.
you’re gonna know the other side,
Ain’t nobody riding shotgun,
In the world tonight,
And when you spit you better mean it,
You better make ’em all believe it,
If you’re gonna be the one …’
Singer
I’ve lived such an amazing and varied life it would be impossible to pinpoint what exactly is the best day of my life but I’ve had some incredible experiences that will always stay with me so I have picked this story.
I woke up at 4 a.m. and looked out of my shale into the beautiful Thailand sky. It was a magnificent night so I strolled outside and sat in a hammock gazing at the stars and as dawn approached I saw the most incredible sunrise. It was truly magnificent and was made that much more beautiful by the 11 orange-robed men walking past by the shore carrying big clay pots. I thought I was dreaming – I’d never seen this before mainly because normally I’m just coming in at that time from a crazy night out. But this was different so I thought I’d go and investigate. I approached them from the side and I tried to ask a question but no one answered me, so I asked the next and the next. But still I got no answer so I thought, If you can’t beat them, join them. The only difference was I wasn’t going to be quiet, so I took my place at the back and started to sing, ‘Hey ho hey ho, tell me which way to go, 11 orange monks with their pots and curly cheeky Chico, hey ho.’ It must have looked mad.
Anyway, we journeyed into the jungle, up a hill, down a hill, through this secret passage and still no one turned around or batted an eyelid or even spoke to me. It felt so strange yet serene and then all of a sudden like a hidden treasure I saw this magnificent temple that just took my breath away. My head was going at 100 miles an hour when all of a sudden an old monk appeared in front of us. With his tattooed head he reminded me of a grandmaster out of a Bruce Lee movie, and I was a Bruce Lee nut when I was young so you can imagine how I felt. I was transfixed by him and as he was with me the other monks surrounded him. He looked at me, I looked at him, he looked at them, I looked at them and any Thai I’d learned had just vanished from my brain. I thought, OK, when in doubt smile, and boy did I smile. I must have looked like a Cheshire cat or more like a gurning monkey.
Then the monk pointed at me and said, ‘Tarzaaaaaaaan, Tarzaaaaaaaaaan.’ Then they all joined in together: ‘Tarzaaaaaaaan Laaaaaabooooooo,’ which is the Thai name for Rambo.
So I beat my chest and let out the Tarzan howl! Everyone started laughing and they all started feeling my biceps and chest in admiration. They took me in and gave me some delicious food. I asked the chief monk all kinds of questions through a translator and there was so much love and compassion coming from him.
We did a little meditation, he blessed me and I was on my way. I really felt something strange and beautiful going inside me, as though there was an electric current going through my body that lifted me and made me feel like I could fly, something I also experienced with my spiritual master Mawlana Sheikh Nazim. I just felt free, I bowed to all of them and said, ‘Cup coon macup’ (thank you) and left.
As I walked back to the beach the sun had risen into its full splendour. When I got to the sea I dived in and just contemplated life and humanity as a whole, people, cultures, creeds and faiths. One thing really remains in my mind from that day. What I learned was, when you take away the garb, the external stuff, the colour, the skin and so on, all that remains is what’s inside and inside is the heart and inside the heart is love. Love is what I felt, love is what I received and after that love is what I promised to give and live by, the best religion of all.
Later on in my life when I’d experienced so many diverse cultures from temples to mosques, ashrams, churches and synagogues and spoken to many gurus and spiritual masters, the essence of all they spoke about was love. Now I know one thing for sure: I searched for God and there was no place I could see Him until I looked deep within and realised He lives within me and that’s what that Buddhist monk was trying to tell me. God is truth and God is love, so, whoever is reading this, may love, health, joy and laughter follow you wherever you go and may you find God within too.
Peace,
Chico
Dancer
My dance partner Camilla Dallerup and I had been dancing for most of our lives. We teamed up as amateurs in 1996 and turned professional in January 2000. As a dancer you can define your success, firstly, on the results you get as a competitor (which we were doing OK with), but, more importantly, the invitations you receive to certain events around the world.
Not long after turning professional, while climbing steadily up through the ranks, our defining moment would come with an invitation to dance at a major event in Tokyo, Japan. We were young and in love and this trip could potentially make or break our career and ultimately our dance lives. This would be the chance to prove our worth and potentially set up our business for years to come. To put it into perspective, being invited to Japan as a ballroom dancer was not only a huge honour, but also a real sign of acceptance in the dance world. Big organisers in Japan only tended to invite the top-six ballroom and Latin couples to demonstrate at their events and Camilla and I were only just squeezing into the top-12 couples at the time. We had a lot to prove! Our fear didn’t end there. On arriving at the hotel, we were told the event was actually the Prince Mikasa Awards. Along with the organiser, we were greeted by five of the top-six professional ballroom and Latin dance partnerships, here to demonstrate at the same event. Not only did we have to prove our worth to the organiser and in front of HRH Prince Mikasa, but we also had to do so standing alongside pairs that had already proved themselves time and time again in this kind of situation. This was our chance!
After waking up in our hotel room, a combination of anticipation, a spring morning in Tokyo and a sense of this potentially being a sign of things to come, I decided to go for a walk and take it all in. The setting was a picturesque Japanese rock garden, typical of what you might expect to see in an old film. A pond filled by a 10-foot flowing waterfall, morning sunlight beaming through shoots of bamboo and the red leaves of Japanese maple trees, winding paths through a garden groomed to perfection and tranquillity enough to make any anxiety simply disappear. The memory of that morning will always be burned in my mind as the emotions were so high and the setting was unlike anything I had ever seen. The excitement of the day to come was building with every moment that passed, just being there was such an achievement yet the outcome could mean the difference between huge success and a long struggle ahead.
Being able to stay focused on this day was extremely important. I am not someone that particularly suffers with nerves; however, with what was at stake, I found my nerves becoming increasingly present and my confidence disappearing. It’s times like these that Camilla and I were at our best. Our strength lay in our passion for what we did, our fiery temperaments as well as our partnership and support for each other. Spending so much time together, we had an innate understanding between ourselves. We knew what each other needed at different times and felt like we could get through anything as long as we were there together. Well, we did just that and focused on the job ahead.
So time to get ready and head over to the magnificent ballroom for the first time. Walking in was one of the proudest moments I had ever felt. We were extremely excited if anxious, and we were greeted by our lovely hosts and the excited audience with such respect that we could be nothing but happy for being there. All couples were to do three dances each, one after the other over the scheduled hour, but the next petrifying news was really going to test us as professionals. We were to open the show with our Samba. Having danced all our lives, this should not have been a problem but that extra pressure was proving too much. My legs started physically shaking, as the evening opened and I stepped up to the floor as our names were announced.
The ballroom was the biggest I had ever danced