I was probably enjoying a glass of wine when the “brilliant” idea of writing about our DanceTalk romance occurred to me. Before I could stop myself I had sent a PM to Soulgirl asking if she thought it was a good idea …

I see from my DanceTalk profile that I first registered on 29 November 2005, so I was one of the early members here. At this time I had been competing on the open circuit as a senior with Happy Feet for about three years. It took a little while longer before I persuaded him to become a DanceTalker as well.

Shenanigan was a bit of a Johnny come lately as he didn’t sign up until 18 February 2007. He certainly made an impact on DT and clearly had far too much time on his hands since he always seemed to be popping up online and had plenty to say for himself. He definitely livened up some of our chats!

Our story started with a thread which someone started about everyone’s favourite latin dance. It seemed I was the only person whose favourite dance wasn’t rumba – everyone was saying that this was their favourite dance. I posted that rumba was my least favourite latin dance for various reasons and up popped Shenanigan saying “that’s because you haven’t danced it with a real man”!

Mercifully he survived the possibility of my 6’2” dance partner taking offence! A great banter grew between us and sometimes we would sit up late into the night chatting on DT. We had never met before since Happy Feet and I started competing just as Shenanigan had started a long break from competing.

Not long into this cyber friendship we realised we were both planning to be at the same comp in Horndean, Hampshire in May 2007. Shenanigan was in a ballroom-only partnership at the time, whereas Happy Feet and I were 10 dance competitors. Fuelled by goodness only knows how much wine, late one night Shenanigan suggested that, as Happy Feet and I weren’t planning to dance the basic rumba event at Horndean, I should dance it with him instead. So somehow I found myself agreeing to dance the basic rumba comp with a man I had never seen before in my life …

Shenanigan e-mailed me his choreography and I can honestly say I couldn’t make head or tail of it, so as the date drew near I kept hoping he would back out. It turns out that he was also wondering what on earth he had got himself into and he was hoping that I might back out! As neither of us wanted to be thought a coward we had to go through with it.

The first time I met Shenanigan was in the lobby of the venue at Horndean. I strolled up to him and asked if he knew anyone who was looking for a dance partner. We then had a couple of tracks to go through the basic rumba routine so that I finally knew what I was doing. The judges were clearly perplexed during the warm-up section before the start of the day’s comps when they saw me warming up with Happy Feet and then with Shenanigan.

The first event was the first round of the basic rumba and Shenanigan and I found out how alike we were! We gamely walked on to the floor with big smiles while spectators were trying to work out who on earth he was. I distinctly remember it was a rotten piece of music, but we smiled through it and as it finished he led me off the floor – just as the compere announced that the next event was the senior latin, so he placed my hand in Happy Feet’s and I went back on to the floor with him. This caused even more confusion.

We could hardly stop laughing when we were recalled into the final, since it was really just a bit of fun, however we finished a respectable 4th (although Shenanigan has always felt we were robbed).

I was practically mobbed when I went to change for ballroom as everyone wanted to know the identity of the mystery man.

We had such a laugh that day that we made a point of meeting up whenever there was a chance to repeat our basic rumba. We did hear a few grumbles from competitors (who finished below us) who thought we were breaking some rule by dancing with different partners, but luckily we had already been assured by Tina Sparkle on the EADA Council that this was allowed.

This went on for about six months during 2007, until Happy Feet and I decided that the Closed British at Blackpool in 2007 would be our last comp together after seven years of dancing together. At that point I hadn’t considered my next step beyond Blackpool and doing our very best there. While we were at Blackpool Shenanigan and I had a few social dances and people started to suggest that we should form a partnership.

In the event, things happened very quickly and by the time we left Blackpool on the Monday morning we had agreed to dance together. Shenanigan was living in the Midlands at the time and I was living near Sevenoaks in Kent, so we resigned ourselves to taking turns with the travelling. By a stroke of great good fortune, Shenanigan was working on a contract at the time and his employers agreed for him to be based in Sevenoaks instead of the Midlands, so by Christmas 2007 he was already living in Sevenoaks.

We practised like mad to get 10 routines ready for competition and did our first EADA senior 10 dance in February 2008 (robbed again – lol). We were having such a great time dancing together and we really were like two peas in a pod. It took a while for us to realise that there was more than a dance partnership going on, although Angieb will proudly tell you that she spotted the chemistry in our first official comp at Horsham.

In May 2008, just a little over a year after our first meeting, Shenanigan did the unthinkable and rendered me totally speechless when he dropped to his knees, produced a ring and asked me to marry him.

In August 2008 we moved into our new house together with my two teenage kids (such a brave man!) and six cats. Well, we lost two cats to old age (but gained one replacement), but we are otherwise intact and getting married on Saturday 2 May 2009!

Along the way we have met some great friends through DanceTalk, such as Angie and her husband Steve, Jayne (SassySnr), Toddy, Soulgirl, LatinHips and Michelle, Ellie, Hannah (Latin11), Bah-Humbug (already a friend of Shenanigan), Victoria and Ian, and Bamb – and they are all coming to our wedding. Of course we have made a lot of other friends along the way as well and we are only sorry we can’t invite everyone to join us on our special day.

At the (unlikely!) risk of causing total embarrassment to them, we have to thank Soulgirl and Toddy for creating DanceTalk, without which we would never have met. Not to mention the fact that we have made so many very, very good friends here as well.

Somehow, by complete random chance, Shenanigan and I have each met our soulmate. Amazingly we have also got together through this site with Angie and Steve, who are going to be the witnesses at our wedding because we think so much of them; and via Ellie we have Hannah and David coming along to do a dem for us at the reception. Our photographer is Fluffette, who was already a very good friend of mine, and Happy Feet is one of our ushers.

I know I like to make you smile when I can, but – blimey! – I have a lot to smile about when I think how far I have come. So thanks to Soulgirl and Toddy and I promise there will be some photos for the DanceTalk album!

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