Thames Valley Firm Haines Watts, Chartered Accountants, launched its search earlier in the year for their 2014 Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

The competition looks for people under the age of 35 with outstanding business talent throughout the Thames Valley, that have been running for at least a year, and can demonstrate sound financial results.

There are five regions who each select a regional winner, with those winners going forward to the Grand Final to be announced the Haines Watts Thames Valley Young Entrpreneur of the Year.

Antony heard about the competition on Twitter and applied right away, and then never thought anything of it afterwards.

Fast forward a few months and Antony, Emma and little Imogen are driving back from our Bournemouth Dance Break when Antony gets a call to be told he’d been shortlisted to the top three for the region.

A meeting at the Slough office was arranged for last Monday and Antony was required to do a 15 minute presentation to one of the Partners.  It was nerve-wracking, especially as Antony had only received the details of what was expected a couple of days before, but Antony was more than happy to talk about himself for 15 minutes straight

Then began the agonising wait to find out if Antony was to become the Slough regional winner…ok the title of this post may have given away the ending but…yes!  Antony got the call on Friday to say that he was the regional winner for Slough and would be going forward to the Grand Final on Wednesday 5th November in Reading.

Antony will be up against the regional winners from the other Haines Watts offices and all of them will be presenting to a panel made up of partners from each of the offices as well as selected external entrepreneurs.

In addition to any related publicity, each winning business will receive a cash prize of £250 plus a year-long mentoring and support programme from a Partner at Haines Watts.

The winners from the local competitions will go forward to a regional final and a single winner will be announced, receiving a further £500 cash prize.

There will also be a notable business speaker on the day, who will share ideas and experiences with the finalists.

We, and we’re sure all our students too, wish Antony the best of luck.

About LearnToDance

LearnToDance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School run by husband and wife team Antony & Emma-Louise Holeksa and has been running since 2006.  Classes for all levels and ages, and personal tuition, take place throughout the week, as well as dance breaks and private events.

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We have been sent details by Pontins Pakefield of a special offer they are currently running for the weekend of 20th June.

“Pontins Pakefield EXCLUSIVE OFFER !!!

Buy one get one FREE…..ADULT ONLY BREAK

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As well as providing Ballroom and Latin American tuition, Zumba and Zumba Gold classes Learn To Dance also teach Zumbatomic classes in schools.  Zumbatomic is Zumba but designed for kids, they still feature the same dances and great songs, just modified to suit the younger audience.

One of the classes that Antony runs is at Montem Primary School in Slough.  Recently he set his pupils some homework – each suggest a song the following week and Antony would take those songs away and choreograph some routines for future lessons.

As you can imagine they all forgot the homework they’d been set…all except for one girl!

This enterprising student didn’t just suggest a song for us to choreograph (I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift), she even produced a diagram of suggested choreography:

Antony just hopes his choreography meets with her approval next week!

If you would like us to come and provide Zumbatomic classes for pupils at your school, Zumba for colleagues at work, or Zumba Gold if you want a less intensive workout please get in touch.

Learn To Dance is a dance school run by husband and wife team Antony & Emma-Louise Holeksa. Based mainly in Eton Wick in Berkshire they provide classes, personal tuition, wedding dance lessons and events as well as social dances and dance holidays.

Learn To Dance is a dance school run by husband and wife team Antony & Emma-Louise Holeksa.  Based mainly in Eton Wick in Berkshire they provide classes, personal tuition, wedding dance lessons and events as well as social dances and dance holidays.

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On Wednesday’s show: Patsy & Robin; Jimi & Flavia; Lisa Snowdon on costumes.

Doing the Viennese Waltz this week will be Felicity Kendal and Scott Maslen.  Felicity will be doing the splits again and Scott has the [man]flu.

Michelle Williams took a tumble in her Jive training but will compete on Saturday, joining her will be Pamela & James (I hope she has her hair in ponytails for the show) and Patsy & Robin (Robin’s been working her hard to try and avoid the stamina loss we saw in the Charleston on Saturday).

Speaking of Patsy & Robin,

It was Robin’s idea for Patsy to wear the wig, though she took a bit of convincing.  Patsy definitely felt the burn of the Charleston by the end of their performance and Robin’s been working her so hard that she’s had to start taking pillows to training so that she can snooze in the corner.

Robin made Patsy do their Jive 12 times in a row during training to really build her stamina up, let’s hope it pays off.

Costume analysis from Lisa Snowdon and a designer called Jessica,

I was going to blog about their comments on the dresses, but aside from my witch halloween outfit (complete with tights!) I can’t say any of it interests me, I recommend iPlayer if you want to know more.

Though Tina’s outfit of pleather (a combination of plastic and synthetic leather) looks like it could be interesting.

Very Sandy & Danny!  Joining her with Argentine Tango this week is Matt & Aliona

Paso Doble will be performed by Gavin, Kara, Jimi & Ann.  Anton is flinging Ann…twice; Gavin looks like he’s stretching in the gym rather than taunting a bull; Kara and Artem are starting to fight in training as the pressure of the training starts to get to them; Jimi & Flavia have been concentrating on technique.

