By Yang Chen © 2009. All rights reserved.

Part II: Bill Davies Becomes United States Champion

Bill's passion to bring quality dancing to the United States led him to run for office in the National Council for Dance Teacher Organizations (NCDTO). This association was formed from various organizations of dance teachers in ballroom and performing arts (ballet, tap, jazz). In 1962, the NCDTO had gained admission into the International Council of Ballroom Dancing (ICBD, now the World Dance and DanceSport Council (WD&DSC)) which gave the NCDTO legitimacy as the governing body of ballroom dance organizations in the United States. In 1966, Bill was elected Vice Chairman. His friend and fellow competitor Dennis Rogers was elected Chairman.

While Bill was Vice Chairman, a group of amateur ballroom dancers had formed a national organization called the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association (USABDA), under the leadership of a man named George Gruber. Bill understood that they formed to try to get ballroom dancing into the Olympic games. The professionals at the time were suspicious of and hostile to the amateurs. "What do we want amateurs for? Before you know it, they’ll be teaching!" was a remark heard from professionals at the NCDTO meetings. The suspicion and hostility stemmed from fear of the amateurs taking business away from the professionals. They had heard what had happened in Germany, where the amateur movement was strong. There, the amateurs organized themselves and created a system where the more advanced amateurs taught the beginners. The amateurs also controlled the competition scene in Germany. The professionals in Germany, Bill heard, were relegated to teaching social dancing. Ach du lieber Himmel!

Gruber, however, proved to be persuasive, and he was able to overcome the professionals’ resistance to including amateurs in the NCDTO. The group ultimately decided that USABDA’s desire to get ballroom dancing into the Olympic games was a worthwhile goal, and it was important to have USABDA as a member in NCDTO so that that the interests of amateur dancers could be represented. The NCDTO voted to admit USABDA.

At the NCDTO meetings the proponents of the American style of dancing and the English style would argue about which style was better. The American style reflected the social dances being taught in the franchised chain studios. The English style -- so-called because it was imported into the United States through the likes of Frank Regan and Gordon and Pat Webster, and the cruise ship dance teachers from the United Kingdom that Freddie Rust had met -- provided what Bill and his friends (Joe Jenkins, Larry Silvers, Dennis Rogers and others) considered to be a far superior alternative to the American style for competitive dancing. The English style had swing, a property that made it unique not just from American style ballroom dancing but from other kinds of dance. Swing was the illusion created in ballroom dancing by two people moving across the dance floor as if they were on a playground swing, with the man and woman making the swing go forwards and backwards by their moving together in unison. American style lacked the same richness of movement. It lacked the structure of the English style, which over the decades, under the auspices of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance (ISTD), published a technique and syllabus and developed a system of teaching that led to superior dancing, no less rigorous or disciplined than other, more established dance genres, like ballet. American style, at least as practiced in the social dance studios of the time, seemed less concerned with competition dancing.

With dedicated and devoted practitioners like Bill, Joe, Larry and others, the popularity of the English style grew. Bill would teach his students only the English style. A certain "snob appeal" emerged which made the English style the choice of the more discerning dancers. Alex Moore, then Chairman of the Ballroom Department of the ISTD, would visit the United States from England to give medal tests as a way for serious dance students to have their dancing evaluated. The students usually danced with their instructor or, if they had a fellow student as a partner, the two students could partner up to take the medal test. The tests were given at bronze (beginner), silver (intermediate) and gold (advanced) levels. After observing the students dancing the various styles of dance (such as waltz, tango, foxtrot and quickstep), the examiner would grade the student as "pass," "commended" or "highly commended." They would later receive in the mail a certificate and medal from the ISTD in England reflecting their achievement.

To encourage the teaching of the English style, Bill and his fellow English style proponents paved the way for the ISTD to open up a United States branch, and in 1967, the USISTD was incorporated. Alex Moore, a master marketer, tried to allay the fears of the American style proponents by stating, "Oh, no, we are not teaching English style; we're teaching International style." The name had a ring to it, and it stuck. But the hostility persisted. The battle lines had been drawn between the American style and the International style. Bill cast his lot with the International style.

In the 1960s, three types of ballroom dance competitions emerged. One type was represented by the Detroit Star Ball, a large competition open to professionals and amateurs in which the organizer put up the prize money for the professionals who competed. Another type was represented by the children’s competitions, organized by dance teachers who taught young children how to dance ballroom. These were multi-day events that took place quarterly in places like the Edison Hotel in New York City and venues in New Jersey and Connecticut. Young couples from pre-teen through teenage years would compete during the day and professionals would compete in the evenings. Bill, Joe and Larry, together with other professionals who competed, would pool together their money and create a kitty. The prize money would then be re-allocated based on the placements achieved by the competing professionals, with first place getting the largest portion of the kitty, the second place getting the next largest and so on, through sixth place. Usually, the finals would have only six couples, so no one went away empty-handed.

