Keeping in step with ballroom moves

The most entertaining news of the week was the response to President Donald Trump's demolition of the East Wing of the White House so he can build a “big, beautiful ballroom’ Itis probably fair to say it prompted a “mixed reaction” — many being totally horrified.

- POSTSCRIPT Roger Crutchley

Disapproval ranged from calling it a “vanity project” to “an abomination’: The White House response dismissed the criticism as “manufactured outrage” by what they splendidly called “anhinged leftists’:

Anyway, it's probably best to leave that issue for the American public to sort out.

Not mastering the art of ballroom dancing, I have never had a great relationship with ballrooms. Maybe it was the formal music associated with ballroom dancing that did not appeal to me.

I could just about stumble through a waltz but dances like the foxtrot asked far too much from my uncoordinated feet.

In early teenage days I hated going to school dances and was the proverbial wallflower, hiding in the corner behind the potted plants.

Coming to the rescue was the unlikely figure of Chubby Checker, the American singer who in 1960 had a big hit with “The Twist’. It became a huge dance craze which proved a social lifesaver for myself and other sheepish teenagers.

Dancing the “Twist” didn’t require having to learn any fancy steps or worry about crushing your dancing partner's toes. All you had to do was stand there, occasionally wiggle about and sometimes jump around like an idiot. Even I could manage that.

Admittedly you looked kind of stupid but it was better than being totally ignored.

Crazy times

The 1960s was probably the biggest era of dance crazes when there seemed to be a new craze every month with the name of each dance getting increasingly ridiculous.