Sally is a regular contributor to the blog and also has a wonderful collection of images of Manchester from the past.*
This photo of my mum, in her ballet dress, aged about five, is one of a number of dance related photos of her that I used to enjoy looking at when I was a child.
This one, taken at Oxford Road Studios in Manchester, is the only photo from that group that I still have.
It was a nice collection; all related to ballet and tap dancing triumphs when she was a little girl. The collection included some newspaper clippings where my mum (sometimes alongside her sister Hazel) would be shown putting on a show or winning a prize.
The collection was proudly maintained by my Nana, who kept the memories safely in a shoe box and would bring them out at my request.
The newspaper clippings had been carefully glued to a cardboard backing to help them withstand the years of re reading and reminiscing.
As a talented seamstress with two daughters close in age, my Nana was kept busy producing outfits for her dancing girls and I remember the photos showed a whole range of clever and inventive costumes.
All of these produced at a time when resources were scarce and old clothes were not discarded but adapted and made into something new and a bit special.
When I was born in 1964, with her dancing days by then just a memory from childhood, my mum gave up her secretarial job and stayed at home to look after me.
In common with many young people of her generation, there was no question of my mum and dad immediately getting "a place of their own" so we lived for a few years at my Nana and Granddads house on Princess Parkway , close to the Mersey Hotel .
I was born in the back bedroom of that house, and some of my earliest childhood memories are from there.
Our house had just two rooms downstairs, the front living room and the big back kitchen with the downstairs toilet in a little passage by the back door.
There was also the "glory hole”, the cupboard under the stairs that housed a variety of weird and wonderful objects and was often visited because it was also home to the bucket of coal for the fire in the front room.
There was one Item that lived in the glory hole that always made me smile when I saw it.
A large board that had been kept in there for years, it was kept specifically for tap dancing on, so that my mum and her sister couldn't be blamed for damaging the kitchen linoleum when they were kids.
As an adult, my mum would sometimes bring this board out and attempt to show me a few steps. Her talents far outweighed mine; I was more interested in sticking my nose in a book.
Nevertheless, I loved to watch her feet as she danced and I think these experiences explain my lifelong love of dancers such as Syd Charisse, Rita Hayworth and The Andrews Sisters, (who, although much better known for their singing were also a mean trio of tappers !)
Although I could only watch my Mum and wonder, talent can sometimes skip a generation and my own daughter has studied Musical Theatre to Masters Degree level and includes ballet and tap in her range of skills.
In the early 1970s, I remember feeling a sense of pride when neighbours had house parties and the floor would be cleared for my mum and dad to jive.
On one occasion, I remember a neighbour’s mantelpiece also being cleared, of ornaments, as their living room was really a bit cramped, not much bigger than the board from the glory hole, and certainly too small for the enthusiasm of this jiving duo!
© Sally Dervan
Pictures; from the collection of Sally Dervan
*Sally Dervan, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Sally%20Dervan
This one, taken at Oxford Road Studios in Manchester, is the only photo from that group that I still have.
It was a nice collection; all related to ballet and tap dancing triumphs when she was a little girl. The collection included some newspaper clippings where my mum (sometimes alongside her sister Hazel) would be shown putting on a show or winning a prize.
The collection was proudly maintained by my Nana, who kept the memories safely in a shoe box and would bring them out at my request.
The newspaper clippings had been carefully glued to a cardboard backing to help them withstand the years of re reading and reminiscing.
As a talented seamstress with two daughters close in age, my Nana was kept busy producing outfits for her dancing girls and I remember the photos showed a whole range of clever and inventive costumes.
All of these produced at a time when resources were scarce and old clothes were not discarded but adapted and made into something new and a bit special.
In common with many young people of her generation, there was no question of my mum and dad immediately getting "a place of their own" so we lived for a few years at my Nana and Granddads house on Princess Parkway , close to the Mersey Hotel .
I was born in the back bedroom of that house, and some of my earliest childhood memories are from there.
Our house had just two rooms downstairs, the front living room and the big back kitchen with the downstairs toilet in a little passage by the back door.
There was also the "glory hole”, the cupboard under the stairs that housed a variety of weird and wonderful objects and was often visited because it was also home to the bucket of coal for the fire in the front room.
There was one Item that lived in the glory hole that always made me smile when I saw it.
A large board that had been kept in there for years, it was kept specifically for tap dancing on, so that my mum and her sister couldn't be blamed for damaging the kitchen linoleum when they were kids.
As an adult, my mum would sometimes bring this board out and attempt to show me a few steps. Her talents far outweighed mine; I was more interested in sticking my nose in a book.
Although I could only watch my Mum and wonder, talent can sometimes skip a generation and my own daughter has studied Musical Theatre to Masters Degree level and includes ballet and tap in her range of skills.
In the early 1970s, I remember feeling a sense of pride when neighbours had house parties and the floor would be cleared for my mum and dad to jive.
On one occasion, I remember a neighbour’s mantelpiece also being cleared, of ornaments, as their living room was really a bit cramped, not much bigger than the board from the glory hole, and certainly too small for the enthusiasm of this jiving duo!
© Sally Dervan
Pictures; from the collection of Sally Dervan
*Sally Dervan, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Sally%20Dervan
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