Neil Jones: "Too many cooks spoil the broth"

Rozhovor s Neilem Jonesem v přepisu originálního znění...

Blackpool, 02.06.2010

Question: We are in Blackpool, so let's start about Blackpool... In 2008, You finished in the '24', in 2009, You made the final and placed 6th. And this year – bronze medal, that is quite a good progress! If someone had told You two years ago: „In two years, You will be amoung the top three“, would You have believed it?
Neil: No, actually, for me it is like a really great feeling, because for many years I've been trying. I was in the „48“ for a long time and then in the“24“, once second in Rising Stars in Blackpool, so for a long time I was always pushing. And Zoran and others, which all of them are very good friend of mine, when I was in the 24, very close to the semifinal, he was only in the 48. You know, so I was seeing all these people passing me all the time and it was a little bit of frustration. And then, when I got together with Ekaterina, we had some good connection, and it felt good, it felt something special. And after UK, where we'd gone, everything came together somehow. Luck, maybe some special moment but if someone would have said to me: „Ok, in two years You will be third“, I would be thinking: (ironically) “Yeah, that would be very nice, but.. Yeah, You think..?“ (laugh)

Question: It seems like You and Katya have created a very successful partnership. How did You get together?
Neil: Actually, we got together here in Blackpool two years ago. What happened was, that I was dancing that year with another partner, Veronica. We tried since UK to dance together and, actually, after we finished, the next day, we sat down together and we said: „It's not gonna work“, we both decided together, what is quite surprising in the dancing, because normally in the dancing everyone is like „Eh, this person's done this, I don't want to dance with her anymore..“. Actually, together we just said „No, we are not right for each other“. And then, my teacher Richard Porter, he says to me „Oh, I have a very good girl for You, You need to try her“, and how I am as a person, I don't care about someone's result. Some people only try with somebody who has a similar or higher result. And I said „Ok, we can try.“ We had a look together and Richard just said „Ok, people will either love you together, or hate you together. It's just that. “ And we both said „Ok, let's try it“, because we just are crazy as each other (laugh).

Question: So You had not known each other before?
Neil: No, I've never met her. And she had heard of me, but has never seen me dance. So, we just met each other in Blackpool, had one try out and we said: „Yeah, I think we can do this, yeah..“

Question: You've already mentioned Richard Porter, who are Your other coaches?
Neil: Richard Porter is my main coach, sometimes we have Graham Oswick and Fletchers, but we like to get just a little bit of information, technique to help us with some problems. But Richard is the main coach, we do everything with him. I've had many other teachers in the past, that had helped me really, I feel like they have put me in this position as well, but just one thing I know is, there is a lot of information, a lot of good teachers, but You have to keep to like one teacher, because when You have too many, I don't know, if we have the same in England: „Too many cooks spoil the broth“, this is why we try to keep just one main teacher, and from the others, we get just a little bit of extra information..

Question: Tell us about Your practice routine, please. How does it look like?
Neil: Everyway.. (laugh) We don't really have a tight schedule, because we are travelling a lot – to Russia, to Hong Kong, so we try to set up the sudden plan before major competitions, that we do some fitness, like a little bit more with stamina. We are working on a little exercises all the time, dynamical stuff or connection, it's not like: „Ok, we do this on Tuesday..“, its never really like that, we get a lot of different information and we just try to add as much practice as we can.

Question: Besides dancing, what do You do? Do You study, work, teach..?
Neil: No, I do some teaching abroad, because in the UK, we are not allowed to teach. It's just a regulations we have in England, that no Amateurs are allowed to teach. So we do mainly shows, we have money from shows. But I don't do any other work or studies. I don't have time for anything else.

Question: The next question will be a bit more like female question, so it would be more on Katya...
Neil: Oh, doesn't matter, I can sit on this other chair and answer for her.. (laugh).

Question: It's about Your general style - image as well as dance performance. It's very unique and very original. Are those Your ideas or does someone take care of it?
Neil: She's so clever in this, I'm like, as a partner, I really trust her in everything she's doing and she get it from this simple things, like from magazines.. She looks in a magazine and she looks at pictures and if she sees something she likes, she looks and thinks „Oh, maybe I can do this position, this movement, she takes all of her inspiration from everything. Also together we like to look at shapes. If we see in a building some shape we like,we both add this into our movement, because we look like „Oh, this would be cool!“ Sometimes she also tends to me and says „Neil, what do You think, I should do on this?“ And somehow I dance a women as well (laugh). So, I'm there usually in the position saying „Or maybe You can do this“, but I never tell her what to do, you know, because she's a woman, I'm not a women. As I said, she is very clever in this.

Question: Do You have some role-model, someone who inspires You? In- or outside the danceworld...
Neil: No, actually I've always thought about this. Because whenever I've heard this, like question to many athlets, I've always thought to myself „Do I actually have a role-model?“ And I think I've never had like role-model and my inspiration and everything comes from everything – everything and everybody. So if I hear something or I see something, I always try to take from it anything. Like I said, we both look even architecture or something like that and we think how can we do this. Maybe also because I really love art, so I take a lot from this, but I can't say like Michael Jackson and this or this person. There are some things I like in them, but I don't like everything in them. I like from everyone things and maybe that's what makes it different.

Question: What are Your next goals? European?
Neil: Yeah..
Question: Stuttgart?
Neil: No, we won't be dancing Stuttgart. We don't do too many competitions. For me it's not about competition, for me it's about to see a picture, where I want to be as a dancer, as a performer. And to come into a room like this and take the whole audience and have them behind You, that's always my goal. If I have champion like Zoran next to me, even if he's a good friend of mine, I want the audience that they don't clap for him, I want them to clap for me. Always. And what happened especially with Stuttgart... It comes into a period, where, if we say we danced UK, we have a four month period into Blackpool, so we can do a lot of improvement in this period and then again, from Blackpool, we can make a lot of changes. And if we danced Stuttgart, it gets in the way of our training. Because we all of a sudden have to get ready for major competition again. So we always miss that competition, to get ready for the International again. Because for me, not because I'm English, because a long time I was living not in England, but for me still this 3 events are the biggest. Apart from this year, the ones where everybody always turned up to. So You would always know, who is the real World Champion, who is the best.

Question: Do You feel any difference, when the russian and italian couples aren't here in that amount as usual?
Neil: No. For me, like truthfully, I miss some couples, you know, I miss Ferdinando from Italy, Nino from Italy, of course You miss the top 2 from Russia – Silde and Zaytsev. For me, that's about it. There's a lot of talent in between, but there is also a lot talent still here now. So I think You can say numbers, but when You come in, You don't go like: „Oh my god, the competition is so much smaller!“ It still feels quite busy and the atmosphere is still great. So.. I think it's a big shame for the countries to be doing this to their couples, to stop them from dance.

Question: Can't agree more. Neil, thank You very much for a pleasant chat and let it be gold next year!
Neil: Thank You, we'll try! :-)

_(mh)