Strictly The Live Tour 2016 At The Metro Radio Arena
Everyone always asks 2015 Strictly winner Jay McGuiness the same question. Why didn’t he and Aliona Vilani reprise their sensational jive for their show dance in the final?
‘The answer,’ says Jay, ‘is that we were worried we might not be able to recreate the magic. But we’ll be doing it on tour and I can’t wait. Our other dance is the rumba.
‘I’m looking forward to dancing in front of a large audience which I’m used to, of course, from being a member of The Wanted. Funnily enough, dancing on TV with a studio audience of just 400 is far more intimidating.’
He’s really excited about the tour.
‘I didn’t want Christmas to come and never dance with Aliona again. So the tour was the natural way of extending the experience. Even so, when we’d finished our last dance on TV, I felt quite emotional. Looking back, the reason I didn’t break down was because I knew the tour was starting in January.’
Before this last series, Aliona had made up her mind that it would be her last – for a number of personal reasons. Might that include starting a family?
‘We’ll see. But there were also professional considerations. I’ve won it twice now the first time with Harry Judd and it’s good as a dancer and choreographer to go out on a high. As it turned out, it was the best ending to my Strictly dance career.’
Will Jay and Aliona stay in touch? ‘Oh yes,’ they chorus. ‘We’re friends for life’
But then so, too, it seems, are Georgia May Foote and her Sicilian dance partner, Giovanni Pernice. ‘When Strictly finished,’ says Georgia, ‘it was like a massive bubble bursting. After our final dance, I felt so deflated. I never wanted it to end so I needed no persuading to go on the live tour.
‘We’ve been used to dancing in front of a studio audience but, in some of the tour venues like Wembley and the O2, we’ll be performing for thousands and thousands of people. We’ll feel like rock stars.’ They’ll be dancing the Charleston and the American Smooth for their individual dances on tour.
So, would she say Strictly has changed her life? ‘Massively. A lot has happened over the last four or five months. As an actress, it’s shown me a new path I can go down. It’s opened a lot more doors for me.’ Craig Revel Horwood paid Georgia the ultimate compliment at the end of one dance when he said he’d be happy to put her into one of his West End shows.
‘I was really shocked when he said that. I was welling up because that’s something I’ve always wanted to do. In Coronation Street, I was in danger of being typecast. I played Katy Armstrong for five years. I needed to show people I’m Georgia May Foote, not Katy from Corrie. That’s why Craig’s comment meant so much to me.’
Giovanni was already a dancer, he says, so he’s had less adjusting to do. Still, he’s now become a national figure. ‘That’s right. People recognise me in the street.’ That must be hard. ‘No, no,’ he grins, ‘I love it.’
Countryfile presenter Anita Rani is thrilled, she says, to be going on the tour because it’s so different from her everyday life. ‘I’ve never done anything like this before. I haven’t stopped smiling since getting back into the routines, quite literally, with Gleb. It’s the perfect opportunity to extend the Strictly experience, to tie up the whole thing with a bow. The only question is: will I ever be able to return to real life afterwards?’
For their individual dances, says Gleb Savchenko, they’ll be doing the Paso Doble, the dramatic one they danced at Blackpool, and the American Smooth from movie week which they performed to “Unchained Melody”.
Anita only has praise for her dancing partner. ‘Gleb’s amazing. What a dancer, what a character. And, he’s aesthetically pleasing, too! But he’s very strict.’
Nor does actress Helen George have any complaints about Aljaz Skorjanec. ‘I was so pleased when they announced that he was going to be my partner. He’s the one I wanted. Now, I’m really excited by the idea of the tour because the element of competition has been taken away and I really enjoy theatre. There’s been so much laughter in rehearsal. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun.’
Says Aljaz: ‘We’re doing a Tango and a Viennese Waltz. I knew straightaway when I danced with Helen that this was going to be a good partnership. I could instantly tell she was a natural with a real gift for ballroom..’
‘Aljaz was partnered with Alison Hammond last year and he would show me their routines on YouTube,’ says Helen, ‘to encourage me to come out of my shell a bit, especially in the Latin numbers. She’s a real entertainer.’
