Warren Bullock is a professional ballroom dancer and dance teacher. He owns a dance teaching business with a chain of 14 'studios', and also teaches on cruises. He has won a number of awards as a dance teacher and coach and together with his wife Jane, pioneered the teaching of Ballroom and Latin American dancing in schools starting at Glebefields School in Tipton and King Edwards School for girls in Edgebaston before speaking and promoting this concept at the BDF conference in 1997 which resulted in dance becoming part of the national curriculum in some counties. He was the main character in 8 one-hour programmes of Baby Ballroom on channel 5Star - a reality documentary made by Firecracker Films based on Bullock, his family and Zig Zag Dance Factory.
Video Warren Bullock
Biography
Bullock began dancing at the age of eight at a local dancing school, owned by the world famous ballroom dancers Syd Perkin and Edna Duffield, in Bullock's home town of Stoke on Trent. At the age of eleven, he won the British Juvenile Championship at the Blackpool Tower ballroom. Supported by his late parents, Maurice and Jean, Bullock travelled around the country competing and at the age of 15, made his first British Junior final.
A number of different partners came and went until at the age of 19 he met his last partner now wife, at studio in Birmingham run by competitive coaches, Robin Short and Rita Last, who introduced them. Still financed by his parents, Bullock had a string of jobs; of note was a long stint as an airbrush artist.
Bullock and his wife performed in front of Prince Michael of Kent in 1993 at The Badrutts Palace in St Moritz, Switzerland. An amateur and professional career followed with them being in demand all over the world before finally retiring from competitions at Sun City, South Africa in 1997.
Family
Warren is married to a wife and professional dancing partner; they married in 1995. He lives in lower Penn with his wife and their three children called India, Savannah and Alicia who are triplets. Alicia is the 2010 British Juvenile Ballroom Champion and India is the 2013 UK Under 14's Ballroom Champion. Alicia and India are also the winners of the Under 21's Ballroom and Latin championships at Champions of Tomorrow and are both sponsored by DSI London, Ray Rose Shoes and International Dance Shoes.
Maps Warren Bullock
Competitive career
- British Juvenile Winner 1976
- British Junior Finalist 1981
- British Amateur Finalist (3 times)
- British Professional Finalist (3 times)
- English amateur dancesport association ltd ranked 1st Amateur Ballroom
- UK Amateur Finalist
- UK Professional Finalist
- Amateur Carl Alan Award Winner 1993
- All England Champions
- West European Champions
- Champions of Hungary, China, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Macau
- European Professional 10 Dance Finalist 1996
- World Professional 10 Dance Finalist 1996
Awards and achievements
Teaching and adjudicating
- Adjudicated International Championships (5 times)
- England Adjudicator for European Professional Championships 2004
- England Adjudicator for Irish Open Championships 2013
- England Adjudicator for the South African Open Championships
- Lecturer for the World Dance Council, British Dance Council and Ballroom Dancers Federation
- Pioneered teaching of Ballroom in schools - now 17 years
- 'Top Teacher' winners 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017
- 'Supreme Teacher' winners 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
- 2008 La Classique du Dance Professional Teacher Award Winners
- 2009 Professional Teacher Carl Alan Award Winners
- Owner of the UKs largest Ballroom and Latin American school - 13 studios, community centres and church halls
- Entered 120 'open' competitive couples at Champions of Tomorrow
- Beacon Radio business awards finalist
- Lecturer at the British Championships 2013
Carl Alan Awards
Bullock and Jane have received two prestigious Carl Alan Awards in both amateur dancing and professional teaching. The first Carl Alan Award was in 1993 for Amateur Ballroom. The second Carl Alan Award was in 2009 for "Ballroom, Latin and Sequence Teacher" and was presented to Warren and Jane on 10 February 2009 by Karen Hardy of BBCs Strictly Come Dancing. Winners of the Le Classique du Dance Awards 2008 presented by Jane McDonald.
Qualifications and memberships
- BATD Licentiate
- UKA Licentiate
- British Dance Council Adjudicator
- World Dance & Dance Sport Council International Adjudicator
TV appearances
- Baby Ballroom Series 1 - 8 x 60 min Programmes Channel 5Star and Netflix
- Baby Ballroom Christmas Special Channel 5Star
- BBC Come Dancing - 25 Programmes
- United Kingdom Dance Championships - 3 programmes
- Starred with Joanna Lumley and Michael York in The Weather in the Streets Feature Film
- BBC Doctors - starred in and also as choreographers and dance teachers for six months
- Baby Ballroom The Championship ITV
- Strictly Baby Ballroom - Channel 4
- Rumba in the Jungle (South Africa)
- How to Live with Women - BBC3
- My Naked Secret - Discovery Channel
- BBC Radio Stoke 'My Life Story'
- BBC Radio WM and Radio BRMB Strictly Come Dancing critic
- DSI TV guest commentator
- ITV Central News
- BBC Midlands Today
Dance school
In 1994 Warren and his wife Jane started Zig Zag Dance Factory. Initially as a way of earning an income to continue competing, Zig Zag has grown over the last 20 years to be the UK's largest dance school boasting 13 studios located throughout Wolverhampton, Stourbridge, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, Wylde Green, Great Barr and Streetly
The Zig Zag Dance Factory produces more competitive couples than any other dance school in the UK and has previously supplied dancers for major events including Elton John's birthday and also the Strictly Come Dancing franchise. In March 2009 they staged an event featuring Strictly Come Dancing 's Matthew Cutler and Nicole Cutler. Since then most of the BBC Strictly Come Dancing professionals have taught or performed at the Zig Zag Studios including Ian Waite and Camilla Dallerup, Trent Whiddon and Gordana, Brian Fortuna and Kristina Rhianoff, Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova, James and Ola Jordan and Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace. Zig Zag has quickly become the leading studio for corporate events and choreography for film and TV. A pilot programme has already been filmed as the fore-runner of a new TV reality series featuring Zig Zag and the Bullock dynasty. In 2014 Bullock staged and organised the Galaxy Classique Awards hosted by Robin Windsor from BBC's Strictly Come Dancing at the Ramada Park Hall Hotel & Spa which was a new event to be the 'Oscars' of the dance world which is now an annual event.
Charities
Warren Bullock supports and raises money for a number of charities including Starlight Children's Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support, Compton Hospice, Birmingham Women's Hospital, Promise Dreams, Birmingham Kidney Kids Appeal, Romanian Orphans, Meningitis Trust. He has also supported and fund raised for Dean & the late Helen John appeal. Bullock has also founded the FDA Charity to support dancers in hardship and is involved each year in a charity Strictly Come Dancing event along with various celebrities to raise money for their charities. Bullock was involved in setting the new Guinness World Record for the longest distance ever danced by training two of his pupils over a period of months to raise money for charity.
References
External links
- Zig Zag Dance Factory
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments