When the couples took to the dance floor in Kingston, Jamaica, they had their eyes on quite the prize: flights to England. But one contestant didn’t have a holiday in mind. Shelley Maxwell had secured a place for a master’s in choreography at London’s Trinity Laban conservatoire and couldn’t afford the travel. Here was her chance to waltz away for free.
“I kid you not – there was this ad in the paper,” she says. “British Airways ballroom dance competition … Yes please!” Maxwell enlisted a friend and, despite sparse ballroom experience, assembled an audacious routine. “We were watching videos on YouTube cos I was like: ‘I have to win.’ I loved being thrown, tossed, whatever – crazy swing stuff. And that’s how I flew to this country.”
