Debbie Shillam with dance partner Allan. 34446Picture: Luke Plummer
By Chloe Prince
DANCING brings laughter and joy to Debbie Shillam, which is why she has been passionately dancing her way through life.
For the past 20 years dancing has been part of Debbie’s life. Trained in styles such as jazz, ballroom, latin, rock and roll and new vogue, Debbie can move to any beat.
The Pakenham mother of five has trained with coaches all throughout Melbourne.
Starting in Mount Evelyn she moved through coaches in Ringwood and Ferntree Gully before heading to the bigger schools in Bentleigh.
“Dancing is a life-long skill and once you have learned to dance you can do it anywhere,” Debbie said.
Intense training is required to compete in a dance competition. With her husband and dance partner Allan, Debbie has competed in many competitions including the Australian Dancesport Championships and Victorian Championships.
“For a high level competition you start training three or four days a week for 2-3 hours. As you get closer to the competition you need to do at least one hour of training every day,” Debbie said.
Training does pay off especially when Debbie and Allan were named Australian Championship Dancers and in most other competitions they have finished as Australian finalists.
With such a talented mother, Debbie has taught all her children but the baby to dance.
“I start them off, then once they get older they attend top Victorian coaches because they’re more likely to listen to someone that isn’t their mother,” laughs Debbie.
“No doubt the baby will be dancing too once she is old enough,” she said.
While running the family Debbie still manages to dance three to four times a week and run her own dance school, Move it Dance Centre in Beaconsfield.
“It’s great to teach dancing, I love sharing in other people’s dancing experiences. It makes them happy and also makes me feel good at the same time,” Debbie said.
“I’m so proud of all my students and I’d really love to get involved with teaching more schools and debutantes dancing in the future,” she said.
Debbie will continue dancing on and hopes to see more people at barbecues bring back the fun shared by getting up, dancing around and just having a good time.
