| Biography | Peggy Spencer MBE was a British professional ballroom dancer, choreographer, competition adjudicator and organiser.
Peggy married Jack Spencer in 1940, and had two children, Helena and Michael. The marriage was not successful and they divorced in 1947. Peggy formed a close relationship with her brother-in-law Frank, whom she eventually married in the late 1960s.
For many years, she and Frank (a musician and a top-class dancer in pre-war days) ran the Royston Ballroom in Penge, South London. Peggy was a regular TV dance commentator and populariser of dance. She was a leading coach for competitive Latin dancers, and was influential in both Ballroom and Latin American branches of the ISTD. Her ballroom formation team was twice invited to dance for the Queen at Buckingham Palace. For 40 years her teams appeared in the Come Dancing TV programme.
Peggy choreographed a dance sequence for a Beatles video (Your Mother Should Know), and the tango for Rudolph Nureyev in the film Valentino. She was a choreographer for the Burn the Floor dance show, which combined ballroom dances with modern ideas. More than most things she enjoyed appearing on the BBC Television children's show Blue Peter, where she brought young dancers from her classes to demonstrate. She was the subject of the TV show This Is Your Life in 1993.
In 2004 Peggy Spencer became President of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. She has received multiple awards for her work in teaching and adjudicating in ballroom dancing, including 8 Carl Alan Awards. She and Frank were both appointed MBE in the Queen's Jubilee year 1977. |