JP/J.B.Djwan

Ballroom dance is one of those anachronisms that keep coming back into fashion, to the delight of dancers like Espen Salberg.

Again as hip as hotpants and Vespers, the craze that started in 1930s Britain is currently taking the world, from tropical Indonesia to the snow-blanketed lands of Scandinavia, by storm.

For Salberg, a former World Champion Latin professional dancer and current dance judge and teacher, that repeating of the dance cycle is delightfully perplexing.

Salberg was last week in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, to judge the Lombok International Dance Championships 2009 and discussed his lifelong connection with dance over breakfast.

"When you look at it objectively, ballroom dancing, you would think it was almost a non-saleable product, out of touch," says Salberg, who describes his home country of Norway as a "non-dancing nation".

"But countries that were closed, such as parts of the Eastern European Bloc and China, have taken on ballroom with such vigor that is has a new lease of life around the globe."

The current explosion in interest in ballroom is, in part, driven by programs such as Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance and other television programs that have brought the art of partner dancing into lounge rooms internationally.

Salberg says the criteria for judging ballroom and Latin American dances, such as the waltz, tango, cha cha, the rumba, foxtrot, quickstep and more, are stringent.

"Timing is all important, dancers must be in time; also technical aspects such as in foot work, the use of heel and the ball of the foot. There are rules on leg work, how fast or how slow, the depth of a knee bend or stretch.

"In Latin there are movements covering direction and the tilt of the pelvis. If this is incorrect it checks the hip action too early," explains Salberg of much technique that is often left on the sidelines in television dancing programs.

This, says Salberg, is due to the public love of "flash and razzmatazz. My teacher was Walter Laird, the World Professional Champion of the 1960s. He always said never perform after children or dogs,"

The glitz of television competitions follows that public-heart-winning formula, and while that may sometimes compromise the standard of dance performed, it is bringing ballroom back into high favor.

"I was part of that. I was judging on the Italian version called *Ballando Con le Stelle'. The Italians made it into more show than anything. That was a great learning experience for me. The program ran from 9 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. and was shot live," says Salberg.

He was still teaching in Tokyo during the three-month series and flying half way around the world weekly.

Many of Salberg's students took on the onerous role of teaching celebrities to dance.

"They had just weeks to make non-dancers look good. They did an extremely good job - it almost puts me to shame because, as a teacher, I do know how hard it is to make people look good and they were doing that in a couple of weeks," says Salberg of his students' ability to turn, occasionally, football players into dancers, under the warts-and-all glare of live television.

He explains students applied "more inventive choreography to make it look spectacular, because of a lack of *dance* technique in the celebrities. They did an excellent cover-up job and I must say it was a major achievement just to get through the television celebrity dancing competition and look good. But it ain't great dancing," laughs Salberg.

Despite coming from non-dancing Norway, Salberg moved through the ranks quickly. He admits that while professional dance is tough and highly competitive, his was a comparatively easy ride to the inner edges of world championships.

"I always had quick success. I did not have that hard story until we tried to win the World Championships. For that, we had a waiting period of a number of years. We put it *dance for Norway* on the map," he says.

"At the time, England had a competitive dance winning culture. We had two strong British couples ahead of us; to break through that was an impossible task. It was like there was this third couple from Norway waving in the background."

After those pairs retired, the field opened up for Salberg and his partner Kirsten, who took out the World Championship in 1982, holding the title for two years.

Salberg had other obstacles too. Now 57, he is able to look back and chuckle over his battle with weight throughout his dancing career.

"I was always chubby and never had the athletic body of a dancer. The giants in front of me were the athletic types. So there was me with my love handles on the sides, but I had more rhythm. I realize now dancers need to really have a lot of talent to win today if they have less than perfect physiques, that's why I get my students to go to gym," he says.

"Dance has come a very long way and grown so much over the world."

Since retiring from competitive dance, Salberg has been exploring another passion in his life: Fashion.

"I left Norway and joined a fashion design course in Italy. I was predominantly designing costumes and later moved into dance training wear."

But it was soon time for a change.

"I was working terribly hard and during a trip to Hong Kong to teach I collapsed. A British-born doctor there was incredible. He said I was suffering exhaustion and if I wanted to retire comfortably I would have work to twice as hard as I already was. He suggested I change my life completely and look at retiring to Southeast Asia."

So he picked up and moved to Bali, where he now resides and designs, with side trips around the world to teach and judge dance. His first women's collection will be launched next month during Hong Kong fashion week.

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