Dances of Defiance

John Sergeant received public adoration despite the venom
spewed at him from the dancing establishment.

For ballroom dancing, the John Sergeant story is not new.

Many story tellers have written about the ballroom dancers as
people who question the norm.

Dance competitions have been idolized as a perfect world, a world
which suggests a better political direction.

Dance teaches independence.

Also, dancing can reveal something new about personal and family life.

Athol Fugard’s Master World

South African playwright Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold” and
The Boys elevated ballroom dancing competition.

For Sam and Willie, two characters in Fugard’s play, the competitors
perfect timing and grace as they never bump into each other is what
life should be.

It’s perfect.

The dancing partners all moving on the competition floor is a
metaphor for a world where different people work together.

Fugard’s play takes place in tea room in 1950 in South Africa.

Sam and Willie, black men in their mid-forties, have worked there
many years.

Sam is close with Master Harold or Hally, the son of the tea room’s
owner.

The play shows apartheid’s divisiveness while describing the
ballroom dancing competition as a place that could smash social
convention.

Finding Courage and a Father

Strictly Ballroom also shows that ballroom dancing reaches beyond
the shine of sequins and a mirror ball.

Dance prodigy Scott Hastings attempts to break convention dancing
steps that are not “strictly ballroom.”

Rebelling against the Austrailian Dancing Federation, Scott makes
his way to a new dance partner, Fran.

As Fran and Scott learn the Paso Doble they learn about each other
and themselves.

A formerly timid Fran earns the respect of her strong willed father
and an otherwise oblivious dancing establishment.

Scott learns to see Fran differently, falling in love with her.

He also learns that his father was a dancer and therefore heeds his
father’s advice when his dad tells him to stop living in fear.

Clean Girl Meets Dirty Boy

A shy Frances “Baby” Houseman in the film Dirty Dancing becomes
more confident by the end of the story.

The films casts Houseman as a shy girl that does what her parents
want.

As she learns dancing from a rebel dance instructor, Johnny, she
not only falls in love but starts thinking about what is important to
her.

At the film’s end she is soaring above her family lifted by Johnny.

The film shows that she has become someone who can make her
own decisions.

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Humble Like a Fox

Modesty that is politically calculating.

John Sergeant’s decision to exit BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing
indicates that he hasn’t lost a step.

For ten weeks, Sergeant endured the televised dance competition’s judges telling him he was “outstanding at dancing really badly” and
his steps were “absolutely dreadful.”

The British public watching Striclty on Saturday nights felt
otherwise. The judges repeatedly gave Sergeant and his dance
partner Kristina Rihanoff low marks and the voting viewers elected
for both to continue dancing.

Not a Dancer but Tough to Thwart

Maybe Sergeant doesn’t have dancing feet, but they are battle
hardened. In 1990 he planted them outside the British Embassy
steps in Paris, determined to speak to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the end of her premiership.

Again his timing missed. Thatcher’s aids intercepted him, pushing him away from her. But, he soldiered on.

Sergeant understood that showing he was pushed illustrated
Thatcher’s difficulties better than anything she could say. The British Press Guild agreed, awarding him most memorable broadcast for
1990.

So when Judge Bruno Tonioli said Sergeant’s execution of the Fox
Trot made him look like an “old fox running out of tricks,” he and the other judges probably didn’t realize that Sergeant was about to out
fox them.

Lovable Leader

Throughout the competition, his thick skin and humility, both
attributes he had as a political journalist, inspired many in the
British public to march in the Sergeant’s army.

Lorraine Kelly wrote for the Sun that a person “could have a right good old belly laugh with him over a plate of steak pie
and chips washed down with a glass or two of ale.”

At the Queen’s Head, a pub on Pinner’s High Street, one of the establishment’s regulars, John Furniss, recently commented over a
pint of ale that he thinks Sergeant would be a good addition to the
local troop of Morris Dancers.

“He’s got the right shape for it,” Furniss said. “He looks like he could
put a few pints away.”

Morris Dancing is a form of English folk dancing with different
standards than ball room dancing seen on Strictly.

Smart Exit Strategy

Despite the loyalty from a saluting British public, Sergeant was still
an intelligent operator who realized he was leading the troops off a
cliff.

He commented on Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two that he was concerned that some might allege he “somehow manipulated the audience” and for doing this “he’s a horrible person.”

Sergeant’s comments reveal the genius of his exit. His statements showed humility, determination and this time his timing was flawless.

His and Kristina Rihanoff’s final dance on the show, a farewell waltz played the public again.

Dancing to Come Away With Me by Norah Jones seemed to fit a
final performance. After the waltz, Sergeant and Rihanoff received a standing ovation.

Sergeant took the momentum of these applause to stick his final
jab at the judges joking that their remarks had helped him gain
public support.

“That’s from the heart you know that,” Sergeant added.

Like he had stated before his final performance, Sergeant was
leaving the party “before the fight starts.”

His decision to leave and what he said made him appear to be a
nice guy leaving the abuse of a bunch bullies or as the Daily
Mirror’s Tony Parsons, called them “spiteful nobodies…spewing their poison.”

The legacies of all involved here are not likely to be lived down
anytime soon.

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