16 years.
I hope it all goes well and to all of you reading, wish me luck… I’ll probably need it! I’ll be using this blog to share my experience with this, the good and the bad, so keep an eye out if you’re interested.
That’s it. If you have made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read. As I said in the beginning, this is a new site. It probably won’t be well written at first and a bit all over the place in terms of subjects but I find that my interests are just that. So, onwards and upwards.
Chat to you in the next one.
Stephen