DANCE partners for more than 50 years and still going strong.
That's the proud claim to fame of Oxted couple Bruce and Susan Stephen.
Now in their late 60s, the pair keep themselves young at heart by dancing several times a week.
And all that dedication and perseverance paid off last weekend when they won a national competition.
They glided away with an Open English Masters title in Weston-super-Mare, beating rivals from the likes of Holland and Sweden.
They competed in the Senior 3 (over 55) event and danced the waltz, tango, slow foxtrot and quickstep before coming out on top.
Its a long way from when they first met as teenagers at a dance school in Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia) back in 1963.
Mr Stephen said it was "more or less love at first sight", and then they became committed dance partners, entering their first competition the following year. In the ensuing years they represented Rhodesia in ballroom dance contests, nationally as well as in South Africa and Britain.
They retired from competitive dancing in 1979 to raise a family, eventually settling in Silkham Road, Oxted, in 1995.
The couple returned to dancing in 2010.
Mr Stephen said: "By that stage our twin daughters were off our hands and we had recovered from different illnesses.
"We quickly realised we were enjoying dancing together again."
Competition wins soon followed in Kent, Hampshire and Greater London.
They are currently ranked among the country's top 10 in categories for both over 55s and over 45s.
But top-level success does not come without hard graft.
Mr Stephen explained: "We train about four or five times a week at the Dance Options studio in Cheam.
"You can't aim to compete at national level without putting in that level of commitment.
"We can't really train at home – our terraced house is a tad small for that."
Explaining their collective passion for dance, he added: "It gives us a common interest – it's the freedom of moving beautifully to music as one."
While he accepts that BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing is immensely popular, Mr Stephen is not enamoured by it.
He said: "Strictly is more an exhibition/entertainment programme and there is not so much proper dancing anymore."
