Marcus and Karen Hilton, MBE* - Part 3
Part 1
Part 2
Dancesportinfo : Would you like dancing to become an Olympic sport?
Marcus: Personally? No, I don't think I would. Maybe it needs to become an
Olympic sport, but then again, if it did, would it create more interest for the
profession itself? It's a fantastic thing to be in the Olympics but personally I
think none of the demonstration sports should be in there. Olympic sport means to
me something where there is the fastest, one who can jump the highest and is the
strongest without question. That for me is an Olympic situation. Not something like
synchronised swimming.
Karen: And I enjoy watching that.
"It's a fantastic thing to be in the Olympics but personally I think none of the
demonstration sports should be in there."
Marcus : But it's different levels really. The Olympics for me is a Greek
idea, an athlete.
Karen : And we're not, are we?
Marcus: No.
Karen: I made this comment fifteen years ago that my biggest nightmare was
to be in a dormitory or a sweaty changing room [full of women! - Marcus comments
and laughs]. Unshaven armpits, you know!! I used to be quite feisty at
the time! [both laughing]. It's just not compatible with me.
Marcus: But to put it in the public eye with an Olympics - fantastic.
Karen: Since then, lots of our competitions are held in sports halls but
they are made to look so beautiful that they are unrecognizable as sports halls.
Then, the times have changed. Albert Hall is beautiful but the nightmare of sports
halls... oh. For example all couples are desperate to qualify and get to the Albert
Hall from Brentwood. So it gives them a better incentive, doesn't it? One couple
phoned us and they were so excited to get through to the Albert Hall, they were
in tears.
Marcus: The floor in the Albert Hall is not big but the dancing was fantastic.
Karen: One of the best nights in the whole year�s calendar. I must say is
one of the most enjoyable nights. It's absolutely fantastic.
Playing with Mummy
Dancesportinfo: Which competitions would you rank as the top five or ten
in the world?
Marcus: Blackpool will have to be the top one, and then the International
in the Albert Hall... Maybe let's change that slightly. Let's think of the titles,
the British, then the World, then the International, then the United Kingdom and
then the European. That would be the way I'd go through it.
Karen: Saying that, the events have developed since we retired. Events like
the Asian Open are now very beautiful events.
Marcus: The USDSC is fantastic
Karen: There always has been US Open and German Open
Marcus: The Dutch Open.
Karen : We used to really enjoy dancing at the Dutch Open, they were all
the fantastic competitions.
Dancesportinfo : Are you judging at this year's Dutch Open?
Karen : No, we don't travel so much any more. The arrival of our beloved,
little boy stopped that.
Marcus : I do travel away sometimes doing some judging jobs, because I enjoy
judging, this is the main thing, but I miss Henry and Karen every time I am away.
We've been travelling the World together for the past twenty odd years.
Karen: You do it because you feel you ought to.
Marcus: For certain events I feel that responsibility
Karen: You know, we took Henry with us all the way to America for this year
to be at the US Open in Miami. And it's quite a trip with a three year old. But
it was important for us to be there.
Marcus: The position I am in, is a position of responsibility as well as
for the future of dancing. So I think, it is important to be involved in those big
competitions on regular basis to make people see the way I judge, the way I feel
dancing should be. If you say no all the time, you will have the same people judging
all the time, which unfortunately has happened. And I had comments from couples,
"oh it's the same judges, I'm not going to that comp".
"And we were very keen not to overtire ourselves. Some couples have suffered from
burn-outs. You have to put a lid on it, and can't do everything"
Dancesportinfo : You're one of very few couples who went all the way to the
top and were romantically involved. I know of several people who were privately
together but stopped because of dancing, because they couldn't manage the stress
involved. Some couples even got engaged but it went wrong. How did you manage to
survive, and how did your relationship survive?
Marcus: You haven't seen the bruises on my body!! [laughing] But I think
that we are very compatible.
Karen: That's a question you can ask anybody in any walk of life. A lot of
our friends have split up, haven't they? In that sort of age we are now.
Marcus: We are very compatible; we have the sort of personalities which go
together well. We've known each other for years and years. As non partners, as partners,
as lovers, as friends. We've always been a team, always worked towards the same
goal, we've never wanted anything differently. We've always been very focused on
everything we wanted in life.
Karen: We've always been very keen on our families. Our families liked each
other, we've always had friends together, particularly in the North of England where
people keep their feet on the ground, you know.
Marcus: We had ups and downs, like everybody. I think it's healthy to do
that, it's always fun making up afterwards. You have to realize it's not one way
traffic.
Karen: And we are trying to find time for each other. Particularly when we
were competing and we were literally together for 24hr a day, Marcus used to take
a time off to play some golf. Marcus, you actually played more golf when we were
competing than now. It was just to take a day away, and I would take a day off to
go with my sister, friends to do other things.
