Strictly Come Dancing - Everyone’s a Favourite

 First of all, I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who left a comment on the previous post or who took the time to read it, it means more than you can imagine, it means so much, thank you.

Now, for something a little different, and a bit lighter and happier, hopefully. As anyone who knows me could tell you, I take ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ pretty seriously (joking, well kind of..) and it’s a fairly big deal for me, and it’s starting again this weekend (cue Kool and the Gang’s ‘Celebration’). Especially after the weird old unexpected twist of a year 2020’s been, the dose of glitz, glitterballs, dancing and most of all, unadulterated joy and fun, may be needed more than ever this year. A Saturday night BBC TV show that came into being in 2004, I have watched every series apart from the first and started watching it when my Gran came to live with us in 2004. Gran was already a fan and had watched the first series earlier that year (2004 was the only time the UK show was on twice in one year as since then it has been an annual, autumnal affair). The show started in the UK but exists now in all kinds of versions around the world. When abroad I have managed to watch ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (in the US while we were there for a few months in 2011), ‘Danse avec les Stars’ (in France on holiday in 2012) and once in Copenhagen for a Christmas weekend in 2015 I caught a glimpse of the Danish version ‘Vild med Dans’. 

I’ve actually been lucky enough to see some of the insanely talented professional dancers on some of their own tours around Scotland and even the show’s main tour in Glasgow (all programmes above demonstrated by our model, Zoe). For some of the shows, I was even fortunate enough to get a photo with the dancers afterwards (see below). I didn’t do that every time, though, and I’m not one of those professional ‘SCD’ fans who knows what hotel the dancers are staying at and exactly when and where to go and “meet” them. For each show, of course, there’s a programme, and I thought I’d go through the shows I’ve seen and pair each of them up with a reason why ‘SCD’ in general means so much to me (and many others).

Show no 1: May 2012 - Webster Theatre, Arbroath - Katya Virshilas and Pasha Kovalev (I was 12). It’s really brilliant that some of the tours have come to the smaller towns and venues, like this one in Arbroath, as opposed to just coming to the big cities. This was the first time I got to see some of ‘our Strictly stars’ in the flesh and I was very excited to see them in this lovely local theatre. Katya was in Strictly for seasons 7-9 and Pasha for seasons 9-16. Pasha later won series 12 (2014) with his partner Caroline Flack and there was a very moving tribute to Caroline in the recent ‘best of the finals’ show on TV. She was an amazing dancer and Strictly champion. 

Reason no 1 to love Strictly: One of the things that I’ve always really loved about ‘SCD’ since they introduced them, are the themed weeks. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the other weeks are good too, but there’s something so special about getting the couples to take inspiration from a movie or musical (this post was meant to be a slight break from musicals, but it’s not entirely, as ‘Strictly’ does have a musicals week, sorry). The themed weeks are also so brilliant, because the couples get to have fun with the costumes and get into the roles, with their film or musical song, and they recreate such iconic, timeless scenes that people from any generation can enjoy. Look at Pasha and Ashley Roberts taking on Dirty Dancing here:

Show no 2: February 2013 - Caird Hall, Dundee - Erin Boag and Anton Du Beke in ‘Anton and Erin Go to Hollywood’ (I was almost 13). We’re going back to bonnie Dundee now, with Erin and Anton, who were known for dancing together a lot in the show, and both appeared in the first season in 2004. Anton is still in the show (he has never missed a season!) and Erin left after season 10. The Caird Hall is a huge venue but we were sat right on the front row (tickets were a Christmas present!). They had a band and one of the Strictly singers (Lance Ellington) as part of the show and Anton and Erin also chatted to the audience as well as doing some glamorous routines. A Strictly superfan from Brechin gave us the tip as to how to get an autograph afterwards so I did meet both dancers. 

Reason no 2 to love Strictly: The costumes and outfits are another absolutely incredible thing from ‘SCD’, as the amount of time and work that goes into them is unbelievable, and during the week leading up to the Saturday night, you get to see them discussing some of the gorgeous outfits and even see some sketches on ‘It Takes Two’ (Head Costume Designer Vicky Gill has become a star on that show too). The costume designers take inspiration from movies throughout the series, not just on movie week, and they always make sure that the celebs are comfortable and happy with the design and style and it’s extra ‘fab-u-lous’. They have covered everything, from Fred and Ginger or Marilyn Monroe Hollywood glamour to Superheroes, Disney and everything in between. How about Dev and Dianne doing Aladdin last year? Brilliant!

Show no 3: February 2014 - SSE, Hydro, Glasgow - Strictly Come Dancing tour (I was nearly 14). This was the only time that I have been to see the official ‘SCD’ UK tour. In fact, I actually ended up going with my Dad (not a huge Strictly fan…), as Mum didn’t feel well that day, and it’s fair to say that it was a bit overwhelming, as the scale was all just so much bigger than any of the shows I had seen before. For instance, the venue was absolutely massive and there were so many people and more merchandise than you could ever imagine (I got a t-shirt … and a programme of course). Abbey Clancy had just won the most recent series in 2013 (season 11) at this point and she came back to do the tour with her partner Aljaž Škorjanec, along with the super talented 2013 ‘SCD’ finalist, Natalie Gumede who danced with Artem Chigvintsev.

Reason no 3 to love Strictly: Well, there’s the love! Some of the dancers are partners in love as well as dancing, some start off that way, others fall in love during a series (sometimes when they aren’t even partners!), others go in the opposite direction… I don’t read tabloids so I don’t know the ‘scandal’ but I know the outlines of their stories and, as a rom com fan, I want a happy ending for everybody. In my early years of watching I especially loved the pros Lilia and Darren Bennett. They are still together and now have two children. Lilia won with Darren Gough in series 3 and her husband Darren won with Jill Halfpenny in series 2. Their jive is one of those Strictly dances they still show year after year

Show no 4: April 2014 - Grand Theatre, Leeds - Flavia Cacace and Vincent Simone “Dance ‘til Dawn” (I was days away from being 14). I’ve seen quite a mix of shows in Leeds over the years, as we go down to visit family there quite regularly, but this is the only ‘SCD’ show that I’ve seen in England. This show stood out from the rest, as it had a plot and characters and even included a rather tense moment when Flavia jumped and fell backwards (on purpose!). The whole audience gasped! My Dad didn’t mind as much about being in the audience for this show, though, as he’s quite a Flavia fan (she won series 10 with gymnast Louis Smith). Here are Vincent and Flavia showing us how to do the Argentine Tango:

Reason no 4 to love Strictly: Another great thing about ‘SCD’ is ‘It takes two’, which is a show that airs every week night for the duration of the competition, where the couples are interviewed and discuss their upcoming dance, song choice, costume, theme, etc. Like the weekend show, ‘ITT’ is pure fun and entertainment and once you’re back at school/college/work/uni etc in the autumn/winter months, it really brightens up the coldest evening and is fun, comforting and familiar. It’s especially fun when they discuss the themed weeks and introduce mini themed games and quizzes. It was originally presented by Claudia Winkleman (who now presents the main show), later Zoe Ball and now Zoe Ball and Rylan Clark-Neal.

Show no 5: October 2017 - Webster Theatre, Arbroath: Kristina Rihanoff and Tristan McManus (I was 17). I’m not sure why there was such a break between seeing the Flavia and Vincent show and Kristina and Tristan’s tour – maybe it was school and exams and some of the things discussed in the last post. Once again back in this smaller, local theatre, this was a very up close and personal type of night. It featured some amazing dancing and some pretty blunt chat about the TV show as both dancers had already left the show (Kristina was in series 6-13 and Tristan in 12-13). Kristina came close to the title a couple of times and her partnership with Simon Webbe was pretty exciting:

Reason (or mambo) no. 5 to love Strictly: Another great thing about ‘SCD’, is how much of a tradition it is for the run up to Christmas every year, and how it just feels like a whole national holiday and the weekends get even more special during the ‘Strictly’ season.

Show no 6: July 2018 - Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow - Karen and Kevin Clifton - Dance (I was 18) This tour was soo brilliant, I cannot praise it enough, it was so amazing, loved every second. The choreographer/director was Jason Gilkison who is a big part of the SCD TV show and it was a brilliant production. Formerly a married couple, Karen and Kevin did talk about their relationship and the challenges of working together during this show and this made it quite a special event (for fans like me). Also SCD pro Dianne Buswell was one of the other dancers in the show and Susan Calman (Kevin’s celebrity partner that year) was sitting in the row in front of us (she danced as part of the Glasgow show too). I even got an autograph with Karen at the end – a total fan girl moment as she is a-ma-zing and an absolute Queen! Karen has been in the UK show since season 10, whilst Kevin had partners in seasons 11-17 (he has just left the show). Here’s a little more about Karen (from a few years ago):

Reason no. 6 to love Strictly: Another brilliant thing about ‘SCD’, which might be considered important or necessary, is the fact that it’s almost impossible to be in a bad mood when watching it, in my opinion. The fact that it is just pure happiness, entertainment and fun is very rare for TV and life, and it’s a welcome change and break from life’s struggles, to watch something that you know is almost always 100% joyful.

