Divorce Lawyer Turns to Ballroom Dancing to
Resuscitate Marriages
In Great Britain, Vanessa Lloyd Platt is widely known as a
divorce attorney. She's all over the TV
with advertisements, and she also offers legal sessions with couples to help
them save their marriages, all for $500 adjusted dollars an hour. She also appears on "Good Morning Television,"
the United Kingdom’s Today Show, offering relationship advice.
Lloyd Platt’s own divorce also brought her headlines, when
she was arrested for attempting to pervert the cause of justice. The charges were dropped, though she alleged
that her ex-husband, David Lloyd Platt tried to poison her and tampered
with the brakes on her car in an attempt to injure her. The divorce lawyer’s divorce
became her own worst-case scenario.
She and David Lloyd Platt divorced last year after 16 years
of marriage. As the marriage came apart,
Lloyd Platt agreed to film a documentary, "London Tango", which will premiere in
the title city’s Notting Hill Film Festival next month. One of the subjects of the film, Lloyd Platt
learns to foxtrot and waltz with a little help from a professional partner, Ian
Waite, star of the British television show "Strictly Come Dancing."
According to Lloyd Platt, learning to ballroom dance has had
a transformative effect on her life. "I
have found myself through dance in the middle of all this furor," referring to
the headlines her divorce made in the British press.
"The film is about what dance can do," she tells the British
newspaper The Daily Mail. "If people
going through divorce or a relationship breakdown learned to dance, I believe
this country could completely turn around."
That view is certainly an optimistic take on the
recuperative powers of the tango, but Lloyd Platt, who counsels couples to
divorce under the most amicable circumstances possible, says that she has
already put her new strategy on the table as an option for others.
"I have actually said to my clients if there is any
possibility of a resolution with your partner, why don’t you attempt to
resurrect the relationship by dancing?" She recommends considering any therapeutic options before proceeding
with the divorce process, which can be costly and emotionally damaging.
"Dancing is a lot cheaper than coming to me," she says. In fact, by her estimate, Lloyd Platt’s
counseling sessions cost about five times what it costs to pick up some new
moves on a ballroom dance floor.
In her personal life, the twice divorced divorce attorney is
putting her dance strategy into action. She is currently dating Stewart Moss, a British entrepreneur, and the
couple is already taking classes. Moss
appears in the film with her, though Lloyd Platt admits her new relationship is
still a work in progress.
"We need to take more lessons," she says.
Source: The
Daily Mail
