Meeting Jane Grenville

Before this weekend i'd just left Jane Grenville's inbox alone for a few weeks. She'd confirmed her interest in the event a month or so ago and i'm very enthusiastic to bring her in as part of the show. She's another face on campus that's recogniseable even though she's not a student. Technically, some might say it's her job to be known by the student body as her title in Heslington Hall is Pro-Vice Chancellor for students. I'd certainly heard of her, and heard many things about her, but what was I expecting when I walked into the driveway of Heslington Hall (something i'd never done before) dropping by to teach one of the most senior members of the university how to dance? To be honest, I didn't really know.

So up I went, and into reception. Heslington Hall doesn't really look much like the rest of campus, and there's a feeling in there of being in a homely retreat away from students, even though it's the most appealing building on campus to look at; it's still a bit of a hideout. After getting so used to being around people in my own generation all the time, it was one of those feelings that you're suddenly a lot younger than everyone around you but I was playing it cool. I was respecting the place, I had a meeting with Jane Grenville at 12:30 and my name's Luke Malkin, M-A-L-K-I-N.

Perhaps I should let you know what part Jane Grenville's playing in York Come Dancing. She'll be part of the demonstration section while we count audience votes, but we haven't let her get away without competing. She'll be Waltzing with myself while Sarah Cook (Ed-Lewis Smith's Partner) will be dancing with, wait for it, a porter.

It's topical you see, and all in good fun. You, the audience will get to cheer for who you think did the best performance after hearing a few words of what the judges have to say. Porters and Jane Grenville are the most recognisable non-student faces on campus right now- so they're the ideal people to get involved with this event. There's competition for me too, as Sarah's my ballroom partner so i'm also playing for pride.

Jane and I had a grand total of 20 minutes learning how to waltz. I was delighted to find out that she already knew waltz steps, and we put about 20 seconds of a routine together- it was progessing well and we should have a lot of fun on Sunday. After this 20 minutes we went on a hunt around the building asking people to buy tickets. We sold 2 based on our performance, and we even felt confident enough to go down to reception where there's a bigger floor and show off what we'd learned so far. It was bizarre but it was also a lot of fun. I'll update you with how our next practice on Thursday goes, until then- make sure you've bought your ticket!