Our journey
"There is no destination, because the journey never ends"
This quote certainly relates to the journey of developing our ballroom dancing. Here are some highlights from our journey so far:
Competing at the British National Championship in Blackpool
Present
2021
11th May
We lecture for the IDTA and perform 2 show dances – this time recorded in advance as the congress takes place online.
2021
10th February
2020
Our wedding day. We are lucky to have our dream wedding surrounded by family and friends before the pandemic. Stefanie changes her surname to Taylor on this day.
2020
25th January
Straight after the UK Open, we travel to Milan to compete at the Milan Grand Ball. This turns out to be our last competition and abroad trip before the pandemic hits.
21st January
2020
We compete in our last Rising Stars event at the UK Open Championships and make the grand final.
2020
2019
10th October
Our first major quarter final - we get recalled to the quarter final at the International Championships held at the Royal Albert Hall.
2019
9th October
We once again make the final of the Professional Rising Star Championships.
September
2019
Stefanie is the cover model for the yearly Chrisanne Clover catalogue and the model for the new LBD collection.
2019
1st June
We lecture for the UKA at the annual congress in the Spanish Hall in Blackpool.
2019
22nd May
Stefanie models for the new collections of Espen Salberg and Chrisanne Clover at the fashion show in Blackpool.
2019
3rd February
We lecture and perform 2 show dances for the IDTA annual congress in London.
2019
5th January
Ben adjudicates at the Champions of Tomorrow in Winter Gardens, Blackpool.
2019
2018
2nd December
We lecture for the NATD at their London Congress.
17th November
2018
We reach our best national result as professionals being placed 4th at the British National Championship in Blackpool.
2018
27th October
We are selected as one of two British couples to represent Great Britain at the WDC World Championship held in the ballroom Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.
2018
10th October
We compete at the International Championships making the final of the Professional Rising Stars and qualify to perform at the Royal Albert Hall the following evening. Arriving home from a long dance of competition, Ben proposes and we get engaged.
2018
21st August
We become finalists in the Professional Ballroom at the Blackpool China Dance Festival in Shanghai.
2018
28th July
At the UK Closed Professional Ballroom Championship we are placed 5th.
21st July
2018
We lecture for the ISTD (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing) at their annual congress.
2018
7th July
In Taipei, Taiwan, we become semi-finalists in the WDC World Cup.
2018
24th May
We perform our show at the Competitors Commission Fund Raiser evening in Blackpool.
2018
3rd March
We compete in our first Asian Tour as professionals at the Korean Open.
2018
9th January
We both take our professional exams and qualify as adjudicators in ballroom and latin at championship level.
2018
2017
14th October
Competing at the London Ball, we make a very strong semi-final.
11th October
2017
We have turned professional and dance our first competition at the International Championship making the grand final of the Professional Rising Stars and qualify for the Royal Albert Hall for the following evening.
2017
10th September
Our last competition as amateurs, winning the Super League event at The Central Open Grand Prix.
2017
30th July
At the UK Closed we are placed 2nd in the Amateur Ballroom Championship.
2017
July
After a period of recovery and rehabilitation, Stefanie is ready for competition and we compete in 4 events during the month of July.
2017
April/May
Stefanie gets injured in both her feet and we unfortunately have to withdraw from all our planned events in the busy period of April and May.
2017
19th February
Perform our show dances at the historic Blackpool Tower Ballroom.
2017
19th January
At the UK Open Championship we make the semi-final once again.
2017
2016
17th November
We are placed 2nd again at the British National Championship.
2016
15th October
We compete at the London Ball and become Grand Finalists.
2016
13th October
At the Royal Albert Hall in the heart of London, we once again make the semi-final of the amateur ballroom championship.
2016
6th October
We achieve 3rd place of the historic IDTA Midland Championships.
2016
19th August
We are 2nd at the very first Blackpool Dance Festival China held in Shanghai.
2016
30th July
Once again, we are placed 2nd in the UK Closed Championship.
2016
12th June
We win the Stars of the Future Amateur Ballroom.
2016
27th March
At the WDC AL European Championship we finish in 7th place.
2016
6th February
21th January
2016
Once again, we make the semi-final at the UK Open Championship held in Bournemouth, England.
2016
13th January
The first competition of the year is the Star Ball, where are make the final of the Amateur Ballroom.
2016
2015
20th November
On Stefanie’s birthday, we are place second at the British National Amateur Ballroom Championship.
7th October
2015
At the International Championship held at the Royal Albert Hall, we reach our best result of being placed 9th in the Amateur Ballroom Championship – single digit!
2015
26th July
At the UK Closed Championship we finish in runner’s up position of 2nd place.
