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Born In Nottingham England, Ian's parents

were sure he was born to dance! Right from

an early age, Ian was very sensitive to music

and was often found dancing to rhythms heard

on the radio or record player.

He was about seven when his mother decided

to take him to a local dancing school. Ian

enjoyed the class so much he could not wait

to show the first dance he had learned: the

cha cha.

"I still remember that first children's class", recalls Ian. "There were a lot of children and it was so much fun. There was this little girl, who must have been no older than four who would hop like a kangaroo on the chasse action of the cha cha cha".

His mother soon ordered a pair of patent leather shoes and a decision was made to begin a series of private lessons.

"My first teacher was Sue McGuinness who gave me a lot of inspiration to dance".

Ian was encouraged to team up with a girl from the same school in order to compete. Her name was Tracy Broadbridge. They took lessons and started to compete but their partnership ended when she and her parents immigrated to Australia. At that time Ian began to train for his amateur medal test examinations (a dancing proficiency test) with the International Dance Teachers Association. Dancing with his teacher, Ian progressed rapidly and remarkably passed every exam with the prestigious Highly Commended Distinction (marks in excess of 85%). In fact it was very rare for Ian to score less than a 95%, gaining the highest of marks from even the toughest examiner. After he attained the Gold Bar Level, he had to make an important decision.

"My competitive career had taken off and I could not afford the time to take any more medal exams. It was a pity since I enjoyed studying and taking the tests but my competitive dancing took priority. Even today, I strongly believe in the medal test system and the structure it provides for learning all of the technical details. It is an excellent foundation for learning to dance".

Ian's dancing was being noticed. He progressed through several assistant teachers eventually being trained by the female principal of the school. He was selected to take part in the school formation team, which appeared, on national television as part of a children's showcase.

" That was great fun. The school hired a coach to take us to the television studio in Yorkshire staying overnight at a guesthouse. We had these little blue and yellow outfits made by a lady who also made all my competitive Latin American costumes. The team had rehearsed and rehearsed. The size of the TV studio's floor was much smaller than the one we practiced on at the school. The edges were surrounded by fake grass. Unfortunately, I caught my foot on the astroturf which made me lose balance. Consequently, I messed up my steps. So we had to re-shoot which went fine. I remember the excitement of watching it on TV several weeks later. I had told all of my friends, neighbours and relatives. When the moment arrived I was shocked to see that station showed the first take and millions of viewers saw me make a complete mess of the routine. I was so embarrassed."

One of Ian's first breakthroughs in the competitive field was with one of his earlier partners, Samantha.

"Samantha and I were practicing hard for an

upcoming school competition. We were better in Latin

than standard at that time. My greatest rival was

Jimmy Porter and Yvonne Haywood. They were the

number one juvenile couple in the school

and were very successful competitors. They had

always beaten me. I was particularly envious of

Jimmy since he was rather cocky made all the worse

by the fact he had recently won a competition where

the first prize was a trip to New York.