Show no 7: April 2019 - Concert Hall, Perth - Janette Manrara and Aljaž Škorjanec (a week before my 19th birthday). This is the most recent of the ‘SCD’ shows I’ve seen, and it did not disappoint. It was phenomenal, the way that they took inspiration from classic routines for their dances was really clever and the fact that Janette and Aljaž are an absolutely adorable couple on and off the dance floor IRL makes it even better (they joined SCD in 2013). This show was so great I got tickets for their April 2020 show but obviously that has been postponed. On the one hand this was very disappointing but on the other it was exciting as the new date in 2021 is actually my 21st birthday and I can’t think of a better way to spend that day than watching two of my favourites at work (extra bonus as Janette is petite and those of us on the shorter side of life need our tiny heroines! I look up to her but at least I don’t have to look too far in her case…). I am just hoping that it isn’t postponed again (fingers crossed!). I also have tickets to Oti Mabuse’s show (also in Perth next April). Oti has been with the UK show since 2015 and was champion last year with Kelvin Fletcher. Here they are doing a quickstep:

Reason no. 7 to love Strictly: My final favourite elements of ‘SCD’ are specifically the Halloween and Christmas specials. All the themed weeks are fab, but for me, there’s something extra magical about the specials they do at Halloween and Christmas, as I just love all celebrations and holidays, and everything to do with celebrating them. The ‘SCD’ specials have become such a fundamental, vital part of any celebration, that now, for me, they are as essential to Halloween as pumpkins and trick or treating and as much a part of Christmas as the trees, the food and the festive movies. So, the show starts on TV tonight at 7.50 (I just made it with this post!). Keep smiling and...

KEEP DANCING!

Roald Dahl to Rydell - Matilda and Grease (and me)

 

My next blog post takes us to 2012 with two musicals that might not seem to have anything in common but have the common link of school, Grease and Matilda. In February 2012, when I was 11 (nearly 12) I went to see a professional production of Grease in Aberdeen (programme above) on a trip with Song Shop, the musical theatre group in our town, Montrose, that I was part of, and we even ended up putting on Grease, the following year (programme below). Around a month after seeing Grease in Aberdeen, I saw the Matilda musical in London (programme above). I’m pretty sure it was the West End this time as it was at the Cambridge Theatre near Covent Garden.

  These musicals are very different, in terms of style, plot, themes and the type of songs that feature in them. However, school is an important aspect of both shows and while Matilda tells of primary school and the early days of education and Grease recounts the very end of the high school careers of the main characters, some parallels could be drawn between both of these stories and my own experience. Therefore, this post, like most musicals and parts of school, is split into two acts.

Act I – Matilda

This started as a book by Roald Dahl, which was first published in 1988 (Dahl died in 1990 and this was one of his last works). The film came out in 1996, directed by Danny DeVito and starring Mara Wilson. The musical was developed by the Royal Shakespeare Company and was first seen in 2010 (music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, book by Dennis Kelly).

 So, primary school! Obviously, we all have our own experiences of school, which are all totally valid. Personally, on the whole, I liked school, but as for most people, it wasn’t all easy. I always stood out, with being so short with red hair, and I always felt different too, like I couldn’t quite understand the other kids in my class, what their priorities were and how they related to each other. Also I wasn’t gifted, or particularly interested, in sports like the more popular girls at school seemed to be. Hilariously, I even joined the girls’ football team in primary school for about a minute, but was probably more invested in the clothes (or is it kit? I’ve probably even got the terminology wrong here). At school, I was a bit more of a Matilda, in terms of liking books and confiding perhaps a bit too much in kindly teachers, playground assistants and librarians, though sadly I lacked the magic mind powers and telekinesis. In all honesty, it’s been quite a while since I watched the classic Matilda film but I was a huge fan of the story in all its forms and adaptations as a child. The musical of Matilda, with music and lyrics by Australian songwriter and comedian, Tim Minchin, manages to be different to the film but equally powerful, as it has the nostalgia of a comforting, familiar story of good and innocence winning against evil, whilst giving some different or fleshed out backstories and perspectives in some of the songs. One new aspect of the dreadful Wormwood parents in the musical is that they are into ballroom dancing, but one aspect kept from the book is that watching too much TV is one of their greatest sins (and I cannot criticise either of these things, being just a little into TV myself and Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars in particular). Arguably, one of the stand-out songs is ‘When I grow up’, which is sung at the beginning of the second act by the children at the cruel Miss Trunchbull*’s school as they embody childhood innocence sitting on swings and imagining a better future for when they’re older. Towards the end of the song there is a mash-up of ‘When I grow up’ and another song ‘Naughty’ (with Matilda singing about how she can rewrite and change her story) and this is extremely effective and really gets you invested in a whole new way in these characters that you thought you already knew. Also, whilst not many people can necessarily relate to Matilda’s exact situation with the magic powers, it is possible to relate to that idea of changing or rewriting our story after feeling powerless to do so, as a life can change and be turned around and it can sometimes be hard to tell which act of our story we’re in.