Henry - little angelMarcus: Normality... Just to make sure you
keep the balance. Balance is important.
Karen: And we were very keen not to overtire ourselves. Some couples have
suffered from burn-outs. You have to put a lid on it, and can't do everything. There
is always an invitation to do this and that, come back and go again to do this and
that. And you just have to draw the line and not be too greedy with your own time.
Everyone lives to their own means but you just have to draw the line.
Marcus: There was a certain time in our career when we felt we were doing
enough and we felt we performed really well as well as we could do. We took a backseat
and looked at ourselves and said, that the competing career is only short compared
to our life as dancers, as teachers, you know. And really when you look at it like
that you think, yeah, to win is so important but there is your life together also,
and without each other we wouldn't have been World Champions. Without each other
we wouldn't have produced our lovely boy, Henry. So what would we've done? I don't
know, maybe I would have been a car salesman.
Karen: But we also have said that we would have been happy together anyway
without dancing, doing something else. And that's the whole point, isn't it? The
dancing was the icing on the cake, but without it we would stay together.
Marcus: Yeah, but we always needed that competitive edge
Karen: We are lucky, aren't we? That we always have done something we loved.
It's easy getting up to go to work. Well, it's not easy for Marcus to get up in
the morning! You can't. It's 6.30 in the morning for our school run
Marcus: It's a killer!
Karen: And we go to work, to do the job we love. It's not a proper job. I
was asked when we were first teaching this lovely juvenile nine years old girl,
holding my hand and we were having great time learning whatever dance it was, she
said, "Karen, what's your job?" "This is my job, teaching you steps." "No, what's
your proper job?" [laughing] So I suppose I haven�t got a proper job and I've never
had! And we never will, will we?
The Hilton familyMarcus: We spoke to few people who have split up.
Especially now when we take Henry to school, a lot of parents are split, we are
in a minority really. And we ask them, sometimes in conversation at the party or
meeting, what went wrong? And they often say, we didn't have anyone to talk to,
no friends, we had nobody for us, we only had each other to talk to and we slowly
drifted away. We've always had and always have, we've got people around us we consider
really friendly and special friends.
Karen: It stops you from believing your own publicity, when you start believing
your own publicity you're in trouble. It's not advisable [laughing]
Marcus : Exactly!
Dancesportinfo: It's very nice to see, excuse the word normal, couple. Boy
and a girl and a kid being together...
Marcus : I am glad you said boy, thank you!! [laughing] That's a good point,
because we always thought about ourselves as normal. We've done the fantastic things,
been to Buckingham Palace, got the MBE, seen royalty, had wonderful dinners, travelled
the world but at the end of a day I am still the same boy who was born on the 16th
Dec 1960, from a working class family in Rochdale! And I am still that same person
inside. We've never let things go to our heads; we've always been normal people.
Karen : We've enjoyed it all.
Marcus: Oh, yes. It was fantastic, but whenever we did get delusions of grandeur,
our parents would come and knock us on the head! And Henry does it to us now, he
brings us down to earth. You have to be careful, because of the type of life you
lead at the top, you start believing you are a superstar, that you're an icon. But
we're not! We may be in our little world, but it's nothing compared to the world
out there. We are just normal people doing their job. We're just trying to make
people look good, feel good.
"[...] been to Buckingham Palace, got the MBE [...] It was fantastic, but whenever
we did get delusions of grandeur our parents would come and knock us on the head"
Dancesportinfo: Not really normal, being an MBE, having seen the Queen, being
a champions so many times and having every title possible...
Karen: But it also helped us to keep our feet on the ground. Marcus was man
of the year in Rochdale and I was a woman of the year in Rochdale, but along with
that comes the charity work for the very sick children, very sad cases. We are patrons
of the hospital for very, very poorly children and abused children and some of these
stories they keep you on the ground. And the fact that we get dressed up, even now
we did some of that in the Rochdale town hall for terribly sick children, not in
a Ballroom gown, but I put on a very pretty dress, put the hair up, put the make-up
on and the children were so excited and that's your bit back... That keeps your
feet on the ground when you see a five year old little boy struggling in his zima-frame
to get a medal. Because of our success it takes us the places like that and it makes
you appreciate what you've got.
Dancesportinfo : Probably you have people envy you your position, achievements
and your ability to be relatively normal...
Karen: We didn't tell you of an alien living upstairs, did we! [laughing
]
Dancesportinfo: It's fantastic and I cannot just consider you normal! Marcus,
you just came back from Vilnius where you judged the World Championships...
Marcus : We are on that roller coaster ride if you like; it's the world of
Ballroom dancing! You just grow with it. And it's great that we have a second, different
side with Henry. Because we see the world from the normal parent perspective, now.
And we're doing the same thing any parent would do, it's great! .
Karen : We are very lucky!
Marcus : We are really, really lucky to do what we did and have Henry. We
were blessed to have him, you know. It's a little wonder!
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