2015
27th May
We make our first semi-final at the historic and prestigious British Open Championship in Blackpool, England.
2015
18th April
We win the WDC-AL Coupe D’Europe held in the ski resort village of Courchevel. The championship takes place in an ice rink and is to date the competition of the highest altitude we have competed in – 1850 meters above sea level.
2015
5th April
We finish in 7th place at the WDC-AL European Championship.
25th February
2015
We have the honour of performing our 5 dance show at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool for biggest university competition of the year at the IVDC.
22th January
2015
We make our first semi-final at the UK Open Championship.
2015
21th November
2014
At the British National Championship we finish in 2nd place.
2014
9th October
We are once again in the semi-final of the International Amateur Ballroom championship held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
2014
5th October
We win the Amateur Ballroom at the prestigious Imperial Championships.
2014
14th September
We win the English National Championship.
26th July
2014
Winning the BDF/DPA National League for the second year running in the Amateur Ballroom category. On the same day we dance the UK Closed and finish in 2nd place.
2014
3rd May
We win another historic event at the Allied Open Championships held in Southport, England.
2014
30th March
We are nominated for a La Classique De Dance award.
2014
23rd March
Win the historic competition The South of England Championship in Reading, England.
2014
15th March
We win the WDC AL World Cup Amateur Ballroom in Taipei, Taiwan.
2014
19th January
The first competition of the year is the Universal Championships where we win the Amateur Ballroom.
2014
2nd November
2013
We make the semi-final of the WDC World Trophy in Shanghai, China.
2013
28th July
Crowned winners of the first ever BDF/DPA National League in the Amateur Ballroom.
2013
9th June
We win the Stars of The Future Amateur title for the second time.
2013
4th March
The next part of the tour for us is in Seoul, Korea, where we win the Korean Open.
2013
24th February
Competing in our very first Asian Tour, we make the semi-final of the Asian Open in Tokyo.
2013
17th January
We break through to the semi-final of the UK Open Amateur Ballroom Championship held in Bournemouth.
January
2013
Stefanie models for our sponsor Crystal Clover for the product catalogue and is also the front cover model.
2013
2012
2nd December
We win the Irish Open Grand Slam in Dublin.
2012
9th November
Travelling to Vancouver, Canada, we make the final of the Annual Grand Ball.
10th October
2012
We are once again semi-finalist of the International Championships at the Royal Albert Hall.
2012
9th September
We win the English Closed Championships.
2012
10th June
We are selected for Team GB for a team match in Holland.
2012
25th March
We win the historic South of England Amateur Ballroom championship.
2012
28th January
We enter the very first BDF Star 2 Championships and win the event.
2012
15th January
We win the historic and prestigious Universal Championships. This is already the third competition we have danced since the New Year and the next day to travel to Bournemouth to participate in the UK Open.
2012
2011
4th December
We become world finalist making 5th place at the WDC-AL World Championship held in Paris.
18th November
2011
We become Vice-Champions at the British National Championship with an overall placing of 2nd place but winning the quickstep.
2011
12th October
We make our very first semi-final of a major championship at the International Championships at the Royal Albert Hall in the heart of London.
2011
9th October
We win the historic and prestigious Imperial Amateur Ballroom Championship.
2011
24th September
We win the Swiss Open held in Zurich.
2011
10th July
We become runners-up at the UK Closed Championship (being placed 6th the previous year).
2011
11th June
We win the Stars Of The Future Amateur Ballroom.
2011
5th June
After a very successful Blackpool trip, we travel to Germany and win the German Open Championship held in Mannheim.
2011
1st June
At the Amateur Ballroom Championship for the British Open we make our very first quarter final.
26th May
2011
We make the prestigious final of the Amateur Rising Star Championship at the British Open in Blackpool.
2011
13th May
We compete in the very first Freedom To Dance competition and make the final of a very well supported Amateur Ballroom event.
2011
16th January
We start the year by win the prestigious and historic competition The Universal Championships.
2011
2010
19th November
We make our first British National final in amateur ballroom.
2010
6th November
We are selected to be part of Team GB for a team match held in beautiful Bergen, Norway.
2010
10th July
We break through into our first final of the UK Closed Championship in Amateur Ballroom.
2010
2009
26th May
We compete in our last youth event at the British Open in Blackpool and make the semi- final of the Under 21 Championship. Earlier that day Ben has done his final university exam from the hotel room.
2009
2008
26th April
We dance our first competition together in Denmark.
2008
31st March - 2nd April
Ben travels to Copenhagen for a try-out with Stefanie. Our first dance together is on 1st April and this date remains our “dance anniversary date” – no Aprils fool!