Where do they train?

England   Training   Trip

  
   Being such a large city with so many more people, Joel & Clara have found that the dance community in London is a lot bigger than that of Vancouver.  There are numerous places to take lessons and practice.  

   Dance Options, Cheam is the main studio where Joel & Clara practice.  For standard practice, the studio is open 5 mornings a week, from 8-9:30am, and 5 evenings a week, from 8-9:30pm.  Each practice costs 7 pounds per couple, which is about $16 CAN for an hour and a half.  The evening practices are much like competitor practices back home.  The music goes through the 5 dances sequentially for an hour and a half.  During the high seasons, (before Blackpool, International or UK Open) practices are so packed with competitors from all over the globe, that they need to be divided into up to 5 heats! 

Dance Options in Cheam

A quiet morning in Dance Options

   On Wednesday evenings, Joel & Clara occasionally travel into London to go to Starlight.  Starlight  is a studio in Streatham, where the King & Queen of DanceSport, Bill & Bobbie Irvine, as well as Marcus & Karen Hilton teach.  On a good day, it is a 45-minute train ride from where Joel & Clara live.  On a bad day, it can take up to 2 hours.  Since Cheam is not open on Wednesday evenings, many of the local competitors congregate at Starlight for a 2 hour practice from 8-10pm for 8 pounds per couple.

   If Joel and Clara are looking for a slight change of pace and need to spend more time on specific steps instead of dancing longer amalgamations of choreography, they take a trip out to one of their coaches studios.  Benoit and Lorraine Drolet (two of their main coaches) rent out a lovely old hall in South Croydon.  Although the hall is over an hour away by train and bus, it is a very nice private place to practice. 

The old hall in South Croydon

The full length windows on either side allow a nice breeze
to pass through on hot summer days.

   Joel and Clara would specifically like to thank Roy & Terri Maguire of ADT Security Systems as well as all the patrons of Summer Magic 2003 for their generous support of this England 2003 training trip.