Margaret Ann Spencer
MBE (née Hull; 24 September 1920 – 25 May 2016) was a British professional
ballroom dancer
Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television ...
,
choreographer, competition adjudicator, and organiser.
Peggy married Jack Spencer in 1940, and had two children, Helena and Michael. The marriage ended in divorce in 1947. Peggy formed a close relationship with her brother-in-law Frank, whom she eventually married in the late 1960s.
For many years, she and Frank (a musician and a dancer before the Second World War) ran the Royston Ballroom in
Penge
Penge () is a suburb of South East London, England, now in the London Borough of Bromley, west of Bromley, north east of Croydon and south east of Charing Cross.
History
Penge was once a small hamlet, which was recorded under the name Pence ...
, South London. Peggy was a regular TV dance commentator. She was a leading coach for competitive Latin dancers, and was influential in both Ballroom and Latin American branches of the
ISTD. Her
ballroom formation Formation dance is a style of ballroom dancing. It is pattern or shadow team dancing by couples in a formation team. The choreography may be based on a particular dance or a medley of dances. Formation dancing may be done for exhibition or for compe ...
team was twice invited to dance for the
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
at
Buckingham Palace. For 40 years, her teams appeared in the ''
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 ...
'' TV programme.
[Spencer, Frank and Peggy 1968. ''Come Dancing''. Allen, London.]
Peggy choreographed a dance sequence for a
Beatles video ("
Your Mother Should Know"), and the tango for
Rudolph Nureyev in the film ''
Valentino'' (1977). She was a choreographer for the ''
Burn the Floor'' dance show, which combined ballroom dances with modern ideas. More than most things she enjoyed appearing on the BBC's children's show ''
Blue Peter'', where she brought young dancers from her classes to demonstrate. She was the subject of the TV show ''
This Is Your Life'' in 1993.
In 2004, Spencer became President of the
Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. She received multiple awards for her work in teaching and adjudicating in ballroom dancing, including eight
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 tel ...
s. Both her and Frank were appointed
MBE in 1977.
[ London Gazette]
References
External links
History of Come DancingPeggy Spencer talks to the BBC
1920 births
2016 deaths
British ballroom dancers
Dance teachers
English female dancers
English women choreographers
Members of the Order of the British Empire
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