Victor Silvester Later life
 His interests had meanwhile turned to dancing. He was one of the first post-war English dancers to feature the full Natural Turn in the Slow Waltz, an innovation which was a factor in his winning the first World Standard Ballroom Dancing Championship in 1922 with Phyllis Clarke as his partner. He competed again in 1924, coming second to Maxwell Stewart - the inventor of the Double Reverse Spin - and Barbara Miles. He was a founder member of the Ballroom Committee of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing which codified the theory and practice of Ballroom Dance - now known as the International Style - and published the first book embodying the new standards in 1928: Modern Ballroom Dancing, which was an immediate bestseller and has remained in print through many editions, the latest issued in 2005.
He went on to open a dancing academy in London, which eventually developed into a chain of 23 dance studios. By the early 1930s his teaching had become famous and he had taught some of the top celebrities of the day, among whom was Estelle Thompson, better known as Merle Oberon.
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