Apr May 2010 - Double Toe Times

Clogging With a Princess
England’s Real-Life Billy Elliott Jackie Toaduff shares his journey from the
coal mines to clogdancing championships and dancing with Pricess Margaret
by David Whetstone
Long before the film Billy Elliot hit the big screen,
a miner’s son from England’s County Durham had
made headlines around the world for his clog dancing
prowess. David Whetstonetalks to Jackie Toaduff
whose autobiography is just out.
Stardom was different in Jackie Toaduff’s day,
particularly if you were brought up in an English
village where gainful employment meant the coal
mines.
Jackie, from Stanley, was a clog dancer. And if that
doesn’t sound X Factor glamorous, it earned him, at
21, a dance with one of the world’s most radiantly
beautiful women.
He has never forgotten his first dance with
Princess Margaret in 1955,
when he was still working
down the Louisa pit while
making a name for himself
with clogs on.
He had performed a few
times at the Royal Albert
Hall but this was a step up
– an invitation to dance for
the Princess at the annual
ball of the English Folk Dance
and Song Society in Regents
Park, London.
“She was the most beautiful
person I had ever seen in
my life,” he recalls in his
autobiography, Coaldust to
Stardust.
“She had such a dazzling smile
that it actually took my breath
away, and she was so tiny.”
Jackie danced, Princess Margaret
applauded and everyone joined
in. She beckoned him over to
speak. “I thoroughly enjoyed your
performance,” she said. “You’re so fast it’s as though
you have batteries in your shoes!”
She requested a dance and Jackie, swallowing
hard, agreed.
“I was terrified that I might stand on her dainty feet
but fortunately I didn’t and at the end of the dance, the
Princess wanted us to dance again – and this time we
did perfectly.”
Afterwards he sat on the dais with the Royal party.
And after that he returned to Cricklewood where he
was lodging with ex-Stanley resident and family friend
Doris Lyons.
All the way back he was practising what he was
going to tell the lads at the pit on Monday.
Doris was not amused at his late arrival, nor his
excuse that Princess Margaret had stayed at the ball
later than expected and he had been dancing with
her. “Oh, Jackie Toaduff,” she roared. “Don’t bloody
well lie to me, you bugger.”
Next morning, knocking on his bedroom door with
an armful of the national newspapers, she had to eat
her words. “Oh, pet, I’m sorry...”
A report of the Princess’s dance
with a miner was front page news.
Jackie, who is now 76, is
convinced Billy Elliot is based on
his life story. Billy was a ballet
dancer, Jackie danced in clogs,
but the obstacles they overcame
were not dissimilar.
Jackie remembers his mother
as a popular woman with an
infectious sense of humour.
But boys dancing? That was
quite another matter.
Jackie first saw tap dancing
at five years old when he
witnessed a neighbor’s
daughter having a lesson
from Jocka Wilson, an old
chap with a flat cap who
smoked and danced at the
same time.
Jackie copied the steps
and one day Jocka told his
mother he was a natural
and should become a pupil.
“We don’t want any dancers in this house,” Sarah
Toaduff replied.
“He’s a lad and when he’s old enough, he’s going
down the pit like his father. Dancing is for lasses; lads
don’t dance.” But Jackie couldn’t help himself. Once,
on a day trip to Redcar when he was six, he sneaked
off to enter a children’s talent contest on the
Continued on page 14
12 www.doubletoe.com The Doubletoe Times Magazine of Clogging