The community tea dance making a difference in Upminster

Each Thursday afternoon, the rhythmic sound of tapping feet and ballroom music drifts out of the New Windmill Hall and across Upminster Park in east London.

Inside, around two dozen couples in their 70s, 80s and 90s whirl around the hall at the weekly Havering Tea Dance.

It is run by Rita Sinclair, a woman credited with bringing the elderly community of this part of Havering together in dance - and who has just been nominated for a BBC Local Radio Make a Difference Award.

Yet when she found out she had been put up for the award, her reaction wasn't quite as one might expect.

"When I found out I was nominated I thought, 'well that's ridiculous, why?'" says Rita.

"If I was to win, I would feel more embarrassment than anything else!"

Rita was nominated by one of the regulars from her classes, Ann Honey.

"She doesn't think she deserves it, she doesn't know why anyone would think she is special, but we think she is," says Ann.

"I've nominated Rita for the award because I've seen over the years how much she does, how much she contributes to the community, the community that she's actually built, the dance community here.

"She doesn't even realise what she does half the time because it comes so naturally," she adds.

Seventy-four-year-old Rita has been a qualified dance teacher since she was 17, and says she's been dancing since she was aged five.

The tea dancers she teaches, who take a spin on the dance floor each week, are aged between 50 and 96 years old, and many of them have been coming here for decades.

"Some are sadly on their own, some have chosen to be on their own and some are couples," Rita explains.

"If someone has lost their partner, because we've got such a good community spirit here, they come back on their own because we wrap them up in our arms and bring them back into the community again."

As well as teaching dance classes, Rita fundraises for St Francis Hospice.

Rita's husband Ken had pancreatic cancer, and was cared for at the hospice twice, before he passed away there aged 76, in January 2024.

"Unless you have been in there, you don't realise exactly what they do," says Rita.

She suggested to the hospice that it could hold a Strictly Come Dancing-style fundraising event, and after Ken died, Rita became involved in setting it up for them.

The event raised more than £46,000 and a second fundraising event is planned for October this year.

Like many of us as we get older, Rita has a few knee issues that prevent her from dancing to quite the same level she once did, but that won't stop her from continuing to teach and inspire others.

"I used to be able to dance more of a competition standard," she says.

"I was telling my granddaughter that I used to be able to bend over backwards and put my head on the floor.

"I can't do that now, but all the experience and all the knowledge is still in my head. And whilst I can physically and mentally pass that on to other people, I'll do that until I can't do that any more. "

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