Though husband and wife Kurt and Sarah Viviers have only been dancing together for the past 18 months, their shared goals include not only a quickstep towards a few gold medals but a sensual rumba towards a long lasting love.
While Sarah might have a long history in dance, Kurt’s introduction to it came following their engagement. At the time the bride-to-be knew there was no way she was not going to have a spectacular wedding dance with her husband, and so they started ballroom lessons at Roosevelt Park Recreation Centre with ballroom instructor, Joey Meyer.
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Sarah has been dancing since she was six years old, starting with creative dancing, “while dancing I remember feeling a sense of, ‘I got this’, and then I realised I wanted to do something more challenging.” Through the years she adapted various types of dance to her repertoire, introducing modern, hip-hop, contemporary, and ballet.
For Kurt, it was at first intimidating, dancing with someone who had spent their whole life dancing. “Once we got engaged we thought, we’d do ballroom classes together, and I was like, ‘okay, fine, let’s do this!’,” In Sarah’s opinion, his confidence makes it seem as though he has been dancing for longer than he actually has.
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Having been born without an ear canal in his right ear, Kurt is mostly deaf, which, while dancing, has him rely on Sarah’s rhythm most of the time. “I need the music to be really loud so I can feel the base. If I can feel the vibrations, then I can hear it better,” said Kurt.
The pair would love to get into level one competitions, hopefully dancing together for many years to come. Kurt’s favourite style of dance is the rumba, because of its intimacy. While Sarah’s is the samba, as she loves the music used for this style. “Kurt is more into the words and feeling of the song, while I am more into the beat of it,” explained Sarah.
They would encourage others to dance so that they too can experience the fun of it, and it being a strong relief. “Dancing brings with it a connection. It is something that… When people are together, even though they may be with each other, they lack that connection. But when dancing you’re together in it, not distracted by five million other things,” described Kurt.
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