Pamela Weight & Paul Thomas - 1956 European Championships FD (Part)

One of the reasons I started my channel so many years ago was to preserve the visual history of the sport. When it comes to Ice Dance, that history is woefully under-represented and I want to change that. It is only by looking to the past that we can fully appreciate the present and the journey it took to get to this point. Here are two of the early pioneers of Ice Dance winning the 1956 European title - Pamela Weight & Paul Thomas of Great Britain, a pair who Courtney Jones once said were the first to emphasise the dance of Ice Dance.
This was silent cinefilm footage which I have added period ice dance music to, to give a flavour of what ice dance was like in its earliest days. This was only the third European Championship in Ice Dance - the first being in 1954 which also featured Paul Thomas with his previous partner Nesta Davies where they won silver behind the late great Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy.

[@sk8rjer]

Thanks!! So glad that I received a notification of this upload! I agree and enjoyed your description of this video!! Blessings to you and yours!! I began learning to skate in 2004 at age 66 and skated up to age 72. I was able to learn 8 or 9 compulsory dances and passed the tests under the "Master" level. I so enjoyed my "second childhood"! Smile. I even competed as an adult and have about ten medals...some Gold, some Silver, and a few bronze!

[@floskate]

Thanks so much for sharing. I'm an adult skater and pattern dances are my favourite.

[@sk8rjer]

@@floskate I probably would have never learned the dances, however, my coach was a champion ice dancer...she and her partner won the Gold at the USFS Adult Championships at Lake Placid in 2006. Here's the link to my last time? on the ice: czcams.com/video/IE3tXWVQDAc/video.html

[@floskate]

@@sk8rjer thank you so much for sharing that. Loved it!

[@ddjr6673]

@@sk8rjer Just followed that link. What a joy. LOVED that. Thank you so much

[@nicholasyearsley5850]

My mum! 😍 Still alive and going strong at 89.
Thank you so much for uploading...I've shared this with her. This footage of her actually skating (rather than medal ceremonies) is the first that I've found. 👏👏

[@floskate]

Oh I'm so glad that she has seen this. I just wish I had more. There is a snippet of your Mum in an interview with Courtney Jones about ice dance aired by the BBC way back when. It was a small bit of their free dance from 1956 Worlds in Garmisch-Partenkirchen which would indicate that the BBC had the TV broadcast in their archive. As a family member and on your Mum's behalf it might be worth asking them if you can obtain a copy. Original participants and close family relatives of participants can apply I believe. Not sure whether they would cooperate but it might be worth a shot.

[@stephaniexleong]

Oh wow! 89! 😱 Paul is one of my current coaches and one of the other skaters and I were trying to figure out his age since this was in ‘56. Wow. So he’s probably in his 80s/90s now too 😳

[@Sk8Chloe1]

Thank you for uploading this. I am Paul’s student, and he has inspired me a lot. So glad to be able to see his skating when he was a skater!