The third category was represented by the pro-am competition, developed by Bill and others (including Joe Jenkins, Larry Silvers, Frank Regan, Terry Gregory and Dennis and Fran Rogers). In pro-am, the teacher as the “pro” and the student as the “am” would partner up and compete against each other. Although Bill had experienced pro-am events at the Dance-A-Ramas when he taught at Arthur Murray, those typically were either showcases or competitions that were restricted to students from Arthur Murray chains. The pro-am events developed by Bill and others were open to students from any studios or teachers, whether they were part of a chain or not. At these pro-am competitions, the teacher-student events took place during the day and in the evening, the students watched their teachers dance against each other, with their regular pro partners. The revenue received from the students’ entry fees would cover the cost of running the competition and funding the prize pool for the professional events in the evenings.

Off the competition floor, Bill continued teaching out of the Peter Stuyvesant Hotel. However, his employer Freddie Rust seemed to be slipping deeper and deeper into financial distress. He could no longer afford the rent at the Peter Stuyvesant Hotel ballroom. He moved to a small ballet school nearby, on 85th and Broadway, and rented space there. One night, after closing the studio, Bill dropped Freddie off at his home in the Bronx. That was the last time he saw Freddie Rust. To this day, Bill has no idea what became of him. But Freddie’s loss represented a new beginning for Bill. He had a few students to start his own studio.

Bill taught out of the small ballet studio on West 85th Street for about a year-and-a-half. Around 1968, a dance teacher friend by the name of Art Gilliam approached Bill and asked him if he would be interested in buying his studio. "How much?" Bill asked. "One hundred and fifty dollars," Art replied. Without a second's thought, Bill replied, "I'll take it."

The space was a large room above a Chinese restaurant across town, called the Lotus, on East 85th Street. When Bill got there, he learned that what he was actually getting was use of that space through a woman named Joanne Harrison who was teaching cha cha and salsa there. She taught out of a smaller room on that floor, and she did not have much use for the larger space, which was occasionally used for catered events. Bill paid the $150 to Art and then started paying rent to Joanne, even though there was no formal lease. On the door was a sign, "ABC Studios," and Bill started teaching out of there.

By the late 1960s, Bill and Bobbi had become second in the United States, behind Joe and Nancy Jenkins. Their friend, Frank Regan, towards the end of the 1960s began a competition in Atlantic City that Bill and other professionals supported. The Atlantic City competition became a regular stop in Bill and Bobbi's competition circuit.

The children’s competitions continued to be big at the time, and because Bill and Bobbi were second in the country, the owners of the children's schools sought them out to coach their students. The schools did not know International style, and Bill and Bobbi would teach only International style. The schools’ owners also did not want anyone to know that they had approached Bill and Bobbi to teach their students so they would ask Bill and Bobbi to keep that information quiet. Bill and Bobbi respected their wishes, which resulted in their teaching the students of opposing schools. At the competitions, the organizers and judges tended to be proponents of American style and were not keen on seeing the children dancing International style figures. Arguments erupted over the children dancing International style figures; competitions would be called to a halt. Bill could only shake his head in bemusement over the bigotry represented by the conflict between American style and International style.

The competition scene by the late 1960s and into the first half of the 1970s was characterized by a wild party atmosphere and heavy drinking. Some professionals drank before and after they got on the competition floor. Bill would not drink before (he tried it once, and it did not work out well), but afterwards, when he was done competing, he would party into the wee hours with his buddies Joe, Larry, Frank and others, kind of like a Rat Pack of the ballroom world. “At that time the ballroom world was drunk . . . we would party, carry on . . . it was quite a wild time.” In those days, no one trained before a competition. “It was part of the macho [ethos]. ‘Train? We don’t have to train!’ It was a different attitude.”

In 1970, Bill was elected Chairman of the NCDTO, succeeding Dennis Rogers. As Chairman, Bill continued to work on raising the standard of dancing in the United States. The hostility towards International style persisted, with some of the ire turned towards the "foreigners" coming to American shores and threatening the livelihoods the natives. The International style started to live up to its name, as the English who had been part of the first wave were now being augmented by Germans, Dutch, Australians and South Africans. Bill supported the arrival of these practitioners of the International style because he believed that they were bringing a better quality of dancing and dance instruction to the United States. He thought that the resistance of the American style teachers to gaining the knowledge and experience of the International style was regrettable and unfortunate. Bill believed that American style dancing could benefit from the richness of the International style.

