Veteran ballroom dancer Jacqueline Logan recounts how the borough hosted the first ever UK Gay Sports festival in 2000
As a lesbian ballroom dancer, I’ve been campaigning for over 30 years to make the visual expression of queer friendship and love acceptable in all ballroom dance venues across the country, and I was subsequently awarded a British Empire Medal in 2020 for this very important mission.
Back in 2000, the East London Out Project (Elop) put together the first Waltham Forest pride event in Lloyd Park, Walthamstow. It was a fantastic coming together of people from across the LGBTQ+ community and their allies but what many people may not know is that very same year our borough was also the venue for one of the very first same-sex dance competitions in the world.
It means Waltham Forest is 20 years ahead of Strictly Come Dancing when it comes to recognising the importance of celebrating and accepting LGBTQ+ dancers on the ballroom and latin dance floor.
Dancers from the LGBTQ+ community started reclaiming the dance floor in 1989 when ballroom and Latin dance classes were established at the then London Lesbian and Gay Centre in Farringdon. Then, in 2000, Waltham Forest took up the mantle of hosting the UK Gay Sports festival as part of the national millennium celebrations.
More than 3,000 participants took part in sports events held at leisure centres, and in Chestnuts Field behind Waltham Forest Town Hall. The sports on offer included football, netball, karate, chess, swimming, table tennis, and much more.
The UK Gay Sports festival was launched with a Venetian masked tableau in an opening ceremony in Hollow Ponds, along with a packed performance from the Beverly Sisters in Chingford Assembly Hall.
The closing ceremony attracted a large crowd on Chestnuts Field, with an invite to all residents to enjoy performances from Bucks Fizz, The Real Thing, and Heatwave.
The international dance competition took place in Lloyd Park theatre, on the same ground as the venue for this year’s pride events.
The dance competition attracted participants from Germany, Holland, the United States and Denmark and it was a sell-out event. Champions who won this event went on to claim UK titles in the same-sex dance world for many years.
For example, winners George Tzoulas and Michael Hall (pictured), are now placed in the top three mainstream latin couples in the UK in the over 50s category. Same-sex dancers like them are now welcomed, to a certain extent, in mainstream ballroom and Latin dancing.
Waltham Forest was ahead of its time in sticking its neck out to support these dancers at a time when they were being banned for dancing together in professional and amateur ballrooms across the country. Let’s celebrate that!
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