 

The song ‘When I grow up’ took on a whole new meaning for me when I got a life-changing health diagnosis in January 2015, aged nearly fifteen. The condition that I was diagnosed with is a pretty rare one called Turner Syndrome, which affects development in girls and women. Turner Syndrome can affect people differently, but for me, like the majority of young women with it, it means that I’m very short and was a bit delayed in reaching adolescence and puberty, as with TS, unless you get the right medication, your body doesn’t make the natural changes that a lot of people go through in their teen years. As the reason that I even went to an appointment that resulted in getting the diagnosis, was because I was in my early teens and wasn’t really growing or changing in the expected way, the lyrics in ‘When I grow up’, especially the lyrics about growing tall, really resonated and took on a different meaning for me. This is because, while growing up can present unique challenges for everyone, it was certainly clearer than ever after getting the diagnosis that growing up would be so hard and different for me, as despite my good fortune in some respects, I’d still face a lot of struggles that others wouldn’t have to at all stages of life. And while I do feel differently now to the day that we found out, this all took a long time to come to terms with. The children in the Matilda musical sing “When I grow up/ I will be strong enough to carry all/ the heavy things you have to haul around with you/ when you’re a grown up” and one of the reasons that this works so well is that we all have to deal with “heavy things” sooner or later. I’m more capable of carrying mine than people might imagine but I still have plenty of low days. However, talking about them is quite a new thing for me, so that's a bit more positive.

Act II – Grease

First seen in Chicago 1971 as a stage musical (written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey), Grease was on Broadway a year later and the West End a year after that. The film came out in 1978, directed by Randal Kleiser and starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. 

  In many ways, Grease tells a very different story, as the characters are about to graduate high school (and the actors in the movie musical were mostly a lot more… mature than that, even.) For most Grease fans, the musical’s all about friendship and good times, as it’s an iconic, well-known story with such famous, catchy songs, and it is generally a fun musical. One thing that made it different from so many popular musicals of the time was the style of the music. Set in the late 1950s, the music very much reflects the time and era. For younger viewers, there’s even a small connection between the iconic Pink Ladies of Grease and the Plastics from Mean Girls (a film that was hugely influential on my generation – I have seen it more times than I care to mention), as they both wear pink and take someone who’s completely different from them into their group. I don’t know if it’s the film/literature student in me, but I always tend to analyse characterisation and relationships in fiction and I appreciate character growth and insight into a different side to a character and would therefore always choose Rizzo’s ‘There are worse things I could do’ as my all-time favourite Grease song. Sandy and Danny may have the more conventional love songs and focus but, for me, Rizzo has the heart.

 Page from my Aberdeen Grease programme

While I couldn’t quite relate to any of the Pink Ladies or Sandy’s summer romance or catsuit transformation at the end (as a 12 year old), there are some aspects of Sandy that I certainly could relate to for several reasons. For instance, partly due to having Turner Syndrome, I’ve always felt a bit behind my peers in growing up and reaching grown-up milestones and have often tried to hold on to whatever little traces of growing up or (hopefully) maturing that I can. Therefore, the sleepover scene in Grease, when Sandy feels that Frenchy, Marty, Jan and Rizzo think of her as a goody-two-shoes and have done more supposedly adult things than she has, such as drinking or partying, was quite relatable for me as a young nearly teenager. It probably could be said that, at certain times, I have been a bit of a goody-two-shoes or less outgoing and adventurous than other young people, which could be related to the health condition and the confusing feelings that I have about getting older and becoming an adult and all aspects of young adult/adult life, because of my TS. However, it could also be that while I worry about what others think and don’t want to seem boring, I’ve also always had a pathological hatred of the idea of being reprimanded in any way. It’s complicated but as Sandy sings in “Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee”: “there has to be something more than what they see”. And for all of us that’s true, isn’t it?

 

There are several Turner Syndrome support societies and the UK one can be found here.

 *In the film, Miss Trunchbull is played by Pam Ferris, but the character is usually played by a man in the musical, in a pantomime dame style.