As Chairman, Bill restructured the NCDTO. He created separate departments for the Ballroom and Performing Arts organizations. That way, the disputes within these sectors would not bog down the other. The disagreements within the ballroom world were bad enough without burdening them with the debates among the performing arts teachers.

Bill also took on the project of creating a rulebook for competitors and competition organizers. He assigned the task to his Ballroom Director, Geoffrey Fells. Geoffrey was a master organizer, and he marshalled the team that compiled the NCDTO's first rulebook. Now, when competitors or competition organizers wanted to know "Can we do that?", Bill could answer, "Let's take a look in the rulebook."

During Bill's administration, the Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire chains applied for membership. The non-franchised studios who were members of the NCDTO strongly resisted their application. "They're a bunch of crooks! Who needs them?" was a common cry that Bill heard. Bill responded, "How can you have a national organization purporting to represent dance teacher organizations without including the two biggest ballroom dance chains in the country?" Bill supported their application. One of the members, Dancemasters, threatened to leave the NCDTO if Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire were allowed to join. Bill stood firm. "I'm sorry if that's your position because I'd hate to see you go, but I believe Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire should be allowed to become members of the NCDTO." In came Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire; out went Dancemasters. With that move, the NCDTO became more heavily populated by ballroom dance teaching organizations and the performing arts wing of the council waned.

By the early 1970s, the NCDTO had become more active in sanctioning dance competitions, a process made easier by the creation of a rulebook. The heads of Fred Astaire at the time, Mary Mulligan and John Monte, through the recommendation of Fran and Dennis Rogers, approached Bill as NCDTO Chairman about starting the United States Ballroom Championships. The top two couples in the top professional divisions would become the United States representatives to the world championships. This system of picking the United States representatives would replace the point system that had been in use at the time to decide which couples would represent the United States. Bill participated in the negotiations that led to the creation of a charter for an entity called the American Ballroom Company which would own the rights to run the United States Ballroom Championships and related events. In 1971 the first United States Ballroom Championships were held in the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel in New York City.

After two years, Bill's term was coming to a close. Over the course of his tenure, Bill found that being Chairman of the NCDTO was nearly a full-time job, taking a good chunk of his day dealing with this or that complaint from this or that dance teacher organization. When time came for re-election, Bill told the NCDTO that he could not continue for another term unless he received suitable compensation. Arthur Murray supported the idea and suggested that Bill should be paid $10,000 per year. No other member of the NCDTO agreed, and Bill stepped down as Chairman at the end of his term. Bill was succeeded by John Monte, and shortly thereafter, the NCDTO was re-named the National Dance Council of America (NDCA). In Bill's view, that change led to the organization being focused more on organizing competitions than on improving the standard of dancing in the United States.

During the time that Bill held leadership positions at the NCDTO from 1966 to 1972, he and Bobbi continued to compete actively in the growing competition scene. But by 1970, their marriage and dance partnership were in trouble. Bobbi wanted to spend more time with their children. “I was hard, I wanted to win,” Bill recalled. “It was no longer fun for her.” By 1972, they had separated and stopped competing together.

For about a year, Bill competed professionally with Beth Hart, who had been one of his students. They made the final in the North American Championships, a summer competition organized by the USISTD. By this point in time, the USISTD. had organized a series of competitions that took place three times a year, once in the spring, once in the summer and once in the fall. They took place in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, except for the North American Championships, which took place in Atlantic City. This competition was the one that Frank Regan had started in the late 1960s which the USISTD took over and turned into the North American Championships.

Around 1974, Bill learned that the Turnsverein Sports Club, near ABC Studios, was available for rent. The sports club had a large and elegant ballroom in it that Bill knew would provide excellent space for dancing. He took the space and threw an opening night party in the ballroom that drew about two thousand people. The place opened for business the following Monday. Two people showed up to take his class. For about the next year or so, Bill tried to make the ballroom work but it was a struggle. He continued paying rent at ABC Studios in the meantime.

