This is a tribute written by Hazel. Alan and Hazel were World Latin Champions, naturally trained ny Nina. (Reprinted courtesy of the ISTD)

She Reigned Supreme

Hazel Fletcher remembers the one and only Nina Hunt

Nina Hunt was a renowned competitive coach who won a Carl Alan Award in 1968 and first served on the Latin American Faculty Committee in the spring of 1964. Nina died on the 4th July 1995. Here, Hazel Fletcher gives a vivid insight into Nina’s life.

Janet Clark

Nina, with fellow committee member and competitive coach, the late Sydney Francis

Nina Hunt was indisputably the most successful Latin American competitive coach of all time. Her record, which is listed below, will never again, I am sure, be challenged by another coach. Nina belonged to an era where her star couples trained only with her, which is most unique. Success in dancing is generally calculated by how many Championship titles a dancer has to his or her credit, if it were possible to count the number of couples that Nina trained solely to become top Champions, her record would be so staggering, it is almost unbelievable. She reigned supreme for over three decades.

In the 1960's there were very few top coaches that developed the best dancers of that time. It was quite common for many dance school teachers to ‘send on’ their protégées ‘up to London’. The top coaches of that time were mainly Walter Laird, Sydney Francis, Doris Lavelle and Nina Hunt. It was known amongst the young amateurs that if you wanted to be successful one or more of these names had to be part of your plan for progression. Nina's name became ‘the name’ synonymous with winning.

Nina had been responsible for training the late Bill and Bobbie Irvine in their bid to win the World Professional Latin Championship. The first of those titles came within a year of their first lesson with her. We knew of this before we went to our first lesson. The hopes and ambition that we had as dancers under Nina's guidance were not only realised but exceeded to highs that we had not known we were able to reach.

Nina was a former pupil and later wife of ISTD Fellow and Examiner Dimitri Petrides. It was Dimitri who gave her a complete understanding of the technique and then encouraged her to teach. She became a brilliant coach with a great eye for what was successful and how to achieve that in her couples. She was an excellent choreographer and had the ability to poach ‘moves’ from other forms of dance and indoctrinate them into the Latin dances. She was also a great mentor and motivator. She became totally involved with all the couples that she took on. When we made the decision to make Nina our sole coach everything changed. From that moment on, as many other couples found, her focus on our career was immense. Nina decided what competitions her couples should attend; she got involved in their grooming in every detail, their diet was discussed and she even versed her couples on how to walk onto the floor and where to dance. From her tiny studio in Balham she produced so many giants in the competitive world of dance.

This is a list of the World Champions she coached:

Professional
Bill and Bobbie Irvine MBE: 1961, 1966, 1968
Rudi and Mechtild Trautz: 1967, 1969 – 1971
Wolfgang and Evelyn Opitz: 1972
Hans-Peter and Ingeborg Fisher: 1973 – 1975
Alan and Hazel Fletcher: 1977 – 1981
Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather: 1984 – unknown

Amteur
Karl and Ursula Breuer: 1961
Dr Jurgen and Helga Bernhold: 1962, 1966 and 1967
Robert Taylor and Anita Gent: 1964
John and Betty Westley: 1965
Peter and Hanni Neubeck: 1968, 1970 and 1971
Raymond Root and Francis Spires: 1969
Alan and Hazel Fletcher: 1972 and 1973
Ian and Ruth Walker: 1975
Jeffrey Dobinson and Debbie Lee London: 1977
David Sycamore and Denise Weavers 1978 – 1979
Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather: 1981
Marcus Hilton and Karen Johnstone: 1982, 1983
Horst Beer and Andrea Lankenau: 1985
Bryan Watson and Claudia Leoni: 1991

This is only the beginning of a list of a myriad of pupils, many were National Champions, not forgetting the success of Sammy Stopford formerly with Shirley and later with Barbara McColl and then also Corky and Shirley Ballas.

Nina lived for dancing and for her family; she had no other interests or hobbies. She would work up to 13 hours per day and still have the time and enthusiasm after to talk about dancing over a coffee with one of her protégées that she invited home. She took coaching beyond the realms, a woman of great emotion and pride in her couples, yet never over praising their efforts, so thereby instigating a greater effort to improve.

On a personal level our relationship developed beyond pupil and teacher, we became friends. Often on a weekend when she had to travel we would look after her young son Ian, he became like family to us. She would frequently just pop in for a coffee when I was working at home on one of my dance costumes. She would express concerns about whether the costume was special enough, infuriating at the time, but like the lessons, her attitude made me even more conscientious and the end result was better for her input.

Although Nina had never been a top line competitor herself, the success that she had through her pupils must have given her tremendous pride. Whilst she was immersed in a couple, who were under her wing, at the top of their field they were like family to her. When they retired it was like offspring leaving the nest, she was sad. When we decided to retire we asked for her confidence that only she and Bill and Bobbie Irvine would be aware of our forthcoming retirement after our last World's in London in 1981. Nina shed a tear that night, but she kept the secret allowing our official retirement two weeks later in Blackpool to be a big surprise.

We are aware that even now we may quote something in a lesson to a pupil that had been gleaned from Nina some 27 years ago, probably not with the same words, as the fashions and styles have changed in Latin, but with the insight that we learned from the one and only Nina.

Hazel Fletcher