Anthony Hurley

Anthony Hurley is a British Standard ballroom dancer, teacher, and technical authority whose competitive partnership with Fay Saxton set the championship standard for the late 1960s and early 1970s. Born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in 1939, Hurley began ballroom dancing as a child under his mother Mikki, a stage dancer and dance school proprietor. He won a Junior Star title with Pamela Curtis in 1954 before forming a partnership with Nottingham dancer Fay Saxton. The Royal Albert Hall archive records them performing at an international championship on 30 October 1958. They married in 1960 and won the British Amateur Ballroom championship in 1961 before transitioning to professional competition.

From 1969 through 1972, Hurley and Saxton won four consecutive British Professional Ballroom championships. They also won the United Kingdom Professional Ballroom championship in 1971, 1972, and 1973. The National Dance Council of America records them as World Professional Ballroom champions in 1971 and 1972. They retired from competitive dancing in 1973, opened a teaching studio in Guildford, and continued demonstrations through the mid-1970s.

Hurley built a long second career as a teacher, congress lecturer, and writer on technique, musicality, partnering, and floorcraft. His archived articles emphasize that technique is a means of coordinating movement and music, not an end detached from dancing. His institutional influence culminated in his term as chair of the ISTD Ballroom Branch from 1992 to 1994. During his chairmanship, the Society completed a technical update and published *The Ballroom Technique*. After moving to Australia with Saxton in 2001, Hurley continued teaching and judging until announcing his retirement from both roles in 2020. A June 2025 report published under his name documents his continuing engagement with ballroom competition and history.