Darcey Bussell has been elected president of the Royal Academy of Dance, following Dame Antoinette Sibley, who retired in April after 21 years in the role.

Darcey Bussell has been elected president of the Royal Academy of Dance, following Dame Antoinette Sibley, who retired in April after 21 years in the role.

“Strictly Come Dancing” will be part of the line-up for Hyde Park’s Jubilee Family Festival, marking the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Dancers from the BBC One television show will give main stage performances on each day of the event, which runs from 10.30am until 7pm on Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3, 2012.

“Strictly” stars will be appearing at country house hotels for “VIP Dance Spectacular” short holidays this spring and summer. Anton du Beke and Erin Boag, Natalie Lowe and Ian Waite, Kristina Rihanoff and Robin Windsor and James and Ola Jordan will be encouraging guests to tango, waltz and quickstep, with the chance to meet the sequinned stars backstage.

Vincent and Flavia’s Midnight Tango opens its ten-week season at the Aldwych Theatre in London’s West End this week on Friday, January 20. The show will remain in the West End venue until March 31, then begins its UK tour on April 10 at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle upon Tyne, continuing until July 21 at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen. 

Having enjoyed the quick-stepping action of “Strictly Come Dancing” both from the comfort of my own sofa and live from the BBC studio itself, I wondered how the O2 Arena – with it’s whopping 20,000-person capacity – would compare in terms of intimacy. Can the simmering intensity of Argentine tango really come across in full if your vantage point is the lofty heights of upper tier seating, rather than the eyes of a BBC cameraman?

Strictly Speaking: Written by Marianka Swain. Photographs © BBC

Monday, December 12

Week 11

Can you believe it’s the “Strictly” semi-final already? Just as well - I fear for Tess’s sanity if she has to deliver any more puns. Mind you, I bet she’s now a major hit at Christmas parties, nailing every cracker joke before it’s even half uttered. (“Tinselitis!” “Low elf esteem!” “A CONFUSED SNOWFLAKE!”)

 

 

Russell Grant, who became the seventh celebrity to be voted off this year’s “Strictly Come Dancing”, is proud of his work on the show – and delighted to find himself one of our sister magazine Dance Today’s “Strictly Legends”.

Russell Grant, who became the seventh celebrity to be voted off this year’s “Strictly Come Dancing”, is proud of his work on the show – and delighted to find himself one of Dance Today’s “Strictly legends”.

Week 3

It’s only Week 3 on “Strictly” and it’s already Random New Theme Week.

Now, I’m all for Random New Themes, particularly when they involve loony VTs, psychotic costuming choices and potentially disastrous props, but I’m afraid I have to begin with a mini rant entitled “Why the confused and confusing Broadway Week didn’t work for me”: