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People keep asking for some more details about us. So we’ve come up with a few bits and pieces about us folk at Fly Right.
About Susan:
I was born in Kent to a Scottish father and an English mother but with hordes of Scottish relatives and all my holidays spent in Edinburgh, I never really felt very English! I left England as soon as I can and got a proper Scottish education at St. Andrews, where I studied French and Russian. I've always had a passion for languages (started studying French when I was four) and am now able to indulge that further, as I recently acquired a translation qualification and most early mornings can be found translating some document or other! The other spooky thing is that I seem to have passed my linguistic bent to my children (poor kids) - Katherine's at St. Andrews, studying German and Italian, and David is studying French and German at Glasgow University. Please excuse proud parental preening moment!!!
My other real passion is dance. I began dancing at the age of 4 and did the typical dancing school thing. My mother thought it would be good for my posture to send me to classes but she did not expect me to do this for more than a couple of years.... fourteen years later, I was a qualified teacher and already had professional dance experience, having appeared in panto and spending most of my Saturday evenings performing in cabaret. Ballet, tap, modern stage (what they call "jazz" nowadays!), character dancing.... I took all the major examinations in these disciplines. If you’re interested in the nitty-gritty, I have my ISTD Advanced in Modern Stage (Highly Commended) and National (Honours), and Intermediate level Ballet and Tap. Must've cost my parents a fortune in fees and shoes and costumes! I think I was born to perform in one shape or form - a defining moment was being on stage with Tommy Steele (shameless name-dropping - and long story - ask me about it sometime!) and dancing with a huge 20-piece orchestra behind me - I've never felt so alive or in the right place! But it wasn't really on my radar to continue dance as a career (despite lots of career advisors telling me that I should not ignore the performance aspect of my personality!). So off I went to Uni to study languages. Actually, I really wanted to be a chartered accountant when I was 18. Daft or what?!
I did get to dance at Uni - I ended up joining the St. Andrews Dance Soc and performed in a couple of contemporary pieces - most notably, Area without Measure with the wonderful Royston Maldoom. There followed several productions where I choreographed numbers in musicals - I even choreographed the horses for a production of Equus (don't ask - I still have nightmares about that one - especially explaining to one of my old teachers, Sister Dolores, why I was involved in a play that involved nudity...!). Through my involvement with the Students’ Union Management Committee, I did a lot of event organisation and booking of bands. But after Uni, my dance activities got put on ice - I didn't return to dancing until about fourteen years ago, when I discovered partner dance and met Gary. And now I dance professionally and Gary and I dance nearly every day.
So life is good - I get to translate and dance every day! What a lucky girl.
About Gary:
I love life and life is for fun! I run the Fly Right Dance Company with Susan. We have been together now for over 12 years (married for the last 6) and spend virtually 24 hours a day 7 days a week together - it works for us! When we are apart I'm usually either teaching Skydiving at Skydive Strathallan or carrying out my duties as a retained firefighter at the Haddington station. We both have a keen interest in dogs, and are about to pick up a dog of our own from the Dog and Cat home, which should make an interesting addition to the household. I am embarking on a Higher Diploma course in dog behaviour and hope to work with dogs and their owners professionally in the not-too-distant future.
In the past I have enjoyed a number of sports including rugby, fencing (Scottish Schools Epee team) and Athletics. I have had various jobs and done different things that have made me who I am today - well, something has to take the blame! I have worked in retail selling everything from wheels to kilts, I have worked in the Civil Service dealing with education, agriculture and road safety. I have worked with horses and been a full-time Event rider, spending 6 months in a yard in Italy. I have been a driving instructor and have driven aid into Bosnia during the Balkan war. I have worked in Community care, have qualifications in counselling and hypnotherapy, but if I won the lottery, the one thing I would add to my dancing career would be a return to my first love - motor racing.
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