There’s a sense of understated grandeur about the ballroom of the Apollo Dance Club in Moreton.
The building, formerly a roller rink which played host to Merseybeat icons like The Beatles and The Undertakers, is now home to Merrall’s Dance Centre, which, over the past five decades, has established itself as something of an institution in the ballroom world.
The trophy-laden shelves allude to generations of success - to a catalogue of victories and, of course, copious amounts of glitter and fake tan. There’s a cacophony of shoes on wood as a flock of young dancers take to the floor amid the first strains of a cha-cha rumbling through the speakers.
Manning the music desk is Joan and Alan Merrall - or Auntie Joan and Uncle Alan - as they’re more affectionately known by the scores of people who’ve learned to dance here. The couple met when they were just 15 years old, and after 62 years of marriage, they’re still dancing.
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“When I met Alan, he could already dance,” Joan told the ECHO, “he’d been doing it since he was around seven or eight.
"When I first started, I went to a beginners class with my friend and we wanted to learn so we could go to a dance on a Saturday night and meet some boys, because that’s what you did in those days. “
Joan joined a dance school in Seacombe and had to take three buses from her home in Heswall to get there. When a teacher at the school asked if she’d be interested in taking dancing up seriously, she had no idea it would be the start of an enduring love affair both on and off the floor.
Joan said: “The teacher told me there was a lovely boy with very long legs like me who had been looking for a partner for a few years. He said I was ideal and asked if I’d come along to meet him one Saturday night.
“I said I’d consider it and I went home and asked my parents because things were very strict in those days. They said I could go, provided I came home on the last bus and my friend came with me. On the Saturday morning, my friend rang and said she wasn’t coming because she wasn’t going to have a partner but I begged my mum and dad to still let me go and they did.”
When the couple first started dancing together, Alan was already an experienced competitor, however, he patiently guided Joan through all of her dancing medals, even if, on occasion, he was forced to “drag her” across the floor.
The pair competed at a host of prestigious competitions, winning the British Senior Championships at the home of ballroom dancing in Blackpool in 1973 before turning professional the following year. In 1976, Alan and Joan took a huge gamble when they sold their family home to purchase a derelict dance studio in Heswall.
Joan said: “I took my parents to see the building we wanted to buy and they said: ‘you’re joking’. We had a semi-detached house at the time and they couldn’t believe we’d sell our nice house to go and live there. But we could see a future in it so we went for it.
“It was literally a shambles. There were holes in the roof and rain was coming in everywhere. But it was a detached house and we were able to have the dance school at the front of it.”
The studio opened in 1977 under the name ‘Crystal Dance Studio’; a nod to the crystal chandelier the couple bought for the entrance hall with money raised from the sale of an old pianola left at the premises.
In 1996, with demand from new clients growing, the couple purchased a second studio in Moreton. However, the family policy of always having a Merrall present at each class made juggling the two studios unsustainable, and now the school runs solely from the Moreton base.
Joan said: “We ran the two schools for a while but we were killing ourselves going up and down the motorway. It was real hard work so we decided to sell one. This one was bigger with a licensed bar as well so we put all of our knowledge into this.”
In fact, the ballroom at the Apollo is so coveted, the Merralls hire out floor space to people such as Strictly judge and Wallasey-native, Shirley Ballas, for her private classes.
A family ethos remains integral to the ongoing success of Merrall’s. Joan and Alan’s daughter Debbie, whose professional dancing career has taken her all over the world, teaches at the studio full-time, while Debbie’s daughter, Ashlea, also takes some of the classes.
In 2008, Joan and Alan were the recipients of a Carl Alan Award. Dubbed ‘the Oscars of the dance world’, the accolade has previously been bestowed on Strictly legends such as Sir Bruce Forsyth and Dame Darcey Bussell. Despite being held in such high regard in dancing circles, Merrall’s has encountered a slump in demand for ballroom lessons in recent years, with the coronavirus pandemic being particularly detrimental to the school’s prosperity.
Joan said: “Covid was a killer for us. We used to have about 40 kids in our children’s classes but we’re lucky now if we get five or six. Everybody says ‘oh you must be really busy with Strictly’, but it doesn’t help to be honest.
"It’s so advanced what people are seeing that they think they won’t be able to do it whereas if they saw a beginners class here with people of all ages they might think differently. That’s what it’s about, learning to dance, not what you see on TV."
She added: “During the pandemic, the school was completely closed for nine months. We weren’t allowed to do any private lesson work and we lost a lot of students which was really sad.”
While classes might not be as packed as they used to be, the children and adults that still come here love it just as much as ever. Lorna has two children at the school - George, 14, and nine-year-old Sydney - and has adopted the unofficial title of ‘head dance mum’.
“For competitions, people will buy plain dresses, and then I’ll put all the diamonds on them,” Lorna told the ECHO.
“I’ve literally sat there for hours with little diamantes. My husband has walked into the living room before and said it's like having all these little eyes staring at him because there’s loads of diamantes all over the floor.
“We have what we call a hair, spares and repairs bag which is full of everything you could possibly need. It’s got Calpol in case any of the kids are feeling poorly, a sewing kit, scissors - everything you could want.
"I must go through about 1,000 safety pins a year because every single kid comes to me so that their individual numbers and team numbers can get pinned on at competitions.”
For the students at Merrall’s, the pinnacle of the dance calendar is an annual competition at the Norbreck Castle hotel in Blackpool. Whilst American TV show ‘Dance Moms’ is a testament to the perils of coming up against teammates, Lorna insists all of the children from the Moreton school are “like a family”.
She said: “It's so lovely the way the kids are with each other. We went to a competition in Gloucester last December and it was like my room was the party room.
"They all just piled in and had the best time. They just get on so well with each other. They are so supportive of each other and are so close. They’re the best kids in the world and like a family, which isn’t always the case at other dance schools.”
Lorna has been part of the furniture at Merrall’s for the past seven years, and says that giving up a lot of her free time to cheer on her kids is definitely worth the sacrifice.
She said: “The dance teachers are so busy that if I can just offer a bit of extra support, it's great. I’ve learned as I’ve gone on and picked up tips from other mums that have been and gone. I wouldn’t have it any other way, I absolutely adore each and every one of the kids. They’re just fabulous.”
Back at the Apollo Dance Club, Joan and Alan watch on fondly as a handful of adults, many of whom have been dancing here since they were old enough to walk, take to the floor for their weekly practice class. It’s evident that the couple’s presence still looms large over every aspect of the school.
As the music starts up, Joan tells the ECHO: “We both still teach but we are taking a back seat now and Debbie is taking over most of the children’s classes for us. Our great-granddaughter is nine months old now and we were at a competition on Sunday where she was sat on someone’s knee.
"Every time the music came on her hands and feet were moving so she’s definitely got it in her!”
So while Strictly’s mammoth viewing figures might not translate into swarms of new customers, there can be little doubt that Merrall’s is an institution that shows no signs of hanging up its dancing shoes.
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