Kate Weston

Kate is best known on the south coast for her daily broadcasts on the local radio station Wave105, where she not only reports on traffic issues but maintains a moral compass for the scallywags that present the radio shows – although, judging by Kate’s saucy laugh one might at first think the presenters might need protecting from her!

Originally from Somerset, Kate began her career as a singer and performer, which led to engagements in London’s West End, and The Casino De Monte Carlo in Monaco.

Following a brief apprenticeship on Cable TV, Kate was chosen to present GMTV’s Saturday morning children’s series ‘Rise & Shine’.

She then went on to present ‘Games Republic’ alongside Trevor and Simon, and the European Drag Racing Championships for Sky Sports and Channel 5; a job that took her to all parts of Europe engaging in one of the world’s fastest and most exciting sports.

Other television credits include ‘Surprise Surprise’, ‘Antiques Fair’ and ‘The Games Room’.

However, as a regular supporter of local pantomime Kate is currently appearing in Bournemouth’s panto Sleeping Beauty at the Pavilion theatre.

Sleeping Beauty at the Pavilion theatre Bournemouth

This year’s panto in Bournemouth is Sleepy Beauty, starring Su Pollard, Colin Baker freshly returned from his weight-loss experience with Ant and Dec in “I’m A Celebrity”, Chris Jarvis from Cbeebies, Michael Chance as the King, TV actor Asa Elliott and of course our favourite Kate Weston.

Sleeping Beauty is performed up until the 6th January, twice daily except for New Years day (no perfromance) but only once on New Years Eve.

Tickets start at £15 but there are concessions for under 16s, senior citizens, and group bookings. Phone the box office on 0844 576 3000.

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Neon Clothing and clubbing have been a great pair since the raving decade of the 90′s and the famous fluffy ZooBoots are now popular as ever for the Nu Rave scene and you can get some at Dancemania! You can get fully kitted out for the rave ahead with matching ZooMits in a choice of four colours, or mix and match with a Neon coloured Halter neck crop top and Hot pants.

Why not finish off your outfit with some of our vibrant UV face and body paint. It comes with a choice of three colours and an easy to apply applicator brush.  It is a skin friendly water based formula, which washes off easily!  You can also create some really interesting patterns which will be perfect for any Halloween party!!

It doesn’t stop there, oh yes check out our range of fluorescent leg warmers which would be the perfect way of getting noticed in your dance classes and auditions. You will need sun glasses they are so bright……..just kidding but you definitely will be shining out from the crowd!

Or add a streak of neon to your jazz trainers with some the Bloch Amalgam 570 Dance Sneaker’s. They come in a choice of five colours and are a must have for any jazz dancer looking to funk things up!

No one can deny that neon clothing is just a bit of fun and here at Dancemania we want to help you have that fun! Its bright, positive and makes you stand out, so go for it……glow brightly and shine like the star you are!!

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Alasdair Malloy is the principal percussionist of the BBC Concert Orchestra and on 30th August 2010 at The Royal Albert Hall during a performance of Harry Warren’s 42nd Street he and 5 fellow percussionists brought life to 6 pairs of Dancemania White Low Heel Canvas Tap Shoes as part of the BBC’s PROMS 2010.

You want 6 pairs of tap shoes for what?

With less than a week to go before the performance Dancemania support staff received a phone call from Alasdair Malloy, who placed a telephone order for six white tap shoes. He went on to explain that these same shoes were to be used in a performance of 42nd Street at the Royal Albert Hall, which is nothing new for Dancemania’s dance shoes except these shoes were not going to be worn on the feet. Alasdair explained that a rod was to be fit through the heel of each shoe allowing a pair of shoes to be beat against a wall like a pair of drum sticks.

We were thrilled, excited and baffled as to whether such a contrivance could be played at all, after-all shoes are a lot heavier than the usual drum stick tip, surely to drum out a tap routine with such heavy sticks would require arms the size of Popeye’s.

How to turn Tap Shoes into a musical instrument

Alasdair received the shoes the next morning and attached rods through the heels so he could tap them against vertical boards.

Percussionists of the World now have a new device to play with, along with Yarn Mallets, Timpani Mallets and 2B drum sticks they now have Tap Shoe Mallets – thank you Alasdair!

Practice makes perfect

What follows is a video taken on Alasdair’s iPhone of one of the first rehearsals. As a result of watching this they realised that they would have to make their moves and extensions bigger, but nonetheless this is the video which Alasdair showed to the conductor (Keith Lockhart) to get his approval for actually doing this in the Albert Hall.

During subsequent rehearsals they developed their own choreography and finalised those moves Alasdair thought worked best. To accentuate the image of dancing feet they used black boards to tap against, the rods were already black and they covered their hands with black clothes thereby ensuring the visual emphasis would be the White Tap Shoes.

Photograph by Chris Christodoulou

Now in the Royal Albert Hall with black rods, black hand covers and white tap shoes.

The performance

Not lucky enough to attend the performance I listened to the broadcast on BBC Radio Three and enjoyed the scene conveyed by the presenter, Katie Derham.

Photograph by Chris Christodoulou

As with all BBC Proms broadcasts the music was wonderfully enjoyable, and we were treated to the sounds of Berstein (West Side Story), Gershwin (Shall We Dance) and even John Williams with Flight to Neverland from the film Hook, but it was Don Sebesky’s arrangement of 42nd Street that I was eagerly waiting for.

When the moment arrived I was rather caught off guard because the audio imagery had me convinced that we were listening to a Hollywood dance number with a troupe of tap dancers on stage. Judging by the cheer from the audience they were surprised by it too and equally delighted by the effect. Word has it that eminent conductor Barry Wordsworth was in the audience and when he saw what was happening thought that the purcussionists were all lying on our backs and actually tap dancing on the boards.

The Review

Katie Derham said it all at the end of the broadcast when she described the performance as having a “pazazzie showbiz feel”, which is only right for such show tunes, but I’ve no doubt that it was those white tap shoes that added the pazazz to the performance, after all, that is what tap shoes bring to any performance – PAZAZZ!

Perhaps next time Alasdair and this percussion section would perform something with teletone taps.

If you were at the Royal Albert Hall during the performance, or heard it on Radio Three I would love to hear what you thought of the performance, so please leave a comment below. If you did not then I hope that this post, this morsel, has given you a taste of what was a fabulous show.

A big, big thank you

… goes to Alasdair for providing such a wonderful insight in to the performance and its preparation and especially for supplying the photos and video.

One last note to Alasdair – sorry mate but the warranty on your tap shoes is now void!

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