He has been teaching dance for more than 50 years, with thousands of pupils passing through the doors of his Walsall Wood studio.

But 77-year-old dance teacher Eric Rowland found himself in the spotlight when he waltzed off with a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars of the dance world.

Mr Rowland, who runs the Eric Rowland and Mandy Heath School of Dance with his wife, scooped the Carl Alan Lifetime Achievement in Dancing gong at a glittering bash held in London.

He collected his gong from the one-time face of Come Dancing, Angela Rippon. Mr Rowland said: “I have been overwhelmed by the amount of congratulations I have received from other members of the profession.

“It was a great moment for me when Angela Rippon announced me as the eventual winner of the lifetime achievement in the ballroom, Latin American and sequence branches.”
Championship

The father-of-two, who has been based in Salters Road, Walsall Wood, since around 1983, started dancing at the age of 14 in Bournemouth where he lived at the time.

Leaving school, he became a clerk and later a manager for Dolcis shoe company in Erdington while all the time fostering his passion for dance.

But in the mid 1950s, Mr Rowland bit the bullet and decided to turn professional, performing in shows and competitions across the country.

The highlight of his career was winning the Midland 15 Counties Professional Ballroom Championship three times in the mid 1970s.

Much of this success came with his first wife and dance partner Shirley Sayers, who now runs a dance school in Tamworth with the couple’s daughter Louise Rowland.

Mr Rowland says he has no intention of hanging up his dancing shoes and continues to teach hundreds of budding dancers young and old at the school he runs with wife of 15-years Mandy, aged 43.

He teaches everything from ballroom to freestyle and is president of the Guild of Professional Teachers of Dance and Kindred Arts and is a lifetime honorary executive of the United Kingdom of Professional Teachers of Dance where he is the longest active serving member of the examining panel.

He said: “I really do want to keep going and I love it all so much that I couldn’t envisage giving it up.”