Asha is part of SKATE NATION check out the trailer here.
December 2008
A week before departing for my Christmas family holiday in Uganda I got the first (of what would be many) calls from the BBC. They were looking for instructors to teach children to dance on skates for a TV show for summer 2009. After my family Christmas I had a short trip to Brazil planned in January with the intention of learning more dance skating from an ICP certified Brazilian skate instructor who has been a great friend for several years (Read more about this here). I thought it was very serendipitous that I would be shortly getting more dance training.

Most TV specs are of this nature, teaching someone to skate in a short space of time with usually a specific aim at the end like “a funky trick”. The dance element to this one was unusual. I have taught dance steps as part of various courses and with private clients, but never a course for children (who usually aren’t interested in learning to dance on skates). We chatted about the various different types of skating which they had obviously been researching (speed, artistic, aggressive, hockey, recreational etc). The team at the BBC were discovering how segmented each area of skating is, all with their own groups, associations, clubs and separate competitions (or not). It is a rather confusing picture when you are within the skate world and I didn’t envy them having to research this from the outside (ie not being skaters).

As with most TV briefs, they are brief at first and information is given on a need-to-know basis, often because things are in the process of still being worked out, and this was very much the case with ‘Skate Nation’ (although then it didn’t have a name). I had one quick interview before I left and returned in January to ‘urgent’ requests for another interview. Waiting in the BBC central reception, (on skates of course having skated there from Hyde Park after teaching), I hoped to learn more about the show and what they needed. I am glad that ‘interviews’ now-a-days don’t involve a suit and stressful questions, as they did in years gone by when I was in more ‘usual’ employment. The BBC office had comfy chairs, a lovely view over West London and friendly smiling people.

I had several interviews and calls over the next few weeks, each time delving more into the concept of a team based skate dance show for children aged 8-14. Made in the style of ‘Strictly come Dancing’ they were looking for possibly 10 coaches, one for each team. Besides Skatefresh instructors, Naomi Grigg, Lorraine Roberts and Tim Wheals, I couldn’t think of any other London based instructors who taught kids and who could also dance (to some extent). Many of the coaches they spoke to obviously specialised in different areas of skating (speed, aggressive, hockey etc) and none of these included dance. I was asked how I would teach dance steps to kids and had to stand up in my skates on the carpeted floor to explain how I’d do it.

The hardest obstacle it seemed was trying to sort out dates for filming and what my availability was like “for the next 4 months”. My diary does get booked up a few weeks in advance but certain events (ICP training weekends, April Amsterdam trip and a possible dance festival to attend in Spain in May) are in my diary months ahead of time and are fairly un-movable. I could see this being a problem if they wanted to use me. I was willing to shuffle things around, but it seemed they were unable to fix clear dates and this proved a tricky point until the last minute when dates were finalised and my involvement as a judge on the programme was confirmed in early March.

Skate Nation took shape. The Producer was doing her first childrens show and was the producer of Strictly come Dancing, so the format was very similar (why change a good formula?). A series of 10 shows, 2 for the Heats, 2 for an intensive ‘Skate Camp’ and 6 stadium shows where a new dance routine would be performed each time and judged by us judges and a studio audience and one team eliminated each week leaving a winner. The winning team would win a trip to the World Games in Taiwan (where many roller sports that haven’t yet made it into the Olympics are showcased). The other two judges were Camilla Delarup (www.camilladallerup.com), participant of several series of Strictly Come Dancing and winner of 2007 series with celebrity partner Tom Chambers (actor best know from Holby City). The final judge was Kevin Adams personal trainer to the stars, dancer/choreographer and fitness guru on Fame Academy. He counts touring with Cher, The Spice Girls and Take That as highs in his career. Kevin is now presenting for London Tonight and This Morning and has also written shows that he’s working on getting into production. Its a little known fact that fitness expert Kevin was a UK and European Aerobic Champion and held a world ranking of 4.

The dates were set and I did actually move the Amsterdam weekend into June, but I figured warmer weather would be preferable. Unbelievably (more universal coincidence) the unmoveable weekend in May when I had ICP 1 and 2 instructor courses booked, and the Spanish dance trip were in fact the only 2 weeks that the Skate Nation presenters were booked for another job and the show would not be filming those weekends. Obviously meant to be, I thought.

Little did I know that one of the highlights would come so early. I thoroughly enjoyed a pre filming lunch with the Producers and Camilla, where we ate fabulous mezze and got to know each other. Not owning a TV put me at a slight disadvantage over many of the conversation topics, but this added to the fun. Before filming began I was booked in to see Chloe the costume designer and stylist on Skate Nation for a shopping trip to Westfield to buy ‘outfits for the show’. I was told it would be a ‘young, sporty’ look. Which girl hasn’t dreamed of being taken shopping with a stylist (whose job it is to buy clothes) with someone else’s money?

The shopping was great fun (although it was harder than you’d think to find the right baggy combats without pockets on the thights). My ‘wardrobe’ contained bright coloured and patterned T-shirts and wildly bold vest tops along with some great jeans (baggy and tight) and some converse trainers. Leaving Westfield with more shopping bags than I’ve ever carried, Chloe offered to take some of the bags. I protested and asked her to let me enjoy my ‘Pretty Woman’ moment…..the chances of it being repeated any time soon are slim I’d say. My feet hurt more from an afternoon of shopping than skating for 10 hours.

for more info check out the BBC website