Fast confession - Marek Dědík: We are not sticking to the tradition of “within a year and a day”

You are a dancer, but what about other sports. What is your skating like?

You could say I figure skate on the dance floor. Other than that, the last time I skated on a pond or ice rink was at primary school. That wasn’t figure skating but ice hockey. I haven’t actually been on the ice since then.

As a professional dancer, are there any sports you are not allowed to practice?

Skiing is of course a great danger, although I don’t know how to ski, which is in fact an advantage for me. On the other hand, you could break your leg walking to the car. I am quite sad about that, I would for example like to try windsurfing. Skiing too. I recently drove through Špindlerův Mlýn and looked at those hills. It is true that being older now, I am afraid of heights. So next winter I will probably at most learn to sledge down those hills.

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What about adrenalin?

Not at all. That is my nightmare. I once used to love the merry-go-round, but I was at St. Matthew’s Fair two years ago and I discovered that it is no longer anything for me. All I am left with now is the little train or the house of horrors. I like adrenalin, but you can forget about parachuting or bungee jumping from a bridge! I would die...       

You have just now tried a tiny bit of adrenalin. You have accepted a place on the panel of a dancing competition.

I have two licences as a competition judge and I am just finishing off the highest level one which you even study at university. So I went back to school in Olomouc. I have to take exams in physiology, biomechanics and things like that to enable me to act as a judge in the top-tier competition which is the National Championships in this country and then foreign competitions.

The study interests me. You mentioned physiology and biochemistry. What else do you study there and how are you doing?

We have a specialisation which is standard and Latin. We learn figures and specialist technique there. We don’t just go there and dance. It might look that way, but we have books where the steps are described, how many degrees, how to count time and things like that. They test us on that. Then there is the second part which takes place at the university, and this includes subjects which are important for sports: sports coaching, biomechanics, physiology, anatomy and all of those examinations.

If you are taking anatomy, are you also learning Latin?

I am. I should be finishing this year. I will be writing my diploma thesis, but I keep putting it off because I have a lot on at work. But I want to get it finished by the end of summer because I have a sort of commitment – I want to get my gun licence. So I would like to finish it by the end of the summer. I have a title so far. I have chosen scoring because scoring is changing in ballroom dancing in our country, it is a sort of revolution. We are trying out a slightly different type of scoring similar to figure skating, where things are divided into technique, choreography and similar sub-sections. Until now we just selected couples, we sent them into the next round with a cross next to their names. In the final, we proposed rankings – number one the best, number six the worst, because it was mostly the six best couples who made it through to the final. That is changing now, so we will see how it all turns out. 

How is it possible to handle all that? I assume your university course is distance learning...

Yes, it is distance learning, I didn’t go to all the lectures, I couldn’t manage that really due to Star Dance. I will of course have to retake some lectures now, draw up various seminar papers and things like that. Things are a little more difficult in that respect, but it is manageable during the evenings. So instead of enjoying some relaxation, I look at books or write something.

It might come in handy for you to get your gun licence beforehand for those exams.

That is a good idea you know. I could start with that, if they didn’t want to let me in or if there were any problems. (laughs)

Is shooting a hobby or are you doing it for other reasons too?

I like the adrenalin and danger. I got it as a Christmas present from my girlfriend, so a dream is coming true for me. I have done the course and again I have to take some exams. I go shooting regularly, once a month, it’s not quite as easy as it looks. And shooting a moving target like you see in action films, that is something I know nothing about. I am glad that the target is standing still and that I can hit it.

You were given a present, making a dream come true. Did you pay her back by making hers come true finally asking your girlfriend to marry you after all these years? Or was it spontaneous?

I think I have made her dream come true by doing that. She probably expected it a little, but didn’t know when. We were on holiday beforehand and she probably expected it at Christmas, but that didn’t happen. She had to wait until New Year’s Eve. We are not sticking to the tradition of “within a year and a day”. We have been together for six years.

Every woman wants a beautiful big wedding. Is that the case with you?

I personally think that is her dream, but she says it isn’t. I don’t know how things will turn out. We each have different ideas. We will have to find the right compromise.

What about your plans for the future? We have talked about your personal life, but what about your career? Have you got a sort of backup plan in your studies, that you might want to do that professionally? Or are you for example planning to open a restaurant?

We only met ten minutes ago and you seem to know me already. Another sort of dream of mine is to own a café, a little one. But that is a long way off and I don’t know whether it will ever happen at all. My plans are of course work – thanks to Star Dance I am now trying to combine both public courses and also my couples and the professional side to our sport which I do on a high level. I am now off to teach at a large international camp in Slovakia, I have another international camp in the summer which is in Romania. I teach professional couples every day and try to combine this with what the offers I received after Star Dance. It is quite demanding. I have a plan from Monday until the end of the week and on top of that we have a lot of performances now, so the occasional weekend is also taken up. I don’t intend to stop for the time being. I want to carry on as long as my health still allows.

Roztančíme Česko now awaits you. What will you be investing in those children’s future? Are you for example planning to take them under your wing in any way and to teach them or is street dance also something you know nothing about?

It is not completely foreign to me, I like street dance, I love that music and freedom and body isolations there. For us in dancing, that is understood to be the very highest level possible. Isolations in the body form the basis of dance, that is why I like that. One of the things I like about this project is that it comes to small towns. I expect to find some talented dancers in those small towns. I think that there will certainly be some talented people coming out of the first year that will dazzle us all. If they then want to get involved with dance sport, then I will be happy about that.