Nina Hunt (1932–1995) was a Manx

Latin American dance Latin dance is a general label, and a term in partner dance competition jargon. It refers to types of ballroom dance and folk dance that mainly originated in Latin America. The category of Latin dances in the international dancesport competi ...

coach and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

. She had a high reputation for coaching competitive Latin dancers.

Biography

Hunt was born in 1932 on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

. She came to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to become an actress and found work in a jewellery shop, where she met early Latin American dancer and innovator

Dimitri Petrides Dimitri Petrides (August 1912 in Cyprus – 1985 in Blackpool) was a ballroom dancer who was instrumental in pioneering and developing Latin American dancing in England and later globally. He left Cyprus when he was eighteen with his mother af ...

. She persuaded him to teach her to dance and quickly became an adept dancer, but went into coaching instead of competing. The couple married, and had a son, Ian. Dimitri died whilst judging at Blackpool in 1985; Nina died from a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

10 years later. Hunt trained many world champions and was especially well known for her choreography.

Len Goodman Leonard Gordon Goodman (born 25 April 1944) is an English professional ballroom dancer, dance judge, and coach. He has appeared as head judge on the television dance programmes ''Strictly Come Dancing'', a programme where various celebrities c ...

, in his autobiography, likens a lesson with Hunt to being sent for a golf session with Tiger Woods. Among those she trained and choreographed were Bill and Bobbie Irvine, whom she coached in their quest for the World Professional Latin Championship,

Donnie Burns Donnie Burns MBE was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1959, where he attended Holy Cross High School. He is a Scottish professional ballroom dancer, specialising in Latin dance. He and his former partner Gaynor Fairweather were ...

– the most successful Latin dancer of all time - Sammy Stopford and Barbara McColl, Corky and

Shirley Ballas Shirley Annette Ballas (née Rich, formerly Stopford; born 6 September 1960) is an English ballroom dancer, dance teacher, and dance adjudicator. She specialises in the International Latin division, where she won several championship titles w ...

, Alan and Hazel Fletcher, Walter and Marianne Kaiser and

Ian Waite Ian Waite (born 29 January 1971) is a British professional dancer specialising in Latin American dance, a teacher and choreographer. Biography Waite was born in Reading, Berkshire. He started dancing at the age of 10. Mary Richardson, a former ...

. Nina was once asked to choreograph Winter Olympic gold medal winners

Torvill and Dean Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean) are English ice dancers and former British, European, Olympic, and World champions. At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics the pair won gold and became the highest-scoring figure skaters of a ...

but turned them down. Nina first served on the Latin American Faculty Committee in 1964. An advocate of expanding the appeal of Latin American dancing, Hunt frequently demonstrated with Petrides on the BBC's 'Dancing Club' programme and appeared as a judge on

Come Dancing ''Come Dancing'' is a British ballroom dancing competition show that ran on and off on the BBC from 1949 to 1998. Unlike its follow-up show, ''Strictly Come Dancing'', contestants were not celebrities. The show was created by Eric Morley, the ...

. An article written by one of Nina's former pupils, five times World Latin Champion Hazel Fletcher, began by saying :"Nina Hunt was indisputably the most successful Latin American competitive dance coach of all time. Her record...I am sure, will never be challenged again...Success in dancing is generally calculated by how many Championship titles a dancer has to his or her credit, if it were possible to count the number of couples that Nina trained solely to become top Champions, her record would be so staggering, it is almost unbelievable. She reigned supreme for over three decades." :"Nina's name became ‘the name’ synonymous with winning...She became a brilliant coach with a great eye for what was successful and how to achieve that in her couples. She was an excellent choreographer and had the ability to poach ‘moves’ from other forms of dance and indoctrinate them into the Latin dances. She was also a great mentor and motivator...Nina decided what competitions her couples should attend; she got involved in their grooming in every detail, their diet was discussed and she even versed her couples on how to walk onto the floor and where to dance. From her tiny studio in Balham she produced so many giants in the competitive world of dance." Hazel Fletcher.

Coaching achievements

Professional

* Corky and

. * Bill and Bobbie Irvine MBE: 1960, 1961, 1966, 1968 (World), 1963 (9 Dance), *Walter and Marianne Kaiser: 1965 (World) * Sammy Stopford with Shirley Ballas and later with Barbara McColl *Rudi and Mechtild Trautz: 1967, 1969–1971 (World) *Wolfgang and Evelyn Opitz: 1972 (World) *Hans-Peter and Ingeborg Fisher: 1973–1975 (World) *Alan and Hazel Fletcher: 1977–1981 (World) *Martin and Alison Lamb: 1993 (World 10 Dance) *

MBE and

Gaynor Fairweather Gaynor Fairweather MBE is a British professional ballroom dancer. She and her partner, Donnie Burns, were 16-time Professional World Latin Dance Champions and 11 times Professional International Latin American Dance Champions. This is by some way ...

MBE: 1984–1996, 1998 (World); 1990–1992, 1994, 1996 (International)

Amateur

*Karl and Ursula Breuer 1961. *Dr Jurgen and Helga Bernhold 1962, 1966–1967. *Robert Taylor and Anita Gent 1964. *John and Betty Westley 1965. *Peter and Hanni Neubeck 1968, 1970–1971. *Raymond Root and Francis Spires 1969. *Alan and Hazel Fletcher 1972–1973. *Ian and Ruth Walker 1975. *Jeffrey Dobinson and Debbie Lee London 1977. *David Sycamore and Denise Weavers 1978–1979. *Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather 1981. * Marcus Hilton and Karen Johnstone 1982–1983. *Horst Beer and Andrea Lankenau 1985. *

Bryan Watson (dancer) Bryan Watson (born 18 April 1969) was nine times Professional World Latin Dance Champion and won the International Latin American Championship five times. Watson was born in Durban, South Africa. He became the UK Open Amateur champion with Clau ...

and Claudia Leoni 1991.

Awards

Over a successful career she won several awards including the

Carl Alan Award Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community * Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of te ...

1968IDTA Carl Allen Awards
/ref> and the Golden Dance-Shoe in 1986. The World Dance Council named the 'Nina Hunt President's Award for contribution to Latin American Dance as an art-form' in her honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Nina 1995 deaths 20th-century Manx people British ballroom dancers Dance teachers British choreographers 1932 births