Learn ballroom from dancing champ

Ballroom dancing teacher Ken Sims with students Sandra Thompson and Mark Madden at the PCYC Tweed Heads.

John Gass

TWEED residents have the opportunity to learn ballroom dancing from a not-so-tiny dancer.

At the height of his ballroom dancing career, Ken Sims and his dance partner and wife Laurel were Victorian champions competing in the Australian championships and owned five Ken Laurel dance studios across Melbourne.

Now Mr Sims is teaching everything he knows about modern waltz, slow fox trot and quickstep to others through a ballroom dancing course at the PCYC Tweed Heads.

Participants also have the opportunity to earn a bronze medal through the Victorian Eastern Districts Dance Association.

"It's a fun thing to keep you fit," Mr Sims said.

"If you do it properly with the right techniques then it keeps your whole body moving.

"My wife is 83 and I'm 88 and we still dance a couple of nights a week."

Mr Sims said ballroom dancing was popular on the Tweed but the sport has had ups and downs in popularity.

"It was the only thing to do in those days when I started," he said. "It was picture shows or dancing. You would have a few private lessons and then you got started.

"Now the most popular is sequence dancing."

Mr Sims said sequence dancing was about joining different ballroom styles into a unique routine.

"There are just too many of them," he said.

The ballroom dance classes start Monday February 13 at the PCYC Tweed Heads at 6.30pm-7.30pm.