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World mourns death of Leeds dance legend
A LEEDS dance champion who coached Strictly Come Dancing stars Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova has died.
Tributes have flooded in from around the world for Paul Beeton, of Belle Isle, who his brother Phil has dubbed the original Billy Elliot.
As well as working with stars of the present day TV dance extravaganza, the talented hoofer – who died aged 71 – also taught the sequin-clad professionals in the original hit show Come Dancing, which ran from 1949 to 1998.
He won scores of trophies as a young man and went on to become a world-class expert and judge.
A page set up on social networking site Facebook in his memory has 250 members and his funeral will be held at Leeds Parish Church on Tuesday to accommodate around 300 people expected to attend.
Phil, of Garforth, said: "We have had sympathy messages from all over the world.
"I never knew he reached out to so many people and he's obviously done it in a way where he's been loved by everybody."
The 56-year-old said Paul had grown up in a deprived area of Leeds but when he discovered dance it transformed his life.
He said: "He was a bit like an older day Billy Elliot, coming from a rougher background than you would expect."
At 14 he was the North of England junior tap-dancing champion and by 17 he had won 22 cups and 70 medals.
He competed professionally with dance partner Judith Silvester for around 15 years, winning the British Exhibition Championships three years running and was also British Champion in Showdance and Tap.
He went on to train countless champions in Latin American dance and couples from all over the world regularly travelled to Leeds for tuition.
Mrs Silvester said Paul had taught TV favourite Darren, from Sheffield, as a youngster and continued to work with him and Lilia – Britain's finest Latin American dance couple –when they became famous.
He travelled the globe judging dance contests and was one of very few to qualify as an examiner in all theatrical and ballroom faculties.
He had also scooped an Oscar of the dance world, a prestigious Carl Alan Award, in 1997.
Paul was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year and had a kidney removed, but was given the all-clear in February.
He was made President Elect of The United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dancing (UKAPTD) for the coming year but died before he could take up office.
Despite his glamorous lifestyle he remained true to his roots, living in his mum and dad's former home in Belle Isle all his life.
David Roberts, chief executive of UKAPTD, said: "We know pupils will be travelling from every corner of the world to pay their last respects to a man who is one of the immortals of the dance world.
"His work will live for ever in the many thousands that he trained, who in turn will pass it on to future generations of dancers.
"Paul will never be forgotten but will go down in dance history as one of the greats."
Mr Beeton suffered a heart attack the night before he was set to judge the UKA's Premier Medallist event in Blackpool.
He leaves a daughter, Michelle.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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