And now for something completely different.
In 2008, the first Strictly Live tour took place featuring professionals from the TV show and their celebrity partners. Two years later, the pro dancers also started touring the UK. Both tours have been taking place ever since – Covid excepted – filling arenas and theatres respectively.
This year, Strictly Presents: Keeeep Dancing adds another arm to the body of the phenomenon that is Strictly. What makes this one different is that it offers an insight into what goes on behind the scenes and the impact of being in the nation’s sitting rooms on a Saturday night has had on both the professional dancers and the celebrities involved.
This new 35-date tour will contain not only unseen routines but a surprising succession of revelations from the professional and celebrity dancers taking part.
Says pro dancer Neil Jones: “From the first phone call offering them a regular berth on the show, you’re taken through what it’s like for a professional dancer or a celebrity learning a new dance routine, perfecting it all week, performing it on a Saturday and so on.”
How was it for Neil? “For two years, I’d been working away from the cameras helping to choreograph various aspects of the show and then, in 2016, came the most nerve-wracking phone call of my life.
“I was thrown into a world of photo shoots and group numbers – I didn’t have a celeb partner in the early days – and then came the launch show. I’ll never forget it.
It’s been a giddy ride since.
Any low points? “In 2019, I tore a muscle in my leg during Halloween week. Because I exercise such a lot and like to think I’m really fit, it healed in about half the time predicted but it’s every dancer’s nightmare.”
In last year’s Strictly, he was partnered with actor Nina Wadia. They were eliminated the first week. Was he disappointed? ”For her, yes. She was quite talented and a quick learner but the nerves just got to her. I felt she could have gone further.”
Neil is 40, the veteran among the professionals now that Anton Du Beke has become a full-time judge. “I still feel in really good shape,” he says. “The younger dancers struggle to keep up with me.”
Although young South African Cameron Lombard didn’t join Strictly until last year, he’s already now done the Live Tour. “It was incredible. We were performing every afternoon and evening in front of about 10,000 people. Daunting and thrilling at the same time.”
This latest tour is something unusual. “I’d describe it as a boutique experience – in other words, much more intimate. That suits the insight it gives into the Strictly bubble. It also means we can talk to the show’s fans more directly both through our dancing and our personal stories.”
In 2020, Polish-born Jowita Przystal, 27, won the Greatest Dancer Show on BBC1, one of the prizes being to perform on Strictly. She was then quickly signed up as a professional. The Live arena tour followed (“such great experience”) and now this latest UK tour.
“I’ll be dancing with the other professionals but also with celebrities like Rhys Stephenson and Maisie Smith, both of them amazing dancers. Truly, I still feel like I’m living in a fairy tale.”
CBBC presenter Rhys Stephenson, 28, got to the semi-finals of Strictly last year with his Chinese dancing partner Nancy Xu.
“It was a particular thrill because we survived three dance-offs including for the jive,” he says.
“I’d been through all the frustration and fear and then, on the Saturday, I kicked in the wrong direction. It felt like I’d wasted a whole week of work.”
So, what’s a dance-off like? “The worst element is that you can’t help thinking people don’t like you. But it’s not that. People vote for couples to stay not leave. It’s positive love.
“So it’s great when you’re told you can come back next week – until, that is, you turn to your left and see the other couple who’ve been voted off. Being on Strictly is a very bonding experience so it’s sad for everyone when you realise you’re not going to see two of the contestants again.”
He only has good things to say about Strictly. “Most of all, it’s nice to be recognised by someone who’s over 10. Now kids’ parents stop me, say how much they enjoyed watching me dance. And that feels good.”
Nancy Xu, 30, had been touring with Kevin Clifton when she was spotted by the Strictly producers and invited to join the show. She’s loved the experience with the exception of the dance-offs.
“I was OK but I was conscious of keeping Rhys’s spirits up. You don’t get that happening on tour, though, because now it’s entertainment not competition.”
She went to dance classes on a Saturday but, that apart, Maisie Smith, 20, set her heart on being an actress. “As a dancer, I was always put at the back because I stuck out like a sore thumb.” Aged six, she joined the cast of EastEnders as Bianca and Ricky’s daughter, Tiffany Butcher, and appeared on the soap on and off until 2020.
Life took another turn when she was invited on to Strictly in 2020 as a contestant partnered by professional Gorka Marquez. “It was terrifying. People thought I was a lot more confident than I felt but then, as an actress, I know how to put on a front.
“Saturday was the best night on Strictly – and the worst. Even today, if I hear the Strictly theme tune, my stomach does a somersault. And yet, it was the best thing I’ve ever done.
“I don’t think anyone watching would have spotted my mistakes but I’d point my toe or spin in the wrong way and then I’d be sure I’d be in the dance-off. I put a lot of pressure on myself, much too much, I now realise. But Gorka helped: he stopped me from falling over.”
Strictly has had quite an impact on Maisie’s career. “It’s opened so many doors. After this latest show, I’m touring the UK opposite Kevin Clifton in a new production of Strictly Ballroom. We start in September and don’t finish until next July.”
Max George’s route to taking part in this new Strictly tour is unique. The lead singer of the chart-topping band, The Wanted, was a contestant, partnered by Dianne Buswell, a couple of years ago.
“I loved the rehearsing and learning a new dance,” says Max, 33. “But Saturday night was a nightmare. I can’t remember anything about the tango we danced on the first night. The next week, before we did the jive, Dianne asked me if I was all right and I literally couldn’t speak.”
Which is why he isn’t repeating it on the road. “Maisie Smith and I were invited on to the arena tour earlier this year; last year’s did not take place because of Covid.
“I happened to mention to one of the producers that I’d like to maintain my link with Strictly but as a singer not a dancer. And, within 24 hours, I was invited to do just that on this new tour. So I’ll be singing a whole range of songs from Bobby Darin’s Mack The Knife to Elton’s Your Song.
“I feel so much more in my comfort zone although I do have to do a tiny bit of dancing. But I’ve got a plan: I’m going to place myself behind Rhys and Maisie at the back and amble around. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Strictly Presents: Keeeep Dancing is at The Hexagon in Reading on Saturday, June 25. Tickets cost from £31.50. For more details, or to book, log on to whatsonreading.com
For more on the tour, log on to: StrictlyPresents.com
Richard Barber