Occasionally, Bill ran social dances out of ABC Studios and in 1975, he invited Terry Gregory and Sandra Cameron, a top professional Latin couple from the Washington, DC area, to perform at one of his parties. Bill had first met Sandra back in 1970, at the Atlantic City competition, where she competed in standard with her then-partner Robert Williamson. During one of the social dance breaks at the event, Bill asked Sandra to dance. He took her in his arms, did two walks and a link in the tango (or was it a whisk and chassé in waltz?) and all of the sudden, Sandra broke hold. "I'm not dancing with you!" she said, flustered, and walked away. Bill knew exactly why. "She liked it." Perhaps a bit too much. "That was really the start of it," Bill recalled. "We knew there was something there that would be terrific." But for the next five years, they had no contact, other than running into each other at the usual competitions.

Terry and Sandra performed their Latin show at Bill's dance social, and at the end of it, Bill presented a bouquet of roses to Sandra. Then he asked her to dance. This time they got through the entire song.

Not too long after that, Bill and Sandra started to see each other. Bill would visit Sandra in Washington, DC, where she worked during the day as a secretary at the IMF and taught dance in the evenings. They talked about the possibility of dancing together in a partnership, but both agreed that it would not be fair to her partner Terry, with whom she was enjoying a successful partnership. "We both thought we were being noble and deluded ourselves into thinking that we did not want to begin a dance partnership." But Bill kept asking, and finally, Sandra relented. She left her job in DC, she left her partnership with Terry and moved to New York City to be with Bill. Terry never forgave her or Bill for her departure.

The United States Ballroom Championships were two weeks away, and Bill and Sandra decided to enter it. They began training for it right away. Sonny Binick was in town and Bill and Sandra took coachings from him. They trained intensively in the days leading up to the competition. They premiered as a couple in the 1975 United States Ballroom Championships in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf=Astoria. They made the final. The results were announced: In second place, Bill Davies and Sandra Cameron.

Bill and Sandra hit the competition circuit, and about two months later, at the Detroit Star Ball, Bill and Sandra came in first, ahead of the couple that beat them at the United States Ballroom Championships. In the 1976 United States Ballroom Championships, Bill and Sandra came in first, and they went on to hold that position in 1977 and 1978.

"Sandra was a beautiful dancer, easy to dance with, very musical," Bill recalled. "She was the most beautiful woman on the floor and the best dancer. She had a strong personality. We came along at the right time. I had the right partner, and it was the right time to become number one. Joe Jenkins had been number one, and he retired. Sandra came along, and the judges liked us as a couple. We had the right balance. We supported each other's egos and positive thinking. But we also tore each other down. We were pretty volatile, actually."

The strength of Sandra's personality came through at a competition in Boston, when Bill and Sandra had already been established as the top couple in the country. There is more than one version of this story, and this is how Bill remembers it: Bill thought he had danced perhaps the best that he had done up to that point. After the final round was danced, and the results had been tabulated, the master of ceremonies called the finalists to the floor for the presentation of awards. Bill and Sandra lined up with the other finalists, facing the awards presenters and the judges and other officials at the daïs. The places for sixth through third were called out, and each couple stepped forward, as their placements were revealed. As was traditional at competitions, the man would step forward first, turn to the audience and bow, and he would extend his hand to the lady to help her to curtsy to the audience before walking up to the judges who were presenting the awards. The two remaining couples were Bill and Sandra and Jim Donaghey and Judi Hatton, a couple they had beaten in other competitions. "In second place," the master of ceremonies intoned, "Bill Davies and Sandra Cameron." The crowd in the ballroom began to buzz. Did they hear that right? Second place? Bill stepped forward, a quizzical expression crossing his face. He turned to the audience and bowed, and then took Sandra's hand to spin her out for her curtsy. But Sandra did not turn to the audience to curtsy; instead, she stood defiantly facing the awards presenters and officials. She raised both her hands high and made a gesture of utter defiance, with the index and pinky fingers on both hands shaped into horns, the remaining fingers folded under her thumbs, the back of her hands towards the judges. By this point, the crowd had erupted into a raucous furor. Bill attributed the reaction to the result. "It was a ridiculous result," Bill deadpanned, with a trace of a sneer.

After the incident in Boston, Bill and Sandra were suspended from competition for a few months. They did shows, taught and practiced; little had changed in their routine other than missing a couple of competitions. Their next competition was the United States Ballroom Championships. They came in first.

At one of the United States Championships, possibly the one in 1977, American style was introduced as a separate division. Bill convinced Sandra to dance in the American style division but using their International style routines. They began each dance apart, in open position, but for most of the routine, they danced in closed position, characteristic of the International style. They finished in second place. If they had one more mark in the mambo, they would have taken first. (At the time, the American style mixed both the smooth and rhythm dances.) A huge ruckus ensued. Some booed while others cheered. Vernon Brock, one of the judges, accused Bill of making a mockery of American style and "ruining it forever." Bill merely sought to make the point that creating a distinction between American and International style was wrong. “Dancing has common roots . . . there’s a commonality. This separation that was going on was not good, not healthy.”

In 1978, Bill and Sandra won the Professional Standard title in the United States Ballroom Championship for the third time. But the days of their partnership were numbered. Around this time, Bill and Sandra made a trip to Montreal where they performed at the Olympic Velodrome for a crowd of thousands. After the performance, Sandra returned to New York but Bill stayed to teach some lessons. During the course of his stay, he fell in love with a dancer he met there. Upon his return to New York, Bill told Sandra, and they decided to end their romance. They also stopped dancing together.

By now, Bill was in his mid-30s and contemplating his future in dance. Bill felt that his career was coming to an end and that he should have a studio to call his own. At ABC Studios, where he had been teaching for about 10 years, there was additional space on the second floor above the Lotus Restaurant on East 85th Street, and Bill negotiated with the landlord to take over the remaining vacant space which had occasionally been used for catered events. It was plenty of space, about 7500 square feet, stretching across from 85th to 86th Street. There were two bars. "It was quite a wonderful place," Bill said, with a touch of nostalgia.

Sandra by this time met a television news producer and reporter named Larry Schulz. Bill recalled that Larry asked Sandra to teach a news anchors on NBC to do the hustle, which was the rage at the time. Although their romance was on the rocks, Bill and Sandra decided to dance in one more United States Ballroom Championship. Larry asked to film the process of their preparing for the competition. That film became a documentary called "Partners." It featured Bill and Sandra competing at the 1979 United States Ballroom Championships at the Sheraton in New York City. It also showed Bill and Sandra practicing at Bill's studio.

In the film, we see Bill Davies and Sandra Cameron from thirty years ago. Bill looked like he could be the younger brother of William Holden, thin and dashing in his black tailsuit, his hair brown and well coiffed. Sandra looked pretty and self-assured, wearing a black ballroom dress with red and silver sequins and white trim. The dress went down only to her knees but spread out wide, like an oversized tutu. They were couple number 71. They moved together with grace, power and polish.

About a third of the way into the film, Bill described Sandra: "She's an excellent partner. She offers me a feeling . . . that I can go forward; I can move around. I [need] not worry about her but [can] navigate the room." Sandra reciprocated: "Bill is a very strong dancer . . . a powerful dancer . . . has powerful movement, and that's exciting and fun to be able to move with someone that can move out like that. He's also an emotional dancer and brings not just the technique to it but his feelings into his dancing tremendously."

Later on in the film, Bill and Sandra were about to practice their tango in Bill's studio. Bill asked Sandra, "Do you feel that we're depicting the age old story --" Sandra quickly replied, "Yeah, I think so . . . ." Bill continued, "-- macho man and aloof female?" Sandra then retracted her answer: "Well, I don't know about that . . . but I like it . . . feels good." She shifted from foot to foot and looked away.

"Well," said Bill, "it's important, you know, if we go in front of the public that we pick some characterization . . . ."

Politely but firmly, Sandra responded, "Well, you depict what you want to depict and I'll . . . do my thing . . . you do your thing and I'll do my thing and we'll be all right."

Bill, not entirely convinced, and through a tight smile, said, "Let's see if it works that way . . . ." Sandra replied, "It works . . . so long as you do your thing, and I'll do mine."

Bill looked at Sandra, smiling but not looking too amused, and as he began to take Sandra into tango hold, he stated, almost grinding the words through his teeth, "Okay. We will find out if this new philosophy of 1979 -- male, female -- really works." They charged into the first steps of their tango.

The film did not show the announcement of the results. At the United States Ballroom Championships in 1979, Bill and Sandra finished second, behind Brian and Kristi McDonald. Finishing in the top two at the national championship entitled Bill and Sandra to represent the United States at the World Championships in Tokyo. They finished eighth in the world.

Bill believes that he and Sandra could have taken a serious shot at being first in the world. But to do so, they would have had to move to England and train there for many months out of the year. Neither Sandra nor Bill were interested in giving up their livelihood in New York for months at a time to do that. They mutually decided not to play that game.

From working on the film, Sandra and Larry fell in love and later married. After dancing in Tokyo in 1979, Bill and Sandra ended their dance partnership. Sandra retired from competition. Bill thought losing the partnership was huge. "Sandra was an exceptional dancer," he said.