ISSUE 10 – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 – FREE
Winning dancer: Hollie Victoria Robertson The Reader’s House investigated Mr Underhills uncovered Nicki’s gardening holiday U3A Working Solutions The Women’s Centre Local MGA rebuild Barmen’s greatest escape
“I put discipline in everything I do ... When I won the MTV competition I thought: ‘that’s it, this is my path’ – and ever since I just find everything I need to do to be the best” THIS is the first time we’ve ever employed the magnificence of our town’s castle, from within anyway, as a backdrop to any story. And what an opportunity, with Ludlow’s centuries-old medieval fortifications providing a stone stage-drop for the remarkable dynamic youthfulness of dancer Hollie Victoria Robertson. I say youth, hoping she won’t mind me saying so – her twenty-year old looks and five-foot-two frame belie an actual age of thirty and a physicality that exudes pride and power. Either way, there has been an awful lot squeezed into her years to date. At just four years old Hollie was involved in both dance and gymnastics, but it became clear that one of these contrasting disciplines would have to go –
Hollie committing to gymnastics ... pursuing this, with years of dedicated training and sacrifice, until she suffered a stress fracture when she was 14. Prior to that, an exciting career had been unfolding, with Hollie travelling to places like Hawaii, and competing as an espoir gymnast at the British Championships in May 1997, where she proudly picked up bronze for the Vault. “At that moment I was told I had to stop gymnastics or I would end up in a wheelchair. That was a big shock to the system. From having no real social life, leaving Ludlow School early at the end of each day, to train and commit to my gymnastics – well, it just stopped overnight. Suddenly I had an allowance to experience life like I never had before. While
I was doing gymnastics I was very focused, I knew no better. But, with the realisation that I had to stop, everything became so hard to deal with – I was just a young girl and ‘wow I have no focus’ so I rebelled.” I must admit that, in a similar situation, I would have taken up anything that took me off my feet and helped relieve the back pain – but not Hollie, she continued her arduous training schedule, persisting with punishing flips and strenuous mid-air splits. That’s Hollie for you. With a gap year of sorts, Hollie was back – again disciplined and driven, but reverting her attention to the world of dance ... starting another wonderful journey. Initially she trained at Insteps in Ludlow with Debbie Lamb and it was here that another foundation was built;
– www.ludlowledger.co.uk –
Debbie, along with Hollie’s parents, helping to springboard Ludlow’s legendary gymnast into the legend of dancer and choreographer. “Doing gymnastics set my work ethic in a really disciplined way. I’ve had that for life. We were taught to have the discipline in the way we executed each move, and it just grew in me – I am very grateful for that. I’m also happy my mother and father pushed me down that route as it gave me the discipline for everything else in my career.” In front of the camera, expectant crowds (like the rather large one now gathered within the inner bailey of the castle on a dreary wet and cold Thursday afternoon) and audiences alike, she appears
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