Jimi & Flavia,

Flavia felt they were undermarked, but doesn’t seem to want to talk about it.  She’s been punishing Jimi with a cane, I must admit I’ve used similar tactics with some of my students!

They’ve worked hard on the technique and are both excited and looking forward to Saturday.

Now to watch Fridays before getting myself ready to watch the Halloween special.

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Ubisoft appear to have gone dance crazy over the last couple of months, due to be released in a month’s time (Friday 26th November) is Michael Jackson The Experience.

I’m going to apologise in advance for this but…

If you’re looking for a “Thriller” of a game that hopefully isn’t “Bad”, and want to learn the skills that will make sure you don’t leave “Blood On The Dance Floor”, then “This Is It” it’s time to “Beat It” to the competition.

Phew, hope you forgive me for that! More details once I get a review copy.

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So soon I’ll be getting an actual copy to review but if you can’t wait for our review Just Dance 2 was released last week and is available to buy now.

The original Just Dance sold over 3 million copies and Ubisoft are hoping the updated sequel will be even more popular.

Just Dance 2 will feature tracks from classic hits and legendary songs to today’s chart-toppers. Players will enjoy dancing to a wide selection of musical genres, including Pop, Country, R&B, Disco, Funk, Rock etc. Each track features its own choreography and dance enthusiasts will be moving for hours on end. From Rihanna’s SOS to Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff, from I Got You (I Feel Good) by James Brown to When I Grow Up by the Pussycat Dolls, Just Dance players will come across songs and routines that will make them want to move their feet. And if they still want more, they will be able to download tracks from an expanding catalogue of new hits.

There is also a new mode called ‘Just Sweat’ where you can keep an eye on you calories burned whilst dancing.

Above you can see a screenshot of I Got You (I Feel Good) by James Brown.

The game looks better visually than Dance on Broadway which I recently reviewed and I’m hoping the improvements have also been applied to the gameplay.

Will let you know more once I receive my review copy.

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So this is my first ever attempt at a game review, I don’t even know where to start. I suppose first of all I should thank Ubisoft for sending me Dance on Broadway to review.

Not having played a dance game on the Wii before I thought I best play through the tutorial first. Looks like it’s a similar concept to Guitar Hero (performing the required action at the specific time) and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works in practice.

The tutorial is just a quick explanation of the controls and onscreen notifications, would possibly have been nice to have a brief trial go, but no looks like I’ll have to go into the main game and give it a go.

The songs/dances included in the game (not sure if that’s in entirety or whether there are any unlockable ones yet) are:

All That Jazz – Chicago
Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In – Hair
Bend And Snap – Legally Blonde
Cabaret – Cabaret
Dreamgirls – Dreamgirls
Fame – Fame: The Musical
Good Morning, Baltimore – Hairspray
I Just Can’t Wait To Be King – Lion King
Luck Be A Lady – Guys and Dolls
Little Shop Of Horrors – Little Shop Of Horrors
Lullaby of Broadway – 42nd Street
Money, Money – Cabaret
My Favourite Things – The Sound of Music
One Night Only – Dreamgirls
Roxie – Chicago
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – Mary Poppins
Thoroughly Modern Millie – Thoroughly Modern Millie
Time Warp – Rocky Horror Picture Show
We’re In The Money – 42nd Street
You Can’t Stop The Beat – Hairspray

Hopefully I’ve got all the correct musicals but let me know if I’ve got any wrong!

Well I may as well start at the beginning with All That Jazz…first of all you’re asked to pick a character though to be honest they all look the same except for slightly different poses and colour dresses.

Suddenly it occurs to me, how can the Wii pick up both my arm movements with only one controller? Couldn’t they have utilised the nunchuk and Wii board to make it a more immersive experience?

Thirty seconds into the game and it seems pointless to do anything with my left hand or feet, though I think what the hell and try and do all the movements onscreen – much to the hilarity of my wife and sister-in-law.

However I soon get bored of trying the movements and discover that unfortunately I can play sitting down, which kind of defeats the object of the game.

I ask my wife if she wants to have a go but she doesn’t show any interest at all, not a good sign in a game that I would imagine is aimed more at the female and casual gamer.

Wanting to give it another chance I decide to try a dance I might actually know (well the only dance here that I know) and attempt the Time Warp from Rocky Horror.

And so we come to the main problem of the game. You’re not really given enough warning about the moves, and whether you should keep doing the moves in between moves, and which way you should be facing etc. I found that I would be exactly copying the moves onscreen yet constantly getting ‘X’ to indicate I had failed to do the movement.

Unfortunately this game just doesn’t excite me or make me want to play it again, and both my wife and sister-in-law said they can’t see the point of standing and ‘waving a stick around’.

Whilst I’ll find this useful for when I have to choreograph numbers from musicals, or run a hen party session, I doubt we’ll pick it up to play it again.

It’s a shame as I feel the game had a lot of potential, I know I’ll use it in the future as a reference point but I can’t see what is going to make the average gamer come back for more.

There’s definitely potential there Ubisoft but I don’t think you’ve quite hit the jackpot yet. I look forward to seeing what comes with Just Dance 2.

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