As the title suggests, it’s another ‘Strictly’ post incoming! Don’t worry if it’s not your thing though, some non-Strictly posts should be coming soon…
This post is mainly going to focus on some of the recent tours that we’ve seen with professional dancers from ’SCD’ (although confusingly not ‘The Strictly Professionals tour’, that’s something else). No, this time, I’m going to be talking about Giovanni Pernice’s tour (‘Made in Italy’) and Johannes Radebe and his ‘Freedom Unleashed’ tour.
Giovanni and his cast (including the brilliant Lauren Oakley, who’s a new pro on the show and who I was lucky enough to actually get a photo with as she came into the audience before the show started) actually came to Dundee. I can’t speak for anyone else but this was brilliant for us as it was great to be able to get there and then back at the end in five minutes rather than having to run for the last train or drive back for at least an hour last thing at night.
As for the show, it was great and so full-on! They didn’t stop for a minute and they put everything into it, from songs about pizzerias, fashion and motorcycles to Gio recounting his experiences of being on ‘SCD’. (Look, I like Gio, he's a handsome, funny and charismatic guy but he’s also not exactly the most humble or shy and retiring...)
It’s always interesting to hear from the pro dancers themselves about their experiences on ‘Strictly’ as opposed to hearing about them via exploitative, lying tabloids etc. Equally, it’s been cool to hear the perspectives of dancers who are still on the show vs those who have already left as while many of them are mostly very positive about the show, some do show a different side and are more honest about the hard parts and potential downsides etc.
The audience certainly had a very positive reaction to Gio (it was definitely an audience with maybe two or three men and therefore mostly made up of women, many of whom seemed to find him pretty attractive too). In fact, they couldn’t get enough of him and there were standing ovations almost constantly and some of the biggest cheers that I’d heard at a ‘SCD’ related show (well, maybe tied with the show I'm going to talk about next anyway...)
Not that long after Gio’s show, we went to Aberdeen to see the incredible Johannes Radebe in his tour, ‘Freedom Unleashed’. Johannes (or JoJo) is always a total star and it was nice to have a little getaway in Aberdeen as we’ve hardly been there since moving to Dundee).
Much like with Gio’s show (and with basically all the ‘SCD’ tours/shows, must be a common theme there as while each ‘SCD’ show is different and offers some insight into that particular dancer and their style and personality, the energy and often very fast-paced approach is present in them all), JoJo put everything into this tour and it was non-stop in a great way. There was some insight/background into his childhood and upbringing in South Africa, as well as some incredible singing with the costumes and music being inspired by the South African culture. JoJo is also incredibly flamboyant and LOVES a show and chance to dress up fancy (heels, huge brightly coloured feather boas, you name it), so that was so fab from a visual point too. They rattled through a rapid fire musicals megamix too, which is always fun as a fan of musicals, and crucially (which was a lovely important touch in both the Johannes and the Gio tour), they both shared a dance with another man in their shows, which was so wonderful to see. They’ve been starting to introduce this more on the main ‘SCD’ show as it’s so important to have it and just to normalise it (in tours and the main show) as it shouldn’t be seen as a big deal but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t super important and way overdue). The cheers for Johannes were about as big as the cheers for Gio, which is always a great feeling and I’m sure means a lot to them as you got the impression that even Gio and JoJo themselves were a bit surprised with just the level of cheers, love and excitement from the audience (all ages and generations).
