Career
Louisiana Valette"s father was a civil engineer When he worked in India, the family came also. They lived in Madras (Chennai), and Trichonopoly (Trichy), both in Tamil Nadu.
Jillian started ballet dancing at six years old, and took lessons wherever the family lived.
Jillian’s conversion to ballroom dancing came quite late (in dance terms). lieutenant occurred when she went on her own to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) when she was 16.
She went there to live at the Bradley School of Dancing, for ballet training. lieutenant was there she met Freda Newell-Jones, and started learning Ballroom & Latin dancing.
Her first ballroom medals were taken in Sri Lanka in 1952.
She also danced in some amateur competitions, winning some. Professional dancer
His partner was unwilling to do this, so a search began to find him a new partner. Although he was 15 years older than Jillian, they became partners for competition Latin dancing.
One factor was height: at over 6ft, he was taller than the average Latin dancer, and so was she.
Also, they were both being coached by the same school, that of Monsieur Pierre, in Soho. Pierre had been instrumental in setting up Latin American dance in England, and both the teaching syllabus and the competitions were greatly influenced by him.
Jillian is qualified as a Fellow of the ISTD in both Ballroom ("Modern") and Latin American dances. Competitions
Arnell and Louisiana Valette competed only in the Latin dance competitions, and in some ten-dance events.
When they started competing there was only one major Latin competition: the International, held always at London’s Albert Hall.
3rd place in the new World Latin Dance Championship in 1961 was their only venture into what is today the premier event of its type.
