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A 77-year-old army veteran from Bromborough will take the stage at the Royal Opera & Ballet in London as part of a dance company supporting people in recovery from addiction and mental health issues called Fallen Angels.
Tom, who is an unpaid carer for his wife, has been a member of Fallen Dance Theatre since 2019 and has called the weekly sessions his "self-care Thursday". He will be joined by another Fallen Angels member, Hayden 66, who lives in Wallasey, and six other community dancers for the sold-out premiere later this month.
The trio of short pieces is choreographed by internationally acclaimed Russell Maliphant and called Holding Light. It explores different perspectives on recovery journeys. The dance group has been rehearsing at the University of Chester dance studio ahead of their highly-anticipated London performance, and they'll return to Merseyside after with shows at the Liverpool Everyman and Storyhouse Chester.
Dance is familiar to Tom, who has spent his life ballroom and disco dancing. It is also his third appearance with the dance group at the London venue. He joined Fallen Angels after experiencing what he describes as a "breakdown or breakthrough" on his 70th birthday.
"I had an out-of-the-blue flashback to something that happened to me aged seven," he said. "Which, after some counselling, led to a diagnosis of complex PTSD."
Tom has said the sessions are the only time he has alone away from being a carer, as his daughter is a busy teaching assistant who can't always be there to care for her mother and his wife. He added, "My daughter is a very busy teaching assistant but has permission to keep her phone on when I'm dancing in case my wife needs anything. It's my time for me."
Tom also found other interests. After retiring, he started an art degree at Wirral Met College in Birkenhead, and left with a 2:2.
Meanwhile, London-born Hayden, who studied at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in his mid-20s in Twickenham, will have his first performance at the Royal Opera & Ballet. He started his professional career later, which is almost unheard of for many dancers.
Sadly, Hayden's dance career was cut short when the first Gulf War ended his offer at a top dance company in Cuba.
"It broke me really," he recalled. "Through no fault of my own, I had to leave Cuba, a place I loved and where I had met and danced with a young Carlos Acosta. I came back to London, but I had lost my passion for dance. After a few years, I stopped doing it altogether."
Hayden found himself working in social care and catering after his dance career ended. However, his passion was reignited when he moved to the Wirral in 2015 and discovered Fallen Angels through the Spider Project recovery support service. Hayden had abandoned his dancing shoes for almost 20 years, until he felt "back on track". He has been a member of the group for two years now.
He felt like himself again as he danced, and watching other members of the group be so expressive still "brings [him] to tears".
Most performers at the company have no formal training in contemporary dance, although two professional dancers, Arianna Sansone and Jo Freeman, will join the group on stage.
Fallen Angels was founded in Chester in 2011 by professional dancers Claire Morris and Paul Bayes Kitcher, a former Birmingham Royal Ballet soloist with lived experience of addiction and recovery.
If you want to catch the show, Holding Light is at Storyhouse Chester on 24 September at 7:30 pm, with tickets priced £8-£12. The Liverpool Everyman performance takes place on 17 October at 7:30 pm, with tickets at £15. The performance is an hour long.
