Built in 1894, Blackpool Tower has stood tall on the Fylde coast for 130 years and has since become one of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom.
But the tower is particularly special to Maxine Cunliffe.
A grainy photograph taken on the pier in 1973 shows a teenage Maxine smiling widely as she is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, leaving her hometown of Blackpool far behind to become a ‘Bluebell Girl’ in Paris.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, the teenager headed to the French capital’s famous Folies-Bergère to work as a dancer, directed by Margaret Kelly, also known as ‘Miss Bluebell’.
Maxine, now 67 and a grandmother, returned to Blackpool to recreate the photo that launched her career.
Wearing blue flared jeans and a white t-shirt in both, Maxine maintained her slim figure for years.
“It all started in Blackpool,” Maxine said. ‘If I hadn’t been in Blackpool Tower Ballet I may never have been a Bluebell Girl and danced around the world!’
Maxine Cunliffe, then 16, poses in front of Blackpool Tower in 1973 before leaving for Paris to work as Bluebell Girl.
Maxine, now 67, is returning to live in Blackpool after retiring from an international dance career.
Born and raised in Blackpool, Maxine began dancing at the age of nine, accompanying her to a dance class with the daughter of one of her mother’s old friends.
Quick to learn and with obvious talent, her dance teacher took a liking to her and allowed her to attend classes for free.
Within just a few years, Maxine was dancing professionally, performing in Blackpool hotels and, at the age of 13, joining Blackpool Tower Ballet.
‘I loved it,’ he exclaims, ‘It was my life every day. We did two shows a day in the summer, and when I wasn’t on stage, I was dancing in the street on a tap board.
‘Ballet shows were also popular. We had crowds wrapped in the floodlights and the atmosphere was incredible.”
Blackpool was the perfect place for Maxine to feed her love of dance.
Established in 1894, the Blackpool Tower Ballroom is world famous for its unique dance floor and remains to this day an ideal destination for dancers.
In fact, the star-studded cast of Strictly Come Dancing leaves the Elstree Studio behind for the famous seaside ballroom each year for Blackpool Week, a highly sought-after milestone for many celebrities from the BBC show.
For Maxine, Blackpool allowed her to become a strong and determined artist. When she was 15, she had written to the Irish dancer Margaret Kelly, better known as Miss Bluebell, expressing her desire to join the world-famous Bluebell Girls in Paris.
The Bluebell Girls first appeared in the 1930s in Paris and performed throughout Europe and America.
They made their debut in Las Vegas in the 1950s, which eventually became their headquarters.
The Bluebell Girls perform before an audience at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas in 1958.
Three Bluebell Girls smile from their dressing room backstage at Le Lido in Paris in 1951. All three are wearing feather headdresses.
Maxine was one of the few dancers selected to join the legendary dance group and traveled to Paris shortly after her 16th birthday in 1973.
“I don’t know how I did it,” Maxine reflects.
“I had never left Blackpool and yet there I was at 16, taking a train to Victoria to catch a boat to Paris on my own.
“I still remember walking along the Champs Elysees with those high platforms that my mother had bought and a blue-gray miniskirt, suitcase in hand. I must have been quite a sight!’
Maxine spent just under a year as a Bluebell Girl in Paris, living in a dormitory above the Lido on the Champs-Élysées with other dancers, many of whom she is still in touch with today.
During her time as Bluebell Girl, Maxine was highly trained and dressed in feather headdresses, thongs, and high heels.
‘I have so many amazing memories and I love catching up with people I met while dancing because they often remember things I had forgotten!’
After Paris, she undertook a six-month tour of Italy, but this was cut short about four months later, when a change in the law meant that Maxine and a couple of other dancers could no longer work in the country due to their age.
However, he was not in Blackpool for long as a new contract arrived in Argentina a few weeks later.
‘The 24-hour flight to Buenos Aires was the best flight I have ever taken in my life. “We were with the Argentine soccer team and it was an incredible experience.”
The Bluebell Girls dance on the stage of the Lido des Champs-Elysées in Paris
Just four months later, Maxine’s time as a dancer in Argentina came to a horribly abrupt end.
In 1976 a revolution broke out and their dance group was escorted out of the country, packing up what they could in the middle of the night.
‘It was terrifying. There were burning cars in the streets and they pointed guns at us as we packed our things. I don’t think I’ll ever forget how scared we all were.
Once again, Maxine wasn’t back in Blackpool for long before Miss Bluebell got in touch to see if she would be interested in dancing in Hong Kong, just another stop on her world tour.
From Tokyo to Las Vegas, Damascus to Jordan and then to Barcelona, where she modeled alongside her dancing career, Maxine’s penchant for dancing took her around the world.
But she finally decided to return to her hometown of Blackpool when she became pregnant with her daughter, Karima.
‘Karima was my mother’s first grandchild and I couldn’t imagine taking her away from her, so I decided to return home.
“I never wanted to continue dancing at 30 and I always wanted to have a girl, so it was a dream come true for me.”
Maxine, now 67, still lives in Blackpool and has two older children, Karima and Lewis, who now has a daughter.
She remains in touch with many of the friends she made along the way while dancing around the world.
‘I’ve had so many amazing experiences and met wonderful people. When I see Blackpool Tower now, I think about where it all started and the years I spent dancing there that took me dancing all over the world.’