Sugar Dandies on “Britain’s Got Talent”

Posted on March 29, 2012

With over 100,000 YouTube hits and an outpouring of adulation, it’s safe to say that the Sugar Dandies, AKA Sören and Bradley Stauffer-Kruse, made quite a debut on ITV’s “Britain’s Got Talent” – and their experience helped them deal with the pressure of this big stage.

They explain: “One of the wonderful things about being a competitive ballroom dancer is that it teaches you to stand in front of judges and give your best. Waiting backstage, hearing those terrible buzzers, you do think to yourself, ‘What will they make of us?’, but we tried to be calm and show the audience that we take our dancing very seriously.”

Auditioning in front of a 1,700-strong crowd unfamiliar with same-sex ballroom was a brave move, “and there was some laughter at the beginning, but we felt the mood turn from sceptical to genuinely moved. People started to sway with the music and we got a standing ovation at the end. Watching the programme, seeing the judges’ faces change as we danced, was the most meaningful part – they really came to appreciate our love for dancing and for each other.”

However, the couple were astonished by the subsequent reaction: “The producers tried to prepare us for the flood of messages we’d receive, but we were totally overwhelmed! We’d like to thank everyone for their kind words and ask the dance community to stick with us as we progress to the next stage. We hope our participation will help make same-sex couples a more usual sight in mainstream dancing – one day, maybe we’ll even see them on ‘Strictly’!”

For Marianka Swain’s full interview with Sören and Bradley Stauffer-Kruse, see the May issue of Dance Today, on sale on May 3.

Photograph © Nick Gallagher-Hughes

Nicola Rayner

Nicola Rayner was editor of Dance Today from 2010 to 2015. She has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, The Independent and Time Out Buenos Aires, where she cut her teeth as a dance journalist working on the tango section. Today she continues to dance everything from ballroom to breakdance, with varying degrees of success. Her debut novel, The Girl Before You, was published last year in paperback, ebook and audiobook.