Helen found it quite difficult some weeks if she also had a lot to do on Call The Midwife. ‘I’d get a bit stressed if we didn’t have the amount of time we needed to learn a new dance. If you’ve been up at five in the morning for filming, your brain is so tired that it can’t process difficult dance routines. But mostly it was fine.’
Ainsley Harriott couldn’t have enjoyed the Strictly experience more, he says. ‘And you don’t normally get asked to go on the tour if you’ve been knocked out of the TV show in the fifth week.’
His dance partner, Natalie Lowe, agrees. ‘We were just starting to get to know each other so I was thrilled that we’ve been given this chance to carry on dancing. And Ainsley’s born to perform. He’s a real entertainer.’ She loves the atmosphere on tour. ‘You really feel at one with the people who’ve paid to come and see you. We’re going to have a ball.’
Says Ainsley: ‘We’ll be doing the Tango, our very first dance on Strictly way back in September, and the Salsa to ‘Don’t Touch My Tomatoes’ which is very physical and full of comedy, of course. I can’t wait!’
For EastEnders actor Jake Wood, it’s a welcome return to the dance floor. ‘It’s really good to be reunited with Janette Manrara,’ he says, ‘although we’ve stayed in touch since we danced together on Strictly in 2014. We came fifth which I was pleased about considering I’d never had any dance training in my life.’
They’re going to be doing a Salsa and a Samba on tour. ‘The Salsa’s my favourite. We danced it in Week 2 of the TV show and it’s the one people always seem to remember. We didn’t get to do the tour last year because I had to go straight back into EastEnders. But I’ve taken a year out – languishing in prison for a crime I didn’t commit – and I won’t start back again until September. My wife and I took the kids to see it at the O2 last year and it was great.’
‘This is my first time on tour,’ says Janette, fiancée of Aljaz, ‘and I’m really looking forward to it. Apart from our two individual dances, we’re involved in a further five group dances.’ Jake couldn’t be happier with her. ‘Janette has taught me everything I know. It’s like an amateur footballer playing with Cristiano Ronaldo.’
It’s also a welcome hook-up with Strictly again for Frankie Bridge. ‘When I started rehearsing again with Kevin Clifton, I felt a bit rusty because I haven’t danced for a year. But I soon realised that muscles have memories and I didn’t take too long to get on top of some of the steps - although my head remembered quicker than my feet!’
Frankie would have been part of the Strictly tour in 2015 had it not been for her second pregnancy – son Carter was born in August – and the almost immediate onset of the severe morning sickness that also afflicted the Duchess of Cambridge.
Says Kevin: ‘Kellie Bright was never going to be able to do the tour because of her EastEnders commitments so I was really pleased when Frankie said she’d be available. And my wife, Karen, is also in the show as dance captain and involved in the group numbers.
‘We’ll be dancing a Quickstep to A Town Called Malice and a Tango to Defying Gravity from the musical, Wicked, with Frankie dressed as a witch.’
She couldn’t let the opportunity pass, she says. ‘When the offer came in to be involved this year, I had to think twice because my husband Wayne and I were going to go to the Maldives to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.’ But Strictly won out. ‘The Maldives will still be there for another time.’
After their sabbatical from the tour last year, judges Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli are once again reunited with Craig Revel Horwood who is also directing the show for the sixth year in a row. Says Craig: ‘It’s going to be another fab-u-lous extravaganza for the whole family to enjoy.’
Bruno is similarly excited. ‘Who would believe,’ he says, ‘that we’ve completed our thirteenth series of Strictly and that this will be our ninth UK tour?’ Len agrees: ‘It’s great to be back on the tour watching some of the best dancers from the TV series out on the road. We’re pulling out all the stops with a terrific line-up of celebs and their professional dance partners.’
New to proceedings will be Bake Off’s Mel Giedroyc, hosting proceedings for the very first time. ‘As soon as they asked me, I said yes immediately. I love Strictly. I once met head judge Len Goodman and I couldn’t look him in the eye I was so awestruck.’
But don’t expect Mel to fashion herself on either Tess Daly or Claudia Winkleman. ‘They’re legends, lynchpins but they can carry a dress better than me. I’m opting for what I call a ringmaster look. Zoe Ball has presented the stage show in the past and I’m a big fan of hers. I’ll be trying to emulate her style although I’m aware I’ll be stepping into very impressive boots. But I’m looking forward to it hugely.’