STRICTLY Come Dancing has become a national treasure and phenomenon with 12 million people watching the final in December 2015. Yorkshire’s Strictly Come Dancing fans had another chance this last week to see the newly crowned Strictly winner, Jay McGuiness and his dance partner Aliona Vilani on the Live UK Tour when it arrived at the Leeds First Direct Arena on Thursday, January 28 for a two night stay. Jay was joined on the dance floor by runner-up Georgia May Foote, Anita Rani, Helen George, Ainsley Harriott, Frankie Bridge and Jake Wood.

The tour is being hosted by new compere Mel Giedroyc whilst TV judges Len Goodman, Craig Revel Horwood (who also directs the tour) and Bruno Tonioli acted as the judges for the night.

The seven pairs of contestants were Jay McGuiness and Aliona Vilani, Georgia May Foote and Giovanni Pernice, Anita Rani and Gleb Savchenko, Helen George and Alja? Skorjanec, Ainsley Harriott and Karen Clifton, Frankie Bridge and Kevin Clifton, and finally Jake Wood and Janette Manrara. Ainsley should have been partnered by Natalie Lowe who was his partner in the 2015 series on TV but due to illness she was unable to dance and therefore Karen stepped into the breach for the Leeds shows.

The show consists of two halves, with each of the seven couples dancing two different routines, one in each of the halves of the show. These are then critiqued by the three judges and given scores which are purely for guidance. The main result at the end of the evening is down to the audience who are asked from the interval onwards to vote by text for their favourite couple, and part of the charge for these texts is being donated to Sport Relief. The dances this year included Samba, Rumba, Jive, Charleston, American Smooth, Viennese Waltz and Quickstep.

I thought that this year’s show was the best yet, mainly down to both the quality of the dancing but also to the fabulous compering by Mel Giedroyc who many readers will know as part of the partnership with Sue Perkins as the presenters of BBC’s The Great British Bakeoff. She was an excellent compere with a superb rapport with both the contestants and the judges.

When watching the series on TV, one does not realise quite how brilliant the dance steps are until one has seen the show live. It is so fast moving and the energy that the dancers exude is phenomenal. And also the costumes, lighting and sound is so different live as well. The capacity audience of 13,500 at the arena absolutely loved the show as evidenced by the tremendous applause at the end when local West Yorkshire girl Anita Rani and her partner Gleb Savchenko were presented with the glitter ball having won the audience vote.

A fabulous night and one that the audience will remember for a long time.

by John Burland