Biographies

Belinda Williams

Being born into a theatrical family, Belinda started dancing before she was three, her first teacher being her mother, Julie Morton.

She trained at the Arts Educational School in Tring During that time she performed with the Zurich Ballet as part of the (Rudolph) Nureyev Festival at the London Coliseum, She appeared in The Nutcracker with the London Festival Ballet at the Royal Festival Hall, during which time she performed the ‘Chinese Dance’ on BBC TV’s Nationwide programme. She also made child appearances in commercials for McDonalds and Walkers Crisps.

After gaining two ‘A’ levels in Theatre Studies and Communication Studies at Amersham College and having her first bout of teaching dance under her belt, she successfully auditioned for top choreographer Ray Cornell and so set sail on the Cruise ships. She worked a very happy eighteen months for Ray, travelling the oceans from Europe to South America, and then on to Miami to join Carnival Cruise Lines sailing the Caribbean.

Belinda then continued her teaching at the Julie Morton school of Dancing whilst also adding various television appearances to her C.V., but still having the performing bug, she spent the next the next six years working on the Entertainment staff of a holiday company. As well as appearing in their shows she also became Dance Captain, Assistant Choreographer and Entertainments Manager. It was at this holiday centre that she met her future husband, the entertainer Russ Williams and they were married in 1998. She finally had to hang up her performing shoes due to a knee injury and after lengthy surgery and recuperation, began teaching full time with her mother.

When Julie fell ill, Belinda took over as the ‘Big Bad Boss’, keeping the standard of the school as high as when Julie was teaching. She and Russ are proud parents of Katie, who also dances with the school. It is great that Belinda will continue teaching at the school.

Bill Morton

Bill was an actor and stage manager in the theatre when he met dancer Julie Mellon, as she was then, and they married in 1964. Bill left the theatre in 1966 to join BBC Television, behind the camera, and during the next twenty-five years he worked on a huge variety of major productions, including shows that are still popular today. These include Monty Python, The Good Life, The Two Ronnies and Fawlty Towers, to name but a few.

As a television director in the entertainment field, Bill left the BBC in 1989 to go freelance, directing events like the BAFTA Awards and working on series with, among others, Rolf Harris, Noel Edmonds and Denis Norden. He spent ten years with Bruce Forsyth as his television director, on the Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right and Bruce’s Price is Right.

Alongside this career, Bill helped with the management of the Dancing School, particularly on the various Displays. Following Julie Morton’s untimely death in 2000, he took over as full-time administrator and is immensely proud of the way Belinda and Jennie kept the school going, maintaining the high standards their mother had established.

After directing Denis Norden’s final show in May 2006, Bill decided to retire from his television work and, having reached his 70th birthday, is now passing on the management of the Dancing School